Arizona Summer Fishing Tips

    Ask any fisherman about their favorite part of our long, hot, Arizona summers and you'll probably just hear them grunt and groan about long wait times at the launch ramp, wake boarders tearing up the otherwise calm lake, and the mountains of trash created by the merry nature go-ers around the Phoenix Metro area.

    Before you start shaming others on social media, or head to the local rec center and organize a trash clean up/community picnic, consider the bennifits of littering yourself:  1. Colorful trash will brighten up and add color to our otherwise bland desert landscape.  2. People get paid to pick up trash, not littering would result in those poor folks losing their jobs.  3. It provides plenty of artificial habitat for our favorite fish and wildlife species.  4. Everyone else does it, what difference will your styrofoam bait cup and bud light can really make anyway.  And, of course, 5. Those dang trash recepticals are all the way on the other side of the road.

    Since this is a fishing blog, I want to focus on the third point stated above.  Trash in our waters provide much needed habitat for all of nature's beautiful creatures.  An abundance of these man-made habitats in our lakes will provide the state's bass population with what fisherman refer to as "cover".  Bass use this cover year-round in hunting prey, spawning, and for those warm post-front conditions when they just want to chill in the shade with their homies.  Just look at all this garbage that the Game and Fish Department is willingly tossing into the lake:

    So, as bass anglers, how can we use all this trash to our advantage?  Below I've outlined some of the most common trash piles that you will likely come across in our summer waters.

1. The Classic Tire

    Tires are great, just look how happy those turtles are.  A tire, partially exposed above the surface like in the picture above, provides structure similar to a boulder.  This shallow cover can be used as an ambush point by bass, especially early in the morning and at dawn when the shad begin to migrate towards the shore line.  Try top water poppers in the morning and at dawn, as well as white spinnerbaits throughout the day.  Like any shallow cover, work from the outside towards the center from multiple angles.

    A fully submerged tire in 1 1/2 to 3 feet of water is ideal in the early summer when the bluegil have moved up shallow to spawn.  You may find a nest of these bluegil inside the tire, and several other nests nearby surrounding the tire as bluegil often like to spawn as large schools, kind of like the flower power generation of the sixties.  A chartuse and blue squarebill crankbait can be deadly anytime the bass have moved shallow and into the bedding bluegil to feed.

    But of course, the most common place you will find this type of cover is along the shallow river banks of the Salt and Gila Rivers.  In current, large tires create large current breaks.  A current break is exactly as it sounds, a break in the current.  This provides slack water that a lazy bass will rest in while awaiting his meal to float by in the outside current.  Position your boat just down stream of the tire.  Cast a a crankbait or spinner bait upstream of the tire and work it back slowly and naturally with the current past the tire.  A small jig or shakey head worm could be worked in the same way, but slower, if the fish are especially tight lipped that day.

2. The Blue Light Special

    A staple in the urban fishing program, a shopping cart may provide the majority of structure in many of Arizona's urban lakes and streams.  But nature-goers, don't worry, I've come across the blue light special as far east as the Salt end of Roosevelt, and as far west as LA.

    Think of the shopping cart as a metal brush pile that's much less forgiving to your crankbaits.  Get your Strikeking 5XD snagged on one of these bad boys and you best be getting out the clippers.  Shallow or deep my go-to lure here is a jig.  Shopping carts have lots of nooks and crannies for those sneaky bass to hide in, so you'll want to make plenty of casts before moving on.  I like to use no less than 50 lb braid with my drag cranked down.  Just like fishing in thick brush, you want to pull that bass out of there quickly to avoid him pulling your line into the sharp metal edges of the cart that can easily cut 20 lb flurocarbon.

    If a jig doesn't get the job done, you can try a faster reaction bait like a small swimbait.  Just make sure that hook is buried deep in the plastic so your swimmy doesn't suffer the same fate as that 5XD.

3. Flippin' and Pitchin' the Mats

    When the trash begins to really mat up around the 4th of July Weekend, I like to bust out the heavy flippin' and pitchin' gear.  The trash creates a thick canopy on the surface providing plenty of cool shade for that lunker bass.  Ideally, look for trash mats in the backs of shallow coves in 2 to 4 feet of water.  Butcher Jones and Cove #1 at Saguaro Lake are prime spots as the water depth is just right, and the nearby recreation areas provide plenty of jack-ass litterbugs.

   The biggest bass will hold tight to the larger pieces of trash as science has proven that bass take pride in their personal belongings.  Much like humans, their cast system is based on greed and material possessions.  You might just find a small school of four-pounders aggressively protecting that 84 oz. ThirstBuster.  Because of this territorial behavior, short accurate casts are a must as the bass will not move more than 12 inches out of its strike zone.

    For more information on what gear to use and how to fish it effectively, see last weeks post regarding punching grass mats.

4. The Bride

    Fishing brides can be great when there is a steady wind or current.  I fish brides the same way I do bridge pillars.  If there is wind or current, I'll position the boat on the down wind side.  Brides, like tires, will act as a current break.  The ambushing bass will wait on the down wind side and wait for the baitfish to flow by.

    Often times fish can become very active around brides, so I like to start with a fast moving reaction bait.  Cranks, spinners, and swimbaits will all get the job done.  My first two casts will be parallel with the current along both sides of the bride.  If I get no bumps I'll switch to a small finesse bait like a shaky head or drop shot.  I'll stay on the down wind side of the bride and cast as close as I can to the sides, ideally within inches.  Often times with a soft plastic I'll cast right into the side of the bride, as the bait hits I'll drop my rod tip creating as much slack in the line as I can so that the bait can fall straight down along her side.  Most of the time the bass will hit it on the fall.  If not, I'll let the worm rest for just a second or two, hop it once and then lightly shake it.  If I haven't got bit by then I'll reel in a recast.

5.  The Lazy Boy

    In my college days, I would approach this senario differently.  My friend Dale had a truck, I would have called him up in an instant and offered him a 12 pack of bud to help me pull this thing out and set it up in the dorm.  Well times have changed.  I get my sofas from Ikea now, and Dale goes by Susan.  He...  She, also wouldn't accept the cheap beer anymore, I'd have to step it up to at least a locally brewed Hefeweizen.

    If you're going to fish it go with something weedless.  A jig or weedless wacky senko would work well.  The reason for the weedless approach is just out of courtesy for the next college-aged numbnut to happen across a new sofa.  Snags could lead to large tears, and duct tape can get expensive.

    I would approach this much like The Classic Tire.  Work the edges first, then move into the center of the cover.  There's two reasons for this:

1.  If you go straight for the middle, but miss your target and snag up on it first cast, you're going to disturb quite a bit of the area around it, spooking off any potential bass that might be there.

2.  If there's one bass, there's probably more.  I like to pick off bass from the sides of a small school because I feel that there's less of a chance of that bass disturbing the others.  If I were to go right in after the middle one, he may spook off the whole remaining school.

6.  Target Practice

    "Hey man, I bet I can hit that oil can from 40 yards out with this Red Eye Shad..."

    "But why, Brah?"

    "Dude, just watch....  Tssssssssssssssssssss, splash.

  .... Ah crap."

    So there you have it.  Next time you consider packing out more than you brought in, reconsider.  It's for the good of the fishery.  Next week, I'll share with you my favorite recipe for Pre-Spawn Female Largemouth Bass.