The Word is Out: Fishing Fever Is Spreading

By Rory K. Aikens

Arizona Game and Fish

The word is out. The snow pack is good, creeks, streams and rivers are expected to have good flows this spring. Lake levels will rise. The whole aquatic world should bust out with superb growth spurts. That all translates into another phenomenon - fishing fever is already spreading among homo sapiens even before spring arrives and should reach a frenzy in the next two months. Lakes such as Roosevelt and Bartlett have been down for so long during the prolonged drought that vegetation has grown up in the exposed lakebeds. Good precipitation this winter has also increased the amount of vegetative matter. That means even more nutrients loading for the lakes, and possibly increasing hiding and ambush cover as well. In addition, zooplankton likes to grow on and around detritus (dying vegetative matter). So that is another bonus to having lots of vegetation in the exposed lakebeds. Everything from shad to fingerling sport fish feed on

zooplankton (sometimes even adult fish). The increased vegetation in the lakebeds, and along the shorelines, also

means greater insect production, which in turn means more food items for terrestrial and aquatic organisms.

It's all a positive food-chain effect, with anglers at the top of the food chain (hopefully). While anglers may not know every detail of how and why the lakes are going to be more productive, they do know that increasing lake levels mean

improved fishing conditions this spring, and possibly in many future seasons. Fishing fever is spreading.

Right now during every break between storm fronts when warm winter conditions return, anglers are flocking to the lakes. Last week on a 70-plus-degree day, 60 boats gathered on Lake Roosevelt across from the Windy Hill Launch Ramp to sample the crappie offerings - and it wasn't even the weekend. Even when the storms are blasting through the state, there are still good fishing opportunities for smallmouth bass at places like Apache, Roosevelt, and the Colorado River in the Parker area. Another superb opportunity during such storms (and on milder days) is fishing for white bass at Lake Pleasant. White bass are already staging for the spawn (some have no doubt already spawned) in the Agua Fria arm of the lake. Within the next couple of weeks, look for spawning white bass (and some stripers as well) near the water intakes/inflows adjacent to the dam. Whites like to spawn in current. Immediately following rain storms, look for

flows coming down any drainage to spark white bass spawning activity patterns. On most of Arizona's warmwater lakes, if there are two or three warm days back to back, expect some largemouth bass to be staging for the spawn. I have even found a few largemouths on spawning beds in February during past years when the weather was mild. By March, there should be a largemouth rush to the spawning beds that should only increase as we ease into April. While fishing radically picks up from February through the end of March, it often reaches a crescendo in April and May - that is when you just pick a lake and go. My three April favorites are Powell, Roosevelt and Alamo. At Powell, stripers, walleye and smallmouth can be in spawning or pre-spawning activity patterns - which can provide phenomenal fishing. For those who just can't wait, the prime fishing spot right now - rain or shine, snow or sunshine - is Lee's Ferry. The wild rainbow trout are in the spawn. Do to a number of factors, these hard-fighting trout are not on their traditional spawning beds. That has translated into the larger fish being more accessible to spin anglers than to fly anglers. The spawning colors on these magnificent fish have to be seen to be believed. They are truly examples of natural art that can only be seen this time of year. So, angling optimism is growing daily. Fishing fever is building. Get out and wet a line. Maybe I'll see you out there.