Any lakes I should hit or avoid?   Mainly looking for bass.  Any suggestions are appreciated.  

Shore fishing?  Looking for urban lakes?

21 minutes ago, camman said:

Shore fishing?  Looking for urban lakes?

Shore fishing.  Really looking for any lake that my son and I can have a good time at.   

Its been about 10 years since I was in Tempe for school.  If I recall if you fish the Urban lakes you need an additional Stamp as well as the normal fishing License.  If you fish the other lakes I think they only require a fishing license.

 

Close to Scottsdale and Urban Lakes:

Tempe Town Lake - Basically man made, I've caught a number of bass out of it, I think all by drop shotting.  It was a place that if I had 30 minutes I could fish it and normally catch at least 1.

 

Papago Ponds or Kiwanis Lake - Never fished it but if I remember they stock with trout and have a resident bass population

 

Little bit of a drive and your more traditional lakes.

 

Pleasant, Roosevelt, Saguaro, Apache, and Bartlett.

 

I've only fished the first 3 from a boat and probably the best were either Pleasant/Roosevelt.  I again fished from a boat so don't know much about shore access but saw people fishing from the shore by the marinas for both.

 

 

Most of the small urban lakes in AZ are on private golf clubs. The Salt River lakes mentioned, Saguaro is the closet to Scottsdale are not good from shore IMO, there are a few small lakes on the Salt River near Tempe mentioned, it's years since I have been there!

I used to take my son fishing below Bartlett on the Verde River and it was decent shore fishing. Be aware rattle snakes are an issue everywhere in the shore areas you fish in AZ.

Tom