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Spring 2008 Reports 

POSTED 5/01/08

BY JASON MESZAROS

MOGOLLON RIM

Greetings fellow fly casters,

I recently fished Tonto, lower Christopher, and Haigler creeks over the past couple weekends.  All of them were flowing well and were clear.  BWO's here hatching in the morning at Tonto/Christopher creeks and there was an evening mayfly hatch (size 14-16, creamy/tan bodied, grey winged adult) on Tonto Creek.  Fishing was OK to GOOD during the heat of the day, but man!, it really turned on at dusk.  Fish were rising regularly for about an hour right before dark.  I managed to hook several scrappy wild rainbows and a beautiful 18"+ brown on a poly-hairwing dun in less than an hour.

Haigle Creek had less surface activity during the day (most of my success came by using streamers and nymphs), but there was a thick evening caddis hatch.  I didn't get a hold of an adult but was catching plenty of fish on regular old Elk Hair Caddis (tan/brown/gray) in size 16 right up until dark.

OBVIOUSLY THE RIM STREAMS ARE FISHING WELL RIGHT NOW......

THE ROADS HAVE BEEN OPENED UP.....IT IS TIME TO GO!!!

POSTED 5/01/08

BY CRAIG DOMBEY

My son in law and I fished Clear Creek above the Bull Pen Camp Grounds on Saturday April 26. We drove in from Prescott and arrived at the camp ground about 8:20 in the morning, the place was already hopping! There were probably 15 cars, trucks, campers etc. there ahead of us and half a dozen more or less formal camps. Since we didn’t think to bring our own rock to stand on, we decided to hike upstream a ways to get away from the crowds. It was a beautiful morning, the scenery was glorious and we thoroughly enjoyed hiking about a mile or so until we had the stream to ourselves.

I had never fished Clear Creek before and I must say it was a pleasant surprise. The water was perfectly clear the banks were mostly free of trash and the flow was such that it was fairly easy to wade the stream although it is all rocks that are slick and, I can say from personal experience, hard. Wading is an absolute necessity since the streamside trees and brush are for the most part solid on both sides of the stream. I don’t think we cast over 20’ all day and we really managed to sharpen our roll casting skills!

The fishing part of our trip was great! The catching part was not quite as good. I hooked up early on a #18 copper john and my son in law caught one on a #16 PMD, both were about 10” hatchery rainbows with hardly any tail and very little color. As we worked our way upstream we saw fewer and fewer fish – I guess there is not much of a hold over from year to year. We started back down stream around 1:00pm and started to catch fish again once we got within ˝ mile of the camp ground or so. Of course we were sharing the stream with other fishermen, families and dogs swimming, a couple of teens riding there bikes through the stream etc. but that’s Ok, we managed to fish a few of the deeper holes that were holding fish and had some luck with #10 green wooly worms.

Over all it was a great day on the water! We saw new country, caught a few fish and had a great time together. What more could anyone ask?

Craig Dombey

(THANKS FOR THE REPORT CRAIG!!!!)  -JBM

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(THANKS FOR THE REPORT Mendy!!!!)  -JBM 

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posted 4/7/08 by Jason

Sycamore Creek, Verde watershed: 

My father and fished Sycamore Creek a few miles upstream from where it empties into the Verde River.  We fished in the area near Summers Spring (Approx. 1 mile from the lower trailhead).  The water was extremely clear and most of our fish were caught while sight fishing with streamers.  We caught nearly ten fish (9 smallies, 1 green sunfish) in less than an hour.  The smallmouth all took olive streamers fished slowly through deeper areas near some sort of cover (duhhhh!).  My dad even caught one bass that was almost 12 inches long.  The scenery is beautiful in this canyon and deserves a visit.  Take Sycamore Canyon Road north from Clarkdale (Near Tuzigoot National Monument) along the Verde River for about ten miles, park, walk upstream a mile along an easy trail.  I don't suggest taking a low clearence vehicle, as some of the washes along the way were a bit rough, especially near the trailhead.  Tight Lines!

WINTER 2008 REPORTS

1/26/08  

Dear fellow flycasters-

Jason Meszaros here!  No fishing reports from other folks, so I guess I'll share some of my recent trips up to the "Rim".  As most of you are aware, the Mogollon Rim area recieved quite a bit of snow over the last two months.  One local in the Clint's Well area said they received over 16" at one time.  Well, the snow is still there, which is good news for all of us, especially the trout.  The Rim Road (300) is gated off right now, but the tiny streams that drain south from off of the Rim are full of water and fishing pretty well.  Early season insects are on the move in some streams, start tying your midges, blue duns, blue wing olives, and winter/early stoneflies.

I had the chance to fish the headwaters of Tonto Creek a couple weeks ago, more specifically I fished Horton Creek.  This stream is absolutely choked with little stream-bred brown trout in the 6"-12" range.  Small, weighted woolley buggers in olive and brown were the ticket all day long.  I only saw one other person all day (he had a can of worms and a stringer with a good looking 11-incher.  Let's hope he atleast cooked it right.  The water level was slightly elevated and visibility was good.  I stopped counting trout after about two hours of fishing.

 This stream seems like it would be a blast to fish in the spring/summer when bouyant dry flies are working well.  If you do take a trip here in the summer time, don't expect to catch fish (or find water for that matter) until you have hiked upstream from Tonto Creek atleast a half-mile or so.  The stream apparently goes underground before joining Tonto Creek.

I also fished the tiny stream (Pine Creek) running off of the Rim through the town of Pine.  This stream is beautiful, but the population of rainbows seemed somewhat "thin".  There were black winter stoneflies (size 18-20) crawling around on the rocks and even some mayflies hatching.  Some of the duns were about a size 16, bluish-grayish-olive in color, with smoky grey wings, and two tails.  This would be perfectly imitated with a blue quill or blue dun in size 16-18 ,or even a parachute adams would work.  The majority of the fish I hooked were taken on a size 18 olive humpy with grey wings.  The others hit a small brown flash-a-bugger.  Again, hop-across Pine Creek is scenic and doesn't seems to get fished much, but the rainbow population seemed mediocre.  I had read of browns being there, but I didn't catch any.  I'm not sure this stream warrants a special trip since there are many other "better" streams in the area.

If you want directions to these places, give me a call (928) 273 9445 / (928) 776 7088, or click on the webmaster link to email me. 

Tight Lines!   -- Jason