24

The following is the account of me and my brother over a 24 hour period of fishing.

1600 *beep BEEP beep BEEP*

After a two and a half hour drive up to Flagstaff, we stopped at Walmart for some nightcrawlers to use as bait. A man in the parking lot asked if we have seventeen cents to help him buy some JB weld to use on his motor because he had an oil leak. I was looking for my wallet as the man was telling us a story of a large pike he once caught at Upper Lake Mary. Then out of nowhere the rain began to fall...hard. The man ran back to his truck as I found my wallet had been in my brother's pocket. As I ran toward the store, I grabbed a bunch of change out of my wallet and gave it to the man, who was very grateful. After I had gotten the worms and forgotten to get the Storm Live Crapppie lures for fishing, I returned to the car to find the rain had subsided. Burger King gave us a quick meal before heading out to the lake.

1700 *beep BEEP beep BEEP*

We arrived at the lake and got our raft blown up and everything ready and took it down the short hike to the lake. We filled up the raft with too much stuff and headed out toward a cove across the lake that we liked before. After rowing for a few moments we realized the cove had some fishermen in a boat in it already. So we threw anchor and started to fish.

1800 *beep BEEP beep BEEP*

After several minutes of nothing, my brother put two worms on his other pole and lowered it below the boat near the bottom of the lake. Shortly after he reeled in a baby perch. He decided to leave it on the hook to use as bait for a larger pike while still having the second worm on as well.

After seeing this might be the way to fish right then, I put two worms on my second pole and lowered it down. After a very short time my pole bent way down and I grabbed it and started fighting. Realizing I had only 4 lb line on this pole I made sure to fight gently. Was it a large perch or a pike. As soon as this thought came into my mind I saw the pike come near the top and get tangled with our anchor line. We netted the fish, got everything untangled, and put it on the stringer. We tried this method, while always fishing with our other poles using lures, for hours with no success.

1900...2000...2100...2200 *beep BEEP beep BEEP*

The sun set creating a beautiful picture over the tree line. It began to get chilly so we started putting layers of clothes on. We set all four poles out; two with bobbers and worms, and two with anchovies and worms below the boat. The boat was starting to get a little flat so we pumped it up with the pump that we bring with us and I read a few chapters in Eragon using my head lamp. Once we were fully clothed in wool socks, thermal pants, sweater, jacket, beanie, face mask, and gloves, we tried to get comfortable, and would continue to try for the rest of the night. The raft we were in, with our tackle box, cooler, fishing poles, and backpack full of miscellaneous things we needed, left us less room than you could fit being in the fetal position. All night we were scrunched up, stretched out, cold, shifting, and waking up due to various body parts falling asleep from laying on them awkwardly. After a brief time of this kind of "sleep" (call it what you will), we decided to change the already changed plan. The plan for the weekend had been to visit with our church group who was camping up near the lake and then continue on to the lake. Then we would fish the night, all day Saturday, the night again, and then come home sometime on Sunday after some more fishing. We left late on Friday so we decided to go straight to fishing. At some point early in the night we decided if we didn't catch much in the morning before we went back to the car to eat breakfast and return our heavy clothing, we would leave that night after maybe trying Lower Lake Mary for some trout.

2300...0000...0100 *beep BEEP beep BEEP*

Come 1:30 we woke up hoping that it would be much later. Unfortunately it wasn't. There was a full moon so it was very bright all night long. We had a small spotlight that we would use to look at our bobbers whenever we would wake up to check for any bites. I was looking at my bobber, which showed no sign of fish playing with my bait, when I heard a loud splash near the shore. I shined the light in that direction and saw two eyes glowing by the trees. Then I saw two large bodies coming up from the water back toward the trees. They were elk. At least three and they headed back into the forest. We went back to sleep.

0200...0300...0400 *beep BEEP beep BEEP*

We woke up for the last time at 4 in the morning. The moon was falling over the trees and the light from the sun was soon filling the skies. It was very cold in the morning as we still had no more fish and began fishing with lures again, waiting for the sun to warm us up.

0500...0600...0700 *beep BEEP beep BEEP*

For the next few hours we fished back in the cove we wanted to fish the previous day. The only thing we caught was a tiny perch. I was bringing in a jerk bait and when I stopped reeling for a moment, my bait jerked. I thought it seemed a little delayed but I kept reeling it in. I brought it in and on the tip of the lure was a tiny perch the same size as my lure. --Back in that cove in the trees there is a Osprey nest. They have signs in the parking lot about this bird. It lives in this area during the summer and goes to South America during the winters--. We fished out the cove but caught nothing else. My brother got out and walked the edge of the cove. He saw some old bear tracks as well as the tracks from the elk that we had seen several hours earlier.

0800...0900 *beep BEEP beep BEEP*

More boaters were out now and one entered the cove as we left it. We fished along the shoreline and eventually loaded our other poles with worms again and dropped them down. As we made our way slowly back across the lake fishing both methods as we went, we caught a few small perch. The wind began to pick up and we were pushed to the shore a few hundred yards from our car. So we began to fish from the boat while against the land. There were weeds everywhere but with our 20 and 30 lb threaded spiderwire line we could pull our lines through anything. We would fish one spot and then push ourselves along the shoreline with our oars and fish again.

1000...1100 *beep BEEP beep BEEP*

My brother got a bite and brought in a nice pike just larger than the one from the previous evening. We put it on the stringer as our hopes went up that we would not go home with just one fish. My brother got out of the boat and began fishing from the shore as I stayed in the boat fishing from just off the shore. Then I caught one. We could tell it was much larger than the other two and then shortly after that my brother caught another one just larger than his last. At this point we were excited for fishing more of the shore but are stomachs were yelling at us. We had only had a few snacks while out on the boat all night. We decided to pack everything up except the backpack with some of our fishing tackle, eat and then fish the shore till it was time to leave.

1200...1300...1400 *beep BEEP beep BEEP*

After eating and packing up we went back down and fished the shore north of the truck. Very quickly my brother brought in another one. We had left the stringer with the four other fish back in the water near the truck so we got out another stringer for this one. It seemed to be about the same size as the other three, not including my larger one. We left that stringer there and kept moving. After a little bit I had a bite but nothing more. Then my brother brought in another one of the same size and while he was putting it on another stringer I caught an even larger one from the same spot. Then a little later I caught a small one that we let go and another keeper of almost the same size as the majority of our fish. We caught them all on either the Storm Live Crappie (the ones that I forgot to get at Walmart but we had only two of), and after the tails came off of those, the Storm Live Walleye. We tried other Rapalas and such but could only catch them on the Storm. And in fact the small perch caught on a jerk bait was also a Storm brand.

1500 *beep BEEP beep BEEP*

Then we headed back with the four. Three about the same size and one larger. We thought this was about the same as the four we had before but when we looked at them all together, the three newer ones were all bigger than the three previous ones and the new large one was bigger than the previous large one. Then we brought all of our 8 pike up to the truck and packed up the rest of our fishing stuff. The following are the pictures of the largest fish and then all of the fish together. The fish were 1 lb 15 oz, 2 lb 5 oz, 2 lb 10 oz, 2 lb 15 oz, 3 lbs, 3 lbs, 3 lb 11 oz, and 4 lb 6 oz.

And this concludes the story of our 24 hour adventure.

Up North

My brother and I are headed north. Tomorrow we will leave to go up north of Payson to where our church group is camping. We will hang out for the day and then head up to Upper Lake Mary below flagstaff. Lake Mary is a great lake for pike fishing, but it also has bluegill, perch, crappie, yellow bass, and channel catfish. We will do some night fishing out on our raft and then fish all of Saturday and then fish the night again and then fish Sunday and come home sometime then. When I get back I hope to have a fantastic story to share along with some photographs of some beautiful fish. If not then at least some beautiful scenery. Hope everyone has a great weekend and get out doors!

Superstitions: Flat Iron

I love hiking! I hate going up but I do it so I can run down the mountain. This post is about Flatiron in the Superstition mountains. If you haven't hiked it and like to hike, you have to do it. The view from the top is amazing. You can see all of the valley. From the bottom it can look like a daunting task ahead of you, but in the end it is worth it. This picture is a view from the bottom. We are headed to the top right plateau.

This next picture is at the half way point. Much closer at last.

Once at the top you can see for miles! A blooming agave cactus in view as well.

As we began our hike back down we looked off into the distance and saw a mini dust devil. At least it was mini from how far we were.

Taking a closer look shows how large it really was.

On one hike, after nearing the top, a police helicopter circle above us and then we believed it landed on the top. I was with 3 other friends so I ran ahead to the top where I could see what was going on. I looked over and saw the rotors spinning slowly and a man standing near the edge with what looked like a camera. Then he got back in the helicopter and they flew off back toward Phoenix. It seems odd that a police helicopter would fly up there just to take a look at the scenery but then again, who knows.

On a different trip, while eating snacks at the top and cooling down, we saw a couple further up on the plateau. Then all of a sudden my friend says, he just proposed to her!! I'm thinking No way! That is so cool. But we couldn't tell for sure so for the rest of the time we were trying to decide if they actually got engaged or not. I made the comment that it would be a horrible experience if you proposed at the top of a mountain and she said 'no'. That would be the worst hike back down a mountain ever!

After coming down the mountain one trip, we were running along the base trail back to the car. As we neared the parking lot, we were interrupted by a sharp rattling sound. There was a Diamondback rattlesnake on the side of the trail. I stopped immediately to grab my camera while my hiking buddy (a girl) started doing a crazy fleeing dance right into me. I had to stop her because the most logical thing to do in a moment such as this was to return to the snake and take pictures. And that is what I did. The snake was simply heading back off the trail into the bushes. What an exciting experience; one that gets your heart racing even more than running down a mountain.

So now about the logistics of the hike. The change in elevation is 2781' from a low point of 2080' to a height of 4861' at the peak. To get there you take the US 60 to Idaho Rd (Highway 88). Follow the signs to stay on this road. After a while you will make a right into the Lost Dutchman State Park, which has a sign for it. You have to pay for parking when you enter. It used to be a worker in a booth but since the state of Arizona had to stop funding some state parks, the city of Apache Junction has taken over and put in a manual booth. You pay the 7 dollars for the day into a little packet and put it in the box while taking the tear-off tab with you in your car. Make sure to grab a map at the pay station. Park in the Saguaro parking lot. To get to Flatiron, head up the trail and take Jacob's Crosscut. This will lead to Siphon Draw Trail which heads right up toward the top. There are also many other shorter trails on the map that you can take if you want a shorter hike at the base of the mountain. The hike to Flatiron takes on average around 5 hours hiking time to complete. This doesn't include resting time at the top to eat a quick re-energizing snack and to enjoy the view. I have done the hike in just over 3 hours minus the time at the top. Make sure you have plenty of water for this hike as it is a very challenging hike.

I hope this was helpful to all and hope to see you out on the mountain!

First Hiking Entry

For my hiking posts, I would like to share with everyone my experiences on various hikes around the state. This will include pictures, descriptions of the difficulty and the estimated time it should take to hike. If there are any hikes you are wanting to go on but don't know much about, ask me in a comment and I can tell you about it. I will begin with some past hikes I've been on and then make posts about any present hikes I do. Hope you enjoy and I hope this gets you out hiking some of Arizona's great mountains.

Previous Salt River Trip

On June 2 I went fishing at the Salt River with my brother. I caught one small bass on a rainbow rapala after fishing for an hour or so. My brother had caught a bass before that. I found a spot where I could see quite a few bass swimming around just out past some trees. A big one and a smaller one were swimming together around one spot. I tried many lures, with a few bites, until I finally caught the smaller one a rubber helgramite. It was 13 inches and I decided to keep it. Then I tried just about every other lure until I got back to the first one and finally caught the other bass which was a nice 15.5 inch bass shown here.

I was fishing from the edge of the shore with a thick tree line surrounding me. I saw there might be another spot I could fish from just to my left so I crawled on my stomach under some low branches and got there. I barely had room to cast my line. There were two fish around one spot just out a ways. One was HUGE!! It was the biggest bass I had ever seen at the salt river. Had to be over 20 inches. But there was another smaller one swimming with it that always took my lure. I eventually caught the smaller one but it was the same size as my first fish so I decided to let it go. But he still kept biting and wouldn't let the larger fish bite. So when I caught him again I decided to keep him. I went back and kept fishing for the big fish. I hooked him!! I was reeling him in when all of a sudden he spit the lure out! Oh boy was that a disappointment. After that he swam around more and was more skittish and wouldn't bite again. I did however see another large one swimming further out, so there are more large bass at the salt river. While fishing in that spot I heard something and looked across the river and up on the rock ledge and saw two bald eagles. They just sat there the whole time I was fishing. That was a neat experience and would have loved to have some binoculars or a camera that had more zoom.

Several days later I went back with my friend hoping to catch this monster. Unfortunately there was some more moss around and the fish wasn't in the same spot. I tried fishing around the area while my friend was situated with a bobber and worms (both night crawlers and meal worms) in a large eddy. I caught one small bluegill on a rubber helgramite while trying to entice a bass. I crossed the river and saw some bass and bluegill around. I tried fishing for them and got several bites but nothing would bite hard enough to hook. While fishing in a small cove I looked out to my left and saw a monster bass swimming right by like he owned the place! This was just across from where I had seen the other two large bass so it could have been one of the same ones. I cast out in front of him but he just swam right on by. I eventually gave up and headed back to my friend to fish for some bluegill. I caught one first cast with a meal worm on bobber and was going to keep it but it fell out of my hands back in the water. My friend caught 4 bluegill total and we called it a day.

Salt River Fishing

So last night we decided we would go fishing this morning (that's me, my brother, and my friend). We were deciding between taking our blow up raft to Saguaro or fishing the Salt River which we had done a couple times in the past few weeks (those stories coming later). Salt River it was. We got up at 4:00 am this morning and packed up to go fishing. We started fishing before the sun came over the mountains and had no success. But our luck was about to change.

We decided we would cross the river and get to a spot where fewer people would fish. On the way there I saw a Giant Blue Heron standing on the shore with a large rainbow trout in its mouth. I wanted that trout. So I threw a rock in its direction and to my amazement it dropped the trout there in the water and flew away. Stunned for a second that he didn't fly away with the fish, I regained myself and ran to the water, dropping everything on the way. I rushed into the water and grabbed the still kicking trout. It had a slight gash on its gill where the Herring had grabbed it and we noticed it also had a hook in its throat. Someone must have hooked it before and the line broke. The trout was just over 16 inches long!! A massive trout for the Salt River. We decided to keep it.

Then we made our way across the river and very quickly I caught a 16 in large mouth bass. After trying several different lures I finally enticed him on an earthworm. After that I caught 4 bluegill on the worms, one of which was 9 inches that we kept as well as the bass and trout. Only one more small bass for me and my friend had one bluegill and my brother, zilch.

Overall it was a good day and we enjoyed it.

If you are wanting to go fishing nearby, the salt river can have some very sweet rewards. The large mouth bass spawn was a month or two ago and so there are many babies swimming around. The bite has slowed down and the bass are not as aggressive in their eating. For this reason we tried a drop shot rig so that the bass would have more time to decide to strike the lure. I had a few bites on this but no luck. If you really want to catch them, try bringing along some night crawlers. Look for a spot behind some trees that may be harder to get to where it isn't fished as frequently. If you can spot the bass swimming around, stay very still and hide as you cast past them and bring the bait to them. If they don't know you're there, they will try just about anything. Once they get scared of you, you will have a harder time getting them to bite.

I hope this was fun to read and helped you if you are wanting to go fishing. Stay tuned for more adventures and feel free to leave any comments.

First Post

Hello all,

I hope to create a blog that will be full of excitement and sharing of experiences and stories. I love the outdoors and I wanted to be able to share that with those who love it as well or get people who are new to this involved.

The blog will be full of outdoor adventures including Hunting, Fishing, Hiking, Photography, Wildlife and more. The blogs will include stories of my own adventures in each of these areas. I hope that comments will consist of your stories as well as comments about mine.

I also will be including How To sections for many of these areas and would love it if you would post comments or questions for the creation of these How To blogs.

I hope you enjoy what I hope this blog will turn into and bear with me as I get it up and running.

And as always, get out there and enjoy Arizona!!