In March, I am coming down to Scottsdale and am wondering where the best place within an hour drive to catch fish is.  I might bring one spinning rod but will most likely use a guide for half a day on one of the lakes.  I would like to break my PB largemouth (its around 3 lbs so it shouldn't be too hard) and perhaps catch my first striped or smallmouth bass.  Any recommendations for lakes? I have been looking at Pleasant, Saguaro, and Bartlett.  Let me know if there are any good guides that you know of too.

11 hours ago, RMax said:

In March, I am coming down to Scottsdale and am wondering where the best place within an hour drive to catch fish is.  I might bring one spinning rod but will most likely use a guide for half a day on one of the lakes.  I would like to break my PB largemouth (its around 3 lbs so it shouldn't be too hard) and perhaps catch my first striped or smallmouth bass.  Any recommendations for lakes? I have been looking at Pleasant, Saguaro, and Bartlett.  Let me know if there are any good guides that you know of too.

This guy on YouTube named Crazybassfisher is from that area. Check out his videos and maybe reach out to him. 

3 hours ago, Caliyak said:

This guy on YouTube named Crazybassfisher is from that area. Check out his videos and maybe reach out to him. 

Will do.  If you see any more information on this area let me know. It doesn't seem like there is a lot of info, despite how big Phoenix is.

9 hours ago, RMax said:

Will do.  If you see any more information on this area let me know. It doesn't seem like there is a lot of info, despite how big Phoenix is.

I remember seeing one of Roland Martin's episode on the Colorado. He was on a house boat though. Try calling the Phoenix Bass Pro for some info on guides. 

Hook Up outfitters, John Murray, in Phoenix is my recommendation for a bass fishing guide in AZ.

Apache lake or Roosevelt would be your best choice for quality size bass, over 1 hour drive from Phoenix. Lake Pleasant can be good. March is the spawn in AZ, should be good in most of the bass lakes.

Tom

 

3 hours ago, WRB said:

Hook Up outfitters, John Murray, in Phoenix is my recommendation for a bass fishing guide in AZ.

Apache lake or Roosevelt would be your best choice for quality size bass, over 1 hour drive from Phoenix. Lake Pleasant can be good. March is the spawn in AZ, should be good in most of the bass lakes.

Tom

 

Thanks for the info! I will look into John Murray.  Do you know if Pleasant has a smallmouth population?

I don't think so, Apache has Smallmouth bass.

Tom

On ‎1‎/‎5‎/‎2017 at 9:39 PM, RMax said:

In March, I am coming down to Scottsdale and am wondering where the best place within an hour drive to catch fish is.  I might bring one spinning rod but will most likely use a guide for half a day on one of the lakes.  I would like to break my PB largemouth (its around 3 lbs so it shouldn't be too hard) and perhaps catch my first striped or smallmouth bass.  Any recommendations for lakes? I have been looking at Pleasant, Saguaro, and Bartlett.  Let me know if there are any good guides that you know of too.

 

Try Chaparral Lake in Scottsdale or Tempe Town Lake for a quick fix. I haven't been skunked at either location this year. They are kinda in their pre-spawn phase as of today's date. Been doing well in the evenings using small, finesse swimbaits/grubs w/ roadrunner jigs at Chap and finesse jigs w/ Netbait Paca Chunks at TTL.

On 1/6/2017 at 9:59 PM, Caliyak said:

I remember seeing one of Roland Martin's episode on the Colorado. He was on a house boat though. Try calling the Phoenix Bass Pro for some info on guides. 

 

Mike Iaconelli did a "City Limits Phoenix" fishing show featuring Tempe Town Lake a few years ago... 

 

Interesting thread.  I'll be coming down to Phoenix for about a week and will also be looking to pick up a guide.  I'm thinking about doing something involving fly fishing.  If it works out I'll post my experience and how the guiding went.  Best of luck.

On 2/22/2017 at 5:22 PM, UPSmallie said:

Interesting thread.  I'll be coming down to Phoenix for about a week and will also be looking to pick up a guide.  I'm thinking about doing something involving fly fishing.  If it works out I'll post my experience and how the guiding went.  Best of luck.

Any luck?

Sorry for the late reply.  Was able to stay in the general area and see the sights, but never stayed in one place for too long so I wasn't able to hire a guide.  Fished some of the local ponds though and had fun with that.  A chartreuse chatterbait seemed to be the go-to lure for the bass on beds down there.