We are pretty much just waiting for the movers to come on Tuesday, all the little things that needed to be done are just about done.  The last couple days I have just been going through old fishing reports from 2006 through the present, basically since I bought a digital camera.  I wanted to get all the reports from my days on AZ Fly and Tie, Arizona Fly Fishing and Desert Sportsman under one roof.  It turned into a bigger project than expected with over 60 reports to go through from 10 states and 4 countries.  So many memories with so many different folks and a core group of great fishing buddies. 

I debated whether to keep this private or public, my main purpose in doing this is selfish in the fact that I love to go back to these reports often and think about the good times.  I also want my friends, family and people I have crossed paths with to do the same.  It has never been my intention to be a chest pounder or self promoter, nor do I have any desire to sell out the places I hold most sacred.  Many names as well as full reports have been omitted for that reason.  This represents some highlights of the last 6 years, but many places I fish, I just don’t talk about unless we are face to face.  If it is a known water that has published information about it then I talk freely about it.  If it is an out of the way water that was told to me in confidence, then I do not post about it.  If there is an area that my friends and I found together, I may post about it, but will not mention names.  Bottom line is these are all public waters that anyone can find with some effort.  The first 3 places I fished in Arizona were Chevelon Canyon, the Black River and Pacheta Lake, before there was information on the web about these places.  I saw they were remote and there were browns.  I view fly fishing as a sport of exploration more than anything, so if you end up in some of the places we have been, enjoy and of course respect the resource.

I am not sure what the future holds for me career wise, but obviously fishing will be central to my life as it has been for many years.  We will see you down the road…

One of my only regrets in leaving Arizona is that I did not have more time to explore 80 miles of awesome bass fishing habitat on the Lower Colorado River (LoCo, copywrite Matt Baker) between Blythe and Yuma.  So when Will Jordan got a hold of me to get down there, he needed to take some photos for an upcoming article in SW Fly Fishing, I jumped on the chance.  Will wrote The Fly Fisher’s Guide to Arizona a couple of years ago, an outstanding, extremely comprehensive book, but I do have a little negative history with writers, so really was not sure what to expect.

About 15 minutes into the ride I realized that Will was a good dude and that we were going to have a great trip.  Weds was calling for overcast with a storm blowing in towards the evening.  I have always had better fishing for bass on an incoming front, but since I have only spent a few days on the water in the area, I had no idea what to expect.  Plus all the water looks so good.

We started hooking fish on swimming frogs almost immediately and the day just could not have been better.  Top water blow ups is what we were hoping for and I bet we did not go 20 minutes without it happening.  We lost count of the number of fish and also caught a couple fish in the 2-3lbs range.  The others were all 1 to 1 1/2lbs.  It was pretty epic.

The next day we got out right after the storm had passed and the wind was blowing hard.  We got a couple blow ups that we could not land and after that it was dead.  In the afternoon we turned our attention to the plentiful bluegill in the area as we planned on going catfishing that night.  Even the bluegill were a challenge, but we managed enough to get us cattin.

We set up our rods and had a solid night of fishing for flatheads, but none of any real size.  7 or 8 runs and 4 fish landed is not bad.  There was a late night “incident” on the boat that shall be reserved for telling around a campfire.  We fished a little bit in the morning for naught and then decided to head home.

I had a really great time fishing and BSing with Will.  Check out his website 101 Degrees West.  All of the pictures on this report were provided by him.  Thanks Will.

The fishing is really starting to pick up on Pleasant with the re-opening of the Aqua Fria Arm of the lake. We have been catching stripers, largemouth and white bass the last week. I also spent a night out catfishing last week with Matt Baker from Desert Sportsman and my super slump with the giant Flatheads continue as we got 1 run all night.  It was fun to hang out on the boat with Matt anyways.  This cold front will likely make things difficult over the weekend, but I think by mid to late next week we are going to see some great fishing out there.

Thursday and Friday I spent on Havasu with Kyle, whose website is Sleep When You’re Dead.com and Everett from Jimmy’s Fly Shop in Idaho Falls. We found almost identical fishing to a month ago on the lake, smallies on beds and largemouth just cruising.  Everett had come down for largemouth though, so it was a slight bummer.  We caught a bunch of smallies on Thursday though and Everett got a nice 5lbs striper too.  So all in all it worked out OK.  It was fun hanging out with them, good guys and great sticks.  It is always good to run into others who love fishing stillwaters…Thanks to Kyle for most of the pictures.

March always seems to bring out many days on the water and this year was no different.  Just finished up a stretch of 22 days straight on the water or heading to or from.  It was a great time with clients and friends.  My good friend Geoff came down from Idaho for 5 days of camping and fishing on Havasu and then 24 hours after we got back, I was off with Travis to one of my favorite stillwaters in the West meeting up with Micah and a couple others.  I am not sure what I did to be this lucky, but it is something I do not ever take for granted.

It was nice to get out of the sun and have a change of pace.  I love sight fishing for bass, but my eyes and skin could use the break at this point.  From highs in the 90s to cold and snow.  Thank God for the Mr. Buddy Heater!!!  Thanks to Micah for providing some of these pictures.

Life is good!!!!  Thanks to all who join me along the way…

Mister Largemouth has finally started to show up at some of our desert lakes. Yesterday I got out with Brian and his dad, Brian got an 8 1/2lbers on a drop shot rig and we landed 5-6 others in a few hours. I headed out with Rohmer today to see if they wanted to play with flies and it was really, really good. This is just the start and we have more than enough water to choose from for the next couple of months. The joys of living in Arizona, with lakes at different elevations we can just move up to different water as the fish come in. I am booked solid until April 1st with customers and out of town fishing buddies, but have plenty of dates still open in April and May fly fishing for Big Bass in Arizona. It is going to be a great spring!!!