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- Apr 13, 2017
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I went early this year, Usually I go in late spring or early fall to miss the annual monsoon rains that are very heavy but we had a break this year. My nephew who the wife and I taught to camp and fish along with his cousin, just got a fly rig and wanted to learn. We hiked into a new spot several miles east of my usual area. It was still very wet from recent rains. Here's an overlook view of the typical river. Wherever the canyon comes down to the river there should be holes but it was a long hike to the first one in this area. 
Remains of the 2011 Wallow fire. 550 square miles, by far the largest in Arizona history. Even though it started at a camp near this river 12 miles east much of the area was spared thankfully. Other areas of the White Mountains were obliterated. We actually heard a tree snap and fall on this hike, very spooky if you are too close.
With the healthy monsoons this year the wildflowers are prolific and at times we were hiking through waist high grass. This pic doesn't do them justice at all. This is a very remote area with difficult access to the river and we were completely alone all day with no human tracks on the trail. We didn't see any wildlife except an osprey, great blue heron. The place is full of elk, deer, bighorn sheep bear and assorted others I routinely see but not this time.
Nephew learning to fly fish, he has a nice set up and took to it just fine...practice makes perfect!
This is an Apache Golden Trout reintroduced to the river many years ago. It's decent at around 10". This used to be a premier smallmouth stream, they came up from Roosevelt Lake, but game and fish poisoned them out 20 years ago to make way for these guys. There's also an occasional rainbow and rarer still are large german browns up to 5 lbs in this small creek. It's called a river because we live in the desert but it's pretty small by most standards.
Remains of the 2011 Wallow fire. 550 square miles, by far the largest in Arizona history. Even though it started at a camp near this river 12 miles east much of the area was spared thankfully. Other areas of the White Mountains were obliterated. We actually heard a tree snap and fall on this hike, very spooky if you are too close.
With the healthy monsoons this year the wildflowers are prolific and at times we were hiking through waist high grass. This pic doesn't do them justice at all. This is a very remote area with difficult access to the river and we were completely alone all day with no human tracks on the trail. We didn't see any wildlife except an osprey, great blue heron. The place is full of elk, deer, bighorn sheep bear and assorted others I routinely see but not this time.
Nephew learning to fly fish, he has a nice set up and took to it just fine...practice makes perfect!
This is an Apache Golden Trout reintroduced to the river many years ago. It's decent at around 10". This used to be a premier smallmouth stream, they came up from Roosevelt Lake, but game and fish poisoned them out 20 years ago to make way for these guys. There's also an occasional rainbow and rarer still are large german browns up to 5 lbs in this small creek. It's called a river because we live in the desert but it's pretty small by most standards.
