A Summer in the USA - Backtracking to Arizona

 Our mechanical troubles meant we had to skip almost all our planned activities in Arizona except for the Grand Canyon, but I was adamant on going back. There were just too many cool fish! I flew back to LA and we started by driving down the Californian coast to San Diego.

In San Diego, I learned my first lesson on how deceptive saltwater fishing on the west coast can be. Ben Cantrell had kindly sent me a number of good spots, and I was seeing fish, but I just couldn't get any to bite. In fact, I only got one bit that I lost and never caught another. Snorkeling in the La Jolla Cove was a nice consolation prize and it was awesome to see all of the species in the small kelp forest there.

I eventually gave up and switched to a more brackish spot in the estuary of a creek. The tide was rising and I could see fish in the shallows, this was more my style! My main target was California Killifish but I was distracted by the rays moving around in the shallower water. I simply plunked a bit of shrimp in front of them and soon enough I had two new species: Round Ray and Diamond Ray!

Haller's Round Ray

Diamond Ray

The killifish wasn't much harder. There were huge schools just near a drop off so I switched to a smaller hook and caught one fairly easily.

California Killifish

Having exhausted all our spots, we stopped to enjoy a sunset on the coast before switching it up and heading inland to get back to Arizona. We drove late into the night, and quickly realized AZ was going to present a problem; it was insanely hot! I'm talking like 35C at midnight! We overheard someone on the radio saying they had even baked a cake simply by leaving it in their car. In any case, we spent a sweaty night in the desert before continuing to our destination the next day.

We started in Saguaro National Park but didn't last very long in the heat and made the call to head somewhere a little cooler. The lower Salt River near Phoenix provided some relief and we soaked in the cool water for a few hours. I even tried to do some fishing but only caught Rainbow Trout despite seeing many Sonora Suckers around. Turns out, AZ has a lot of Rainbow Trout stocked everywhere :(

Saguaro National Park

It was eventually time to leave the cool water and head north for some more exploring. Returning to the car, the temperature on the dash read 48C! We threw the A/C on blast and moved to the upper Verde River. The slight change in elevation brought the temps down to a more manageable level, but the river was a little silty and water levels were low. My target species was the endemic and rare Gila Trout, and I had a trout on my first cast into a promising pool! Unfortunately, it turned out to be another stocked rainbow, so were the next dozen trout.

Rainbow Trout

I did eventually get a smaller bite that I was able to quickly swing onto shore, and it turned out to be a new species! My first lifer in Arizona; the Roundtail Chub.

Roundtail Chub

After catching dozens of Rainbow Trout and a few more chub, it was becoming obvious that I wasn't going to be finding any Gila Trout. It was time to move on.

We continued our northward journey in search of cooler temperatures and maybe, just maybe, some actual trees! We made it to Sedona with very little light before stopping for the night at a pull-off on public land.

We spent the next morning exploring Sedona (and finding that the popular hikes were so busy that we couldn't park), and the afternoon fishing on the local creek that runs through town. I still wanted a Gila Trout, but this creek also had Sonora and Desert Suckers. I spent a lot more time trout fishing and only ended up catching more rainbows. However, the sucker fishing was a little more productive. The one pool was packed with tourists but I did get lucky and was able to sight fish this little guy; my first Desert Sucker!

Desert Sucker

The Desert Sucker would be my only lifer from Sedona. I could have tried another day but we wanted to move on to more prospects. Alex wanted to stand on the corner in Winslow, and I wanted to make it out to the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest for some fishing. Alex got to stand on her corner and I got to catch an Apache Trout on my very first cast!

Apache Trout

It wasn't the prettiest fish with its snub nose, but it was the only one I caught so I can't complain! After spending the rest of the evening and the night in the national forest, we made a full day drive back to California, but that will have to be in the next blog post.