I’m not one to complain about a good thing, but I am constantly amazed at the relative lack of people that find their way to Arizona’s only real trout river. Was it the impending election? The cooling desert temperatures? Notoriously tricky fish? Whatever it is I sure do hope it stays this way.

It was an average day, by that I mean a handful of nice fish and a few smaller ones. We had our pick of spots and were able to fish the fast riffles and the slower tailouts. The fish seemed to be holding in all the spots you would suspect and with a nice drift they could be yours. So, as usual when asked to “Rate the fishery out of 5” by Steve (the survey giver and fish spotting master), our replies were what they always are. “It’s a 5.” Then again it’s always a 5, even when the fishing is bad.

• 

My friends I joined were unexpectedly successful on the opening day of their deer hunt and had more time to fish than expected. This led to not having the proper number of rods to begin the day. I was unaware of their predicament and brought my regular rod for the river and had a spare 3 weight glass rod in the car. This 3 weight glass rod is awesome, just not quite made for this particular application. The hooksets were tough to time and the fights a little brutal with fish this strong and a current that much stronger. After many failed attempts though I did manage to bring one to hand and the rubber band rod managed to be just stout enough.