Weather and fishing in Arizona is heating up!  Summer is definitly upon us, but if you can stand the heat, fishing can be outstanding this time of the year.  It’s also a great time to escape the heat of the desert and head north to the high country and enjoy the cool air in the pines.

Lake Pleasant has been fishing great for bass and stripers.  The story this time of the year is anglers are anticipating boils, and we now have boils!  Stripers and largemouth are chasing bait over open water, and if you can get on these boils, the topwater action is fantastic!  It’s taking a little more hunting than we would like to see to find the boils, but we’re only in the beginning of this season, and we’re seeing improvements almost daily.  Conventional gear anglers should use clear topwater baits like the Sammy 65 or little Gunfish, or small swimbaits like the Little Dipper or Swing Impact in natural baitfish patterns.  Almost all the boils are on fry.  Fly anglers can mop up with small streamers in white and olive stripped quickly through the fish.

Lake Mary has been kicking out some great Pike fishing.  Jerkbaits and buzzbaits have been producing good numbers and size of fish up north, and what a great time of the year to get out of the desert and enjoy that area.  Try Pointer 100’s in black/gold or perch colors, and fly anglers try gold and chartreuse clousers or yellow bunny leeches.  Most of the fish we’re seeing are 2-5 pounds, but there are some big ones coming here and there.

Oak Creek is starting to fish well for browns.  There are some hatches coming off, so some dry fly action, but most of the fish are still munching the nymphs or the streamers.  Sight casting a leech or bugger can very effective this time of the year in the deeper pools.  The whole key is stealth!

Other lakes fishing well are Roosevelt Lake, Saguaro Lake, and some of the white mountains lakes like Earl Park, Crescent and Pacheta.