ANGLER REPORTS

Kevin H.: Fished the upper Agua Fria Arm of Lake Pleasant on March 28 and 29 with my family. We found the stripers in shallow water (15-20 feet) on Saturday, and caught more than 30 (2-6 pounds) nice sized fish on anchovies and bait. On Sunday we found them in deeper water (30-plus feet) using anchovies and bait. Did not keep count on Sunday due to the number of kids and fish catching chaos, but I think that we did better on Sunday than Saturday. The striped bass are very healthy and are great fighters this time of year. The kids (and adults) had a blast. The improvements that Game and Fish have made on the Table Mesa Road access are much appreciated! Thank you!

Jay G.: My brother Joshua, featured in the picture, and I shore fished the Agua Fria Arm of Lake Pleasant Friday March 20, and pulled these four stripers out. We threw two back because they were small and lost what seemed to be a really good size catfish right when it came to shore. Overall a great day to fish. We were using green nitro worms and nightcrawlers. Joshua is new to Arizona, from Tennessee, and this was a great way to get him started.

Ed E.: I hit Lake Pleasant on Saturday morning (March 21) with my friend Ruben Torres and fished Castle Creek until the wind picked up around noon, gusting around 15 mph. Ruben was bed fishing for spawning LMB and caught a few, while I was chasing stripers for a fish taco dinner.
I caught a few with some small swimbaits and everyone's favorite bait of choice for stripers up there -- anchovies :-)
I talked to a few anglers who did not do so well, and I also talked to others that did really well. It goes to show you, that you have to be at the right place at the right time :-) Stripers are a predator fish hunting down their prey. I covered a lot of water at Castle Creek that morning so I can see how it can be hit and miss.
I also had the pleasure of running into Nick Walter, who was fly-fishing for panfish from his kayak. That is something I am going to learn soon - fly-fishing from my kayak. I have seen a few kayak anglers fly-fishing for stripers in the past and they were doing pretty darn good ;-) Nick said fly-fishing for the panfish was slow.

Hope to see more of my fellow anglers out there soon! Tight Lines - EE