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.