A couple of days ago, my father and I made the trip to a semi-popular lake on the Mogollon Rim, which is essentially a shelf that spans across much of northern Arizona. The Rim is home to higher elevations that support life that resides within Ponderosa pines and mixed conifers, including squirrels, elk, mule deer, and more. Swimming in the cold waters of the Rim country include many different trout species, including Gila, Tiger, and Apache trout, along with smallmouth bass, walleye, and even some pike.
The lake we went to is known to be somewhat popular, but I knew of a backroad that led away from the main part of the lake. I figured there would still be some fishing traffic, but lower than near the main docks.
We left town hours before the sun would rise, so as to arrive to the lake at sunrise. Our nearly 2 hour car drive through the mountains passed rapidly as our anticipation to catch fish rose. We were chasing rainbow trout, and hopefully would catch some tiger trout as well. I was hopeful that we would limit out somewhat quickly, and then move on to other species, including smallmouth and largemouth bass, crappie, and bluegill.
We finally arrive to our destination and have the lake to ourselves. The cool temperatures wove a feeling of briskness within our skin, and a long sleeved was definitely needed. I made the short hike to the water and began to configure hooks.
I began with the trusty ole bottom-fishing Powerbait setup. This setup consists of a smaller treble hook, a couple of splitshots about 12”-14” from the hook, and that’s it. This way of fishing may be slightly “amateurish”, but it catches fish nonetheless. I cast my rod and began the waiting game.
With my 2nd rod, I started trial and error fishing – I began using different lures with different colors to see what would work. I began with the Rapala Original Floater, which is essentially a micro jerkbait. I tried different retrieval styles, including jerking, varying speed retrievals, and a mix of the two. With a constant slow retrieve I got bit, but the fish didn’t stay on. I gained some confidence that was only lost after many more casts with no more bites.
I switched to an inline spinner, the trusty ole Panther Martin. I knew that if these fish would be actively foraging than they would surely bite onto a Panther Martin. Well, after many minutes of casting, there were zero bites.
Just as I’m about to switch again, my Powerbait rod starts screaming with drag. I dropped my current rod, picked up my other rod, and set the hook.
Fish on!
The first fish of the day was on the end of my line. It felt decent – not small, but not huge. I reeled the fish in to find a beautiful rainbow trout, the first keeper of the day.
I was pretty excited after this first fish. The lake had shown us that it contained fish, now we just had to catch them. I rebaited with Powerbait, and recast. Meanwhile, my Pa also caught a trout using an inline spinner, of which they stopped biting after the fish had been caught.
After some time had passed, I decided to move down shore. Using the same Powerbait, and now a Bomber micro crankbait, of which I got bit, but none that would hold on.
Much time passed without a single bite for me, only a few nibbles here and there. Meanwhile, however, my Dad was absolutely slaying it. Fish after fish, he was reeling ‘em in. I couldn’t understand, our setup was exactly the same, he must have just found a spot in the lake that the fish are sticking to.
Finally, he limited out (6 fish), and I had my measly single fish. I decided to take over his fishing spot now that he was finished. I cast directly where he was.
Nothing.
What was the problem? Did we have varying fishing depths? Nope, our splitshot were literally at the exact same lengths. What about hooks?
This is when we had a revelation. His hook size was significantly smaller than mine, resulting in a much smaller Powerbait ball. Unfortunately, that was the only hook of that size we had between the both of us, so I decided to just switch to using his rod instead of one of my other rods. I rebaited, cast out and…
Nothing.
This is when we had our second revelation. We compared Powerbait colors – both colors were the same, but mine had glitter and his did not. This is the only other variable that we could think of. I reeled in the line, switched to glitter-less Powerbait, and recast.
Within 5 minutes, I had my second fish on. This fish was roughly the same size as the first, a decent sized fish, and the second on the stringer.
Unfortunately, it was getting late in the morning, and the bite came to a halt. People started flooding into the lake, including some incredibly rude people that setup not even 15 feet from us. We knew that this was a sign to call it a day.
Granted, I only caught 2 fish, but they were of a good size, and it is always a good time being in the high country of Arizona. My goal is to get to higher elevations for more trout fishing this fall, and hope to hook into some different species, including some browns or tigers.