Went up to Sedona today to meet Kevin for an afternoon of flyfishing. We got on the water around 12pm and fished until 6:30 with only one brown trout, and a number of misses for our efforts. The weather was warm but the water was a refreshing 68 degrees. We covered a lot of water, 0.7 miles, (which felt like a lot further) and really had a hard time finding them until late in the evening when they started rising. By then we were done and hungry and still had to make it back to the cars before dark. On the way out we stopped at a pool which gets loaded with stocker rainbow trout so we each whacked about 3 of them, then headed in for dinner. We stopped at the Junipine Resort Cafe for a buffalo burger and enjoyed the rest of the evening. Overall, it was a great day… too bad the fish didn’t cooperate a little more.
Last weekend I went up to the local mountains with my friend Mike for some hiking and fishing. The first day we went to Beaver Creek and hiked the Bell Trail about 3.5 miles to what is known as the “Crack”. This was something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time, but I also thought I was in better shape than I actually am. Hiking down the main trail, we veered off the trail a few times which made what should’ve been a 1.5 hour trek into about 2.5 hours. The scenery was great through, and we did discover a few good fishing holes… though we passed them up to get to our destination. Along the trail is a large boulder with some petroglyphs from the Sinagua Indians, very cool to see without a fence around it, and I’m amazed that something so old is still in such great condition.
After trying for a few fish in the main pool, we decided they wanted nothing to do with us and we had a bit of a hike to get back to the car so we headed out. There was still about an hour of sunlight left so we went to the campgrounds where the rainbow trout are stocked and whacked about 5 fish each before calling it a day.
The next day we drove down to Ashurst Lake to see about catching some Pike. Upon arrival the wind was blowing at about 30mph which would make flyfishing impossible for a novice like me, so I broke out the bass gear and a flashminnow and started casting. About 15 minutes into it Mike gets a hookup on a 8″ pike, but that would be the only fish for the day.
It was a great weekend, we stayed in Flagstaff for the night with a low of 25 degrees, but managed to find some good Chinese food in town. I don’t think I need to make that hike again anytime soon, but I’m glad I did it.
