Lower Salt River
 

I spoke to an angler who floats the Salt and fishes with spinning rods. He puts in at the parking area where the road to Saguaro Lake crosses over the Salt then goes downstream a couple of miles. I have forgotten the name of his take out point. He says he does it in inner tubes but I don't know just how these are arranged.

I have a pontoon boat which is powered either by oars or flippers or both. When the weather turns cooler, I may be interested in doing this.

Can someone give me information on what to do and where to go? My problem would probably be not having two vehicles, one at each end of the trip. I would use fly rods and flies.

the are that he is talking about is called blue point. you could float to coon bluff..or phone D

also, you will need to go before they turn the water off.. or it will take you a week to do that stretch! with lots of walking your inflatable in skinny water.

it will take about 4-6 hours to float from blue point to coon bluff, in summer flows.

also, if trout is your target, theres not many in there ( and what are holding over are up higher) until the stocking begins in november, which is when the flows are pretty much nonexistent.

there are tons of bass, suckers, and some really big, tough to fool carp year round.

hope this helps!

Dutchman,

So much for a float trip for trout.

yeah.. watch the flows.. sometimes they do some releases out of the dam in winter. fishing is usually real good afterwards as well.

its like beating a dead horse at this point. but it COULD be such an amazing fishery if managed correctly.

So, what is the purpose of game and fish stocking when flows are really low?

I went tubing with my family on a hot day a couple months ago. There was this group of yahoos that started a marshmallow fight. There were marshmallows floating all around us. I found it mildly irritating. I happened to be watching when a marshmallow was swirling around in an eddy and a big carp mouth came up and inhaled it. I'm talking full size marshmallows that are swollen from being in the water. Whoa! I thought I just got lucky seeing that. Then as we drifted I saw it 4 or 5 more times over the course of miles. It got me thinking. I bet these carp are tuned in to food falling in the water when tubers are out. I bet there is an opportunity there. llcoolj

there are a few fishable pools (under the bridge at blue point, near the confluence of the verde at phon d., and some "secret" spots that just require a hike) that hold trout even after SRP turns the flows off.

i am not sure how long those stocked trout last, they seem to get eaten up by bass and cormorants before i get there. and of course, you will share a small sliver of water with 20 bait fisherman if you go on the weekend.

the bass fishing is decent, though, and i've seen huge schools of suckers and big carp. it's worth a trip, but be prepared to encounter a ton of trash, loads of horse manure, and lots of people.

Circlehook,

Regarding marshmallows, you gave me an idea. I have a very good friend in the Denver area who is an accomplished crap (that's right, I said crap) angler. He entered a crap tournament (must be a good one because entry fee is $500) sponsored by Trout Unlimited, which will be held on the South Platte River where it runs through the metro area. I copied and pasted your comments about marshmallows in an email to him and suggested he tie flies resembling marshmallows - joking of course.

No joke there. If you wanna catch the fish, you gotta know the forage, even if it's marshmallow, and I love that people hate on carp. Go try and catch one. You might change your mind. Oh and leave the 5 wt at home, unless you like broken Ross.

Dutchman,

Regarding crap, I realized many years ago, I have become a trout snob or what ever you want to call it. I don't like touching fish with large scales. I remember taking a friend to a small lake in Aurora, CO where I caught a perch, which has scales you can feel and see, unlike trout. I was turned off by handling the fish. My dislike of crap started many years ago in Monroe, LA when I was invited to a picnic/fish fry. They only served crap. I wouldn't touch it. A few years ago, the Colorado Division of Wildlife "Outdoor Magazine" published an article on cooking crap. Just looking at the meat in the photos reinforced my belief I would never touch the stuff.

I know they are hard to catch and hard to land and it takes a different set of skills but it isn't for me. I hear stories from my friend who didn't catch a single crap in the eleventh annual Colorado Crap Slam, sponsored by Trout Unlimited. He catches them in the South Platte River in the Denver metro area on a regular basis.

I mentioned in another thread, sometime last year, part of the trout fishing experience is fishing in clear mountain water. Fishing for crap in the South Platte River effluent from the Denver Turd Herders (Denver Metro Sewage) and looking at the high rise buildings downtown is not my cup of tea. Give me just about any scene in the White Mountains and I'm in angler heaven.

My hat goes off to crap anglers for mastering the skills.

I did spot some trout yesterday down at phon D. The water was flowing much higher than usual for this time of the year at that spot.

I was wondering where the trout end up after they are savaged by the bass near the bridge.
Does azgfd stock trout all along the salt river OR do they dump them at the bridge and let them scatter?

They are dumped various locations.
I fished just below the bridge Thursday and it was a filthy wasteland. They are flowing a good amount of water out the verde so phon d and below has a good flow of water.

First trout of the season at phon d

Awesome!!

Lower salt-Phon D
 

I was curious if you fish above or below the confluence with the Verde.
I saw some very picky trout in the shallows above.
It was hard to see anything below because of the significant flow.
One finial question: the Verde stretch above the confluence looks nice.
How far up can you wade without getting into trouble?

Below
Caught 7 last monday. Looks like December will be good

Was pretty cold this morning, they seemed more active. Landed 4

Hit the lower salt for the first time a couple Friday's ago. All I caught were a couple small bass. The water was quite a bit faster than I was expecting.

Spoke with another fly fisherman who was getting there as I was, said he caught a bunch the day before. We both went home trout skunked.

Creek
About where we're you fishing?

PhonD. And then went down to granite for a little while.

Usually some trout to be found at Phon D in the faster moving water

Does any stocking take place above the bridge?

I have seen pods of trout last year in the pool just above the bridge. Not sure if they are half mile up from there.

I know that stocking used to take place at water users, but not sure how recent.

A few years back I was catching up to 16” Fish a mile or so above blue point ( bridge ) heard about some theories of why those fish were there (experimental stocking at the dam in spring to test if they could survive summer/ test growth rates.etc) , but nothing confirmed..

Caught a bunch Wednesday morning. Was a cold brisk wind blowing up the river. I kept 3 to eat for lunch.

What kind of flies are you guys catching them on, I can’t seem to anything?

I strictly use black SSL and black buggers.
Caught and released 6 on Sunday

Good advice
 

I followed your advice and headed to Phon D today.
Mid afternoon they were taking nymphs.
I used a different rig today.
Leech pattern about 3 feet below the indicator and then a nymph 2 feet below.
Not sure if the leech attracted them because they only took the nymph.
Late afternoon they were rising to midges.
Good day today....12 fish landed...probably missed another 20.
Landed a 15 inch rainbow on a nymph around 2 pm.
Definitely the largest one I've landed at the Lower Salt River.
Thanks for the help...

Do you fish upstream or downstream from Phon D ?

Below the confluence with the Verde.
They were just stocked this week and this may be the reason for my unusual success.
I fished in the deeper rifles and then on the slower edge of the seams (pretty standard in most of the bigger waters that I've been on).

Since it warmed up its been slower for me. They also are letting less water out. Water level was 3-4 inches lower last time out on monday.

No closed parking lots Will stop me during a gooberment shutdown. Walked 2 miles and landed 1 bass and 4 rainbows.

Are you having to avoid many duck hunters on the Salt?

On Monday I hiked into the river at Phon D also. Caught only 5 dinky Bass. I couldn’t find the trout. Where did you have success? I fished below and above the confluence.

When you planning on going again?
Maybe we can meet up in the parking lot and I can show you a few good spots

I’m honestly not sure when that will be next time I do head out there I will shoot you a message.

Just a heads up. Got an email about restricted access to Granite reef and phone in the coming months. They will be out there paving, so check access before heading out.

They are paving the whole road and putting up guardrails sections at a time. There hasn't been any problems getting anywhere so far

Had some luck today at phone d. Flow was up a bit and trout were active.