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.

A Summer in the USA - Brokedown in Utah

 We left off when our car broke down with a blown transmission and we had taken the bus to Salt Lake City to stay with some of Alex's relatives. I was fortunate to find some Weather Loach on the first night and soon met up with a local lifelister, Nick, who took me out for some hot spring fishing. Most of the catches ended up being hybrids but it was still a cool experience to find aquarium fish out in the desert.

Weather Loach

Hybrid African Cichlid

We didn't waste all our time waiting for the car repairs either, and made the best of it with some mini road trips between Alex's working days. The first was a run into western UT and then up to the Grand Tetons. More hot springs, beautiful views, and more fishing were all on the table! I also spent a day fishing with Matt Miller in Idaho where we caught an amazing number of Largescale Suckers and even a hyrbid Northern Pikeminnow x Chiselmouth, but no pure lifers.

Red Devil Cichlid

Utah Chub

Northern Pikeminnow x Chiselmouth

Largescale Sucker

Redbelly Tilapia

Melanochromis auratus

Shoshone Falls

Grand Tetons

Being stuck in Salt Lake City also meant we were a stone's throw away from one of my bucket list destinations: Bear Lake! A crazy unique place with no less than 4 endemic species; 3 coregonids and 1 sculpin. I knew the whitefish would be basically uncatchable, but the sculpin should have been close to shore this time of year. I noticed a bunch of juvenile trout so quickly caught one of those; a unique strain of the Bonneville Cutthroat Trout. After enough rock flipping, my dream sculpin popped up too! They were way smaller than I imagined.

Bear Lake Sculpin

Bear Lake Cutthroat Trout

There were also one more local species I really wanted to catch while in northern Utah: the Utah Sucker. I thought they might pop up while chasing other species but that never happened. After receiving a bit of intel from a local angler named Lucas, I set out to track them down. The first stream I tried was full of them, all in spawning mode. They weren't very focused on feeding but eventually I sealed the deal with this beauty.

Utah Sucker

Having exhausted the local species, we took some time to explore more of the state. Alex had more time off work so we rented a car and did the classic loop of national parks in southern Utah. My favourite part was the Zebra Slot Canyon which wasn't even part of any park! A SxS tour of the Hell's Revenge track in Moab was a highlight too.

Zion

Bryce Canyon

Zebra Slot Canyon

Arches

Canyonlands

After a few more days of exploring the parks, we finally got some good news: the car was fixed! We took the bus back down to Blanding and went on our way, $8000 poorer. At this point, we were running out of time and I needed to be in Los Angeles for a flight in just a few days. We'd need to cut out some fishing plans, but didn't want to miss some of the big sights like the Grand Canyon, Horseshoe Bend, and Death Valley. We also took time for a quick night in Las Vegas and a visit to the Hoover Dam.

Grand Canyon

Death Valley

We were happy to have been able to see so much despite our mechanical troubles, and even made it to California with a couple days to spare. We spent some time on the ocean and I managed to squeeze in two more fishing spots for Tule Perch and Arroyo Chub. Both were very productive and it didn't take long to find the fish.

Tule Perch

Arroyo Chub

Fun fact: "arroyo" is Spanish for creek, so the Arroyo Chub is really just a Creek Chub. Eventually, it was time for me to head to the airport and fly back to Nunavut for work. From one very hot desert to one very cold desert.

Our route to LAX did take us by one final fishing spot and we did have an extra hour or so to try and make something happen. This urban pond had an iNat observation of Lowland Cichlid so I decided I could use my extra time to give it a try. I had to weed through dozens of Green Sunfish, but the cichlid did eventually pop up! Success!

Lowland Cichlid

A Summer in the USA - The Southwest

 For the next part of our big road trip, Alex and I headed down to Texas and into the Southwest. At this point, we would be leaving for a few months and I'd only be flying back to Canada for work. 

The trip started out well with a long drive to Kentucky and then a quick pit stop at a spot where a number of lifelisters had recently caught Springs Cavefish. I knew I needed to be there at night or the fish would be nowhere to be found. We drove all night and made it there for 5AM, just before the sun came up! With just enough time to spare, I made my way down to the creek and found my lifer after a little bit of searching :)

Springs Cavefish

Other than a quick stop in Missouri at a river that just looked too good to pass up, we mostly spent the next day driving all the way down to Texas. I tried a spillway for Blue Suckers but apparently the flow had been completely shut off due to the drought in the south, I didn't even know that was legal.

The next day, we moved further into Texas to a spot with Spotted and Alligator Gar. It didn't take long to find the Spotted Gar, and they were very willing to bite a jerkbait even in the turbid water. I caught my lifer in short order and even a bonus Channel Catfish on the lure!

Spotted Gar

The next adventure was decidedly less fun. I continued gar fishing in the hopes that an Alligator Gar would show up. I wouldn't find them until much later but I did have a Spotted Gar spit the hook right on shore and send the lure flying into the back of my head. Alex was not very enthusiastic about performing emergency surgery to my scalp.

Eventually, I did find the Alligator Gar, and they were in a spawning congregation directly below a flow control structure. Some of them were huge and right at my feet! Unfortunately, they all seemed more interested in spawning than feeding, so I was never able to catch one.

Alligator Gar Territory

We enjoyed the sunset over the swampland before driving a little to find a place to crash for the night, there was more important fishing to come!

It was time to switch things up and go for a little river fishing, the primary targets being Guadalupe Bass and Rio Grande Cichlid. Getting to the river, I knew right away I was in for a struggle. The water level was little more than a trickle, and was unrecognizable from years prior. In fact, this would become a trend for many fishing spots in the southwest. I found the only sizable pool for KM's and fortunately there were some fish swimming around. I ended up catching my lifer Plains Longear Sunfish pretty easily.

Plains Longear Sunfish

The bass and cichlids never did show up at the first spot so we moved downstream. The next spot had a lot more water and I could already see the fish swimming around. The sunfish were relentless but eventually I caught my first cichlid by fishing extremely tight to structure. Although I saw Guadalupe Bass, I never did catch one. Definitely something to come back for, there's something special about Texas Hill Country.

Rio Grande Cichlid

Texas Hill Country

We made some quick tourist stops in San Antonio but were again disappointed by urban USA, fortunately there's plenty of beautiful rural USA to make up for it. Case in point, Big Bend National Park! Way out of the way, but so worth the visit.

Big Bend National Park

Heading west of San Antonio, finding any fishable water at all was a struggle. I did fish one stream on the way to Big Bend that was sent to me by Luke. After a weird interaction with a local cop (who thought we were smuggling illegal immigrants), I was able to catch my lifer Gray Redhorse and a bonus Manantial Roundnose Minnow. I also broke off on a Flathead Catfish and struck out on Headwater Catfish.

Gray Redhorse

The roundnose minnow would be my last fish for a while. We switched gears and spent a good amount of time visiting some incredible national parks out in the desert. We managed to check off Guadalupe Mountains, Carlsbad Caverns, White Sands, Chaco Culture, and Mesa Verde! All were unique in their own way and I've really got to commend the US on their national park system.

Guadalupe Mountains

White Sands

Mesa Verde

The very northwest corner of New Mexico did have one river I was eager to visit, the Farmington. Arriving there, I was relieved to see there was actual running water so we could take a much-needed bath and also scratch my fishing itch. As far as I could tell, this was the only river in the US where it would be legal to catch Flannelmouth Suckers. However, the bottom was silty and the current was intense... it was going to be a challenge. It being the only option around, I made a dedicated attempt and caught exactly one fish, but it was the right kind!

Flannelmouth Sucker

This is a protected species in just about every other state, so I was really glad to have caught one legally.

Things took a turn for the worst after New Mexico. We were out exploring Monument Valley in Utah when the road changed from 2-lane highway to single-lane desert pass at a place called the Moki Dugway. Of course, our transmission decided to fail exactly halfway up and the car started revving up and rolling backwards. We were able to get it back down in neutral to inspect the damage. We were a little too stressed to get any photos but this is the road in question:

Moki Dugway

AAA was able to "prioritize' our request since we were stalled on the side of the highway, but it still took 10 hours before the tow truck was able to get to us. We then spent two nights sleeping in the mechanic's yard, and met some of the kindest people. The citizens of Blanding, UT really took care of us and we were fortunate to visit the town during our short stay. However, we couldn't stay forever because it would take over 2 weeks to get a replacement transmission. We made the best of it and took a bus to Salt Lake City where some of Alex's relatives generously took us in.

Blanding, UT - Homeless

A Summer in the USA - The Deep South

 Covid was finally winding down, and it was time to start travelling again. Alex and I had been wanting to explore more of the US and it was shaping up to be the perfect summer to do so. Our Rav4 was still semi-reliable, so we took off with the ultimate goal of visiting every state in the lower 48. The trip would be split into four smaller trips, to line up with my shifts at work. This first part is about a 2 week journey to the deep south.

Alex still needed to try working remotely, so we kept it simple and headed off without much of an itinerary. First was a very quick stop in Virginia to meet up with fellow lifelister Hunter for a little bit of Sculpin fishing. For some reason, I've developed an addiction to freshwater sculpins so I knew I had to make a stop when Hunter told me he knew of two species very close together. By the time I arrived at the spot, it was midnight and the temps were down around 0C. That didn't stop us from making an effort and I ended up catching one of the target species, a Kanawha Sculpin!

Kanawha Sculpin

The other sculpin, the Blueridge Sculpin, never showed up despite our efforts and it was getting pretty late, so it was time to crash for the night. We slept in the next day before continuing south to the Little River Canyon in Alabama. A beautiful drive with some pretty epic river views.

Little River Canyon

Most of the rest of the day was spent driving south, and it was dark by the time we got to our destination. Alex got ready for bed, but the sound of the river was calling me so I had to jump in the waders and test out the spot. That ended up being a good decision because I caught 4 new species; Swampland Longear Sunfish, Warrior Bass, Blackspotted Topminnow, and Banded Sculpin.

Banded Sculpin

Blackspotted Topminnow

Warrior Bass

Swampland Longear Sunfish

I ended up catching nicer specimens of the bass and sunfish the next morning, which are the ones in the photos above. There's something pretty nice about sleeping right on the water for free.

We regretfully had to leave our camping spot and continued to do a bit of unsuccessful spot hopping before Alex needed to see some clients so I was "stuck" on the water for a few hours. This ended up being the best move ever because the fishing was slow but a lot of species showed up once I had time to really pick the spot apart. I never caught my target Cahaba Bass, but all the photos below were lifers!

Alabama Hogsucker

Blackbanded Darter

Largescale Stoneroller

Mobile Logperch

Speckled Darter

After Alex finished up work, we went back to spot hopping and I switched my focus back to black bass. It was still March so conditions weren't ideal, and I missed out on most of the Redeye Bass I was looking for. That being said, I did catch some nice Alabama Bass and even an invasive Spotted Bass at the final spot of the day. Oh, and we drove all the way to the panhandle after all that fishing.

Alabama Bass

Spotted Bass

We woke up to an incredible, crystal-clear river, and we had it all to ourselves! This was a great start to our trip in the panhandle, which quickly became my favourite part of the sunshine state. Alex needed to work again, and of course I had no issue with being stuck here. I went for a swim, checked out all the cool water snakes and other wildlife, then switched my focus to fishing. There were a ton of suckers around, and I ended up with a Spotted Sucker but no new species.

Chipola River

Spotted Sucker

We eventually moved on but the views in the panhandle didn't cease to impress, the next spot was just as beautiful! And, it did produce a couple new lifers, which is never a bad thing. It was a topminnow hotspot and I caught both Baded and Russetfin Topminnows.

Topminnow Hotspot!

The routine continued much the same for the next couple days, spot-hopping and then pausing for Alex to see a few clients. You guys are probably sick of it but I just couldn't get over the scenery in the panhandle. I also added on Marsh Killifish, Sheepshead Minnow, Blacktail Shiner, Weed Shiner, Choctaw Bass, Longnose Shiner, and Redspotted Sunfish! I won't bore you guys with all of the pictures but here are some favourites:

Sheepshead Minnow

Weed Shiner

Blackwater River

Redspotted Sunfish

Choctaw Bass

Eventually, the spot hopping slowed down and we switched to some more "normal" tourist activities to visit New Orleans. We quickly realized why we avoid urban areas and it was definitely one of the dirtiest cities I've visited. However, the highlight was the boardwalk at the Barataria Preserve. A side trip to the USS Alabama Memorial Park in Mobile was also pretty interesting.

Being a dumb tourist...

USS Alabama

Western Louisiana ended up being a lot nicer than the urban area around New Orleans. Highlights included free camping right on the beach, and my lifer Bantam Sunfish! I had previously gone out of my way for Bantam's at two other spots so it was great to finally nail this one down.

Oceanfront free camping!

Bantam Sunfish

Other than some quick stops for micros on our way back north, we made one last major fishing stop. I didn't know exactly where to try, but I knew I wanted to fish below a dam on the Red River. I just ended up choosing the closest one and hoping for the best. That decision worked in my favour and I soon hooked into something that was seriously pulling drag. Unfortunately, it was a fal-hooked Paddlefish, but it was still incredible to see such a unique animal in person. I also caught my lifer Smallmouth Buffalo shortly after :)

American Paddlefish - Fal-hooked

Smallmouth Buffalo