Summer Urban Bass Fishing AZ

[gavinfaulkner]

Hey y’all. I live in Phoenix, AZ. Summer is on its way in and I have been fishing some lakes up north with cooler weather and some small urban lakes/ponds. It’s in the 90s and it’s a strong sun. The pond I go to isn’t deep 10 feet tops if that. It has these bubbling tubes that obviously bubble to keep oxygen level up. A couple friends caught fish around them. Some trees and shade cover and certain spots. But my question is. What would be the best bait/lure to throw in these conditions. Trying to pull in some decent fish. If you are familiar with the Chandler, AZ area let me know of some good urban fishing. But mainly Im just trying to figure out what to use. 
Thank y’all 

Edited April 29, 2020 by gavinfaulkner

[WRB]

Whatever you use, use it at low light periods and night.

Tom

[gavinfaulkner]

1 hour ago, WRB said:

Whatever you use, use it at low light periods and night.

Tom

thank you! yeah i’m gonna try and head out at sunset and fish it. gets a little cooler and sun goes down some bit. 

[Dorado]

I live in metro Phoenix and I can’t stress enough the importance of two facets that will improve your success:

 

1) learn to finesse. Ned rigs, small tubes, drop-shots, wacky rigs, 3” grubs, and weightless weedless Zoom trick and finesse worms make up my panic box. 
 

2) what @WRB said. I catch the biggest bass and get my numbers typically at night

 

finally, my personal philosophy. March the hatch. These fish get pounded by so much pressure, especially by local bank-beating bass tournaments. Our ponds are relatively small and have fragile ecosystems so it really bugs me that they exist. Thanks to social media, word gets out fast and honey holes get exploited all to stroke egos and $50 jackpots. I’ll stop, but I despise these practices at small urban ponds. 
 

back to my point, match the hatch. I’m talking to the size, profile, and colors.  Threadfin Shad, baby bass, bluegills, and crawdads make up the local forage here. 
 

during the summer, when the weeds surface, use the smallest Livetarget hollow bodied weedless bluegill lure available and go to town at night. You  often get a lot of strikes. A black jitterbug can be dynamite during the late summer if you can fish weedlines and pause it for several seconds. 
 

Best of luck out there and stay cool! I have cat fishing on my mind lately so I’ve been pre-occupied trying to get my GF over that 10# mark. We’ve been close this spring. That was at Papago

[gavinfaulkner]

24 minutes ago, Dorado said:

I live in metro Phoenix and I can’t stress enough the importance of two facets that will improve your success:

 

1) learn to finesse. Ned rigs, small tubes, drop-shots, wacky rigs, 3” grubs, and weightless weedless Zoom trick and finesse worms make up my panic box. 
 

2) what @WRB said. I catch the biggest bass and get my numbers typically at night

 

finally, my personal philosophy. March the hatch. These fish get pounded by so much pressure, especially by local bank-beating bass tournaments. Our ponds are relatively small and have fragile ecosystems so it really bugs me that they exist. Thanks to social media, word gets out fast and honey holes get exploited all to stroke egos and $50 jackpots. I’ll stop, but I despise these practices at small urban ponds. 
 

back to my point, match the hatch. I’m talking to the size, profile, and colors.  Threadfin Shad, baby bass, bluegills, and crawdads make up the local forage here. 
 

during the summer, when the weeds surface, use the smallest Livetarget hollow bodied weedless bluegill lure available and go to town at night. You  often get a lot of strikes. A black jitterbug can be dynamite during the late summer if you can fish weedlines and pause it for several seconds. 
 

Best of luck out there and stay cool! I have cat fishing on my mind lately so I’ve been pre-occupied trying to get my GF over that 10# mark. We’ve been close this spring. That was at Papago

wow. that was an extreme help... thank you very much and good luck out there!

[WRB]

Did you know Papago ponds next to ASU is where the 1st LMB were transported west by Dr. Henshall? When I went to school at ASU there was a brass plaque there in the early 60's.

Finesse is they way to go. Search Slip Shot rig ideal for pond fishing.

Tom

PS,nice channel cat.

[camman]

3 hours ago, WRB said:

Did you know Papago ponds next to ASU is where the 1st LMB were transported west by Dr. Henshall? When I went to school at ASU there was a brass plaque there in the early 60's.

Finesse is they way to go. Search Slip Shot rig ideal for pond fishing.

Tom

PS,nice channel cat.

Wow did not know that...I went to ASU for grad school.

 

speaking of big cats, watched a guy pull a 15 lb one from Tempe Town Lake and release it

[smoroi]

On 4/29/2020 at 3:40 PM, WRB said:

Did you know Papago ponds next to ASU is where the 1st LMB were transported west by Dr. Henshall? When I went to school at ASU there was a brass plaque there in the early 60's.

Finesse is they way to go. Search Slip Shot rig ideal for pond fishing.

Tom

PS,nice channel cat.

Isn't it perplexing that urban legends die so hard! ? This is likely another ASU-drummed up fantasy. ? Official AZGF records clearly document that LMB were introduced to Arizona in 1897, and there is no official mentions or credits to Henshall ~ lines tight, my friends! Best not to contribute to inaccurate rumors, however innocent they might appear.

[WRB]

23 minutes ago, smoroi said:

Isn't it perplexing that urban legends die so hard! ? This is likely another ASU-drummed up fantasy. ? Official AZGF records clearly document that LMB were introduced to Arizona in 1897, and there is no official mentions or credits to Henshall ~ lines tight, my friends! Best not to contribute to inaccurate rumors, however innocent they might appear.

Who built the plaque honoring Henshall? You trying to tell me I did pn't see it!

Tom

[smoroi]

1 hour ago, WRB said:

Who built the plaque honoring Henshall? You trying to tell me I did pn't see it!

Tom

Hi T., not at all! I assume you saw a plaque, rather my point was alluding to ASU's 'documentation' or lack thereof. Where it seems this went wrong was my sarcasm, and poorly framed, high context dig at the endless ASU 'crowing' [pun intended]. Anyhoots, apologies for my part here ??‍♂️  FYI, there is no such memorial honoring Henshall now at any of the three PP ponds. 

 

Dr. Henshall's efforts with fish and wildlife management are not without their controversies. Indeed, much of his early work with fish introductions have been repudiated because his work has a lack of evidence for his 'conclusions'; largely they were nothing but 'fisherman's wisdom' or common hearsay. Henshall treatment of scientific facts is now known to have alleged things that are simply wrong. Heck, they were all limited back then by technology and science research procedures! The modern study of fishes was in its infancy in the 1800s-to-early 1900s to say the least. LOLOLOL

 

Seriously, though, many of Henshall's fish introduction recommendations became biological and ecological disasters for local native fish populations. His work is specifically linked to the decline of native trout species in the US-American West. He displayed an incredible lack of basic understanding of fish behavior and biology or was he simply angling to place the bass over the venerable trout in the eyes of fishers world-over - wild, eh, dude!? 

 

Guy must've had mighty powerful pull somewhere to be able to get away with the nonsensical things he pulled off!

 

FYI - my context for my interest and awareness on this all? Work-related working with wildlife biologists, biologists, science/bio-engineering researchers, and my creating-working-managing science communications, scientific promotions, etc. ??

Edited June 20, 2020 by smoroi