Fishing Report: Central waters
Trout stockings have returned to the Salt River-chain lakes. Saguaro Lake was stocked Nov. 16, Canyon Lake was stocked Nov. 9, Apache Lake (reported as slow fishing for largemouth bass) was stocked Nov. 7. See the winter trout stocking schedule.
At Canyon Lake, the Palo Verde Boat Ramp remains closed for a replacement boat dock. The Laguna ramp is available for public use.
- Roosevelt Lake (2,090 feet, 39%) has been reported as excellent for largemouth bass and crappie. Catfishing should be good with minnows fished near the bottom. See the latest Roosevelt report.
- The Lower Salt River can be excellent for winter fishing, including a mixed bag of stocked trout, largemouth bass, and suckers. The flow is 8 cfs below Stewart Mountain Dam (normal) and 107 below Bartlett (normal is 488). Is scheduled for trout stocking next week at Granite Reef and Phon D. Sutton. Try PowerBait, Z-rays, Panther Martins, or nightcrawlers.
From Scooter Griffith of AZ Fishing Guides:
- Bartlett Lake (1,754 feet, 47% full) has been good for lots of numbers. The size hasn’t been great, but crank baits and bottom baits like shaky head or a drop shot have been the best.
- Canyon Lake (1,658 feet, 96%) has slowed down just a little bit, but you can still catch them. Drop shots and a hard jerkbaits seem to be the ticket.
- Lake Pleasant (1,661 feet) has been the hot lake during the past couple of weeks. The stripers, white bass and largemouth are all eating reaction baits in the morning, and then anglers can slow down in the afternoon to catch them in that 10- to 15-foot range on a dropshot or a jig.
- Saguaro Lake (1,524 feet, 91%) is slow for largemouth bass but we caught over 30 yellow bass spooning in that 40 to 50 foot range.
From Clayton Ross of Striper Adventures:
- Lake Pleasant: We recently took Alex fishing for his 6th birthday. Needless to say we had a blast. Alex, his dad Eric, and friend Robert, caught 25 nice stripers, one white bass and three big flathead catfish. Alex actually got most of them. The fish are still at around 35 feet near drop-offs in the northern section of the lake. Look for a hump that tops around 30-35 feet with a drop-off next to it that goes down to 55 feet and deeper. Fish on top of that hump vertical spooning, or with anchovies.
