Despite the late night after a great MLB ballgame at Chase Field, Steve Berry and I headed out early to meet up with Mike Faulkinbury. We drove across Phoenix which on a week day would have been awful with traffic, but this morning it wasn’t too bad. And it was good not too many folks were out on this beautiful Saturday morning because I’m not so sure we were supposed to be at the place Mike picked out for today’s fishing.
A little trespassing for fish brings back the feeling of youth. Fishing in a private subdivision or on the property of a big insurance company or dodging golf balls at the course, it all brings back memories. I’m not exactly sure where Mike had us but my day started out with hooking and losing a mammoth common carp. I worked hard to get him to eat in the first place so it was kind of a bummer when he shook the hook.
Mike on the other hand was sneaking up on a common of his own. This urban lake is deep so you have to make a good cast pronto when you see a tail because the fish disappears quickly. Mike succeeded and by the time I made my way to him he was releasing his first of the day.
Those would be the only two carp hook ups for the morning session. It doesn’t take these intelligent fish long to get wise to anglers in the vicinity. I switched over to searching for grass carp when I noticed Steve and Mike were catching fish almost every cast. Mike called me over and handed me his rod. He was rigged with a nymph under an indicator. I tossed the rig up under this manmade waterfall and within a second hooked up. The boys were catching bass and tilapia and Steve also caught a couple grassies. We caught about a dozen more fish in a short time.
This is a tilapia. Like most the fish of Phoenix, a nonnative. Tilapia is the common name of a large family of African cichlids. Sometimes called bream or kurper. Phoenix received Nile tilapia and Mozambique tilapia. I’ve caught Nile’s in the Nile but they didn’t look like this. Unless someone knows differently, I would call this dark colored one the Mozambique tilapia. Any help would be appreciated!
1 pm came fast. Its amazing how time flies when you’re having a good time. I’m surprised we didn’t pack it in quicker than we did because it felt a little warm under the Arizona sun. I finally took a look at my phone and holy cow – it was scorchin hot. It was 99°! We took an hour break and grabbed some lunch and a cold drink. Then we switched to a new spot for late afternoon fishing.
We left Mikes side of Phoenix back towards Steve’s house and returned to the lake where we caught the Rio Grande cichlids earlier in the week. Just like the other day, it wasn’t the cichlids that drew our attention first. It were the carp. Mike stuck a brute immediately. It was in the side of the pond with wood and weeds everywhere. Later I’d actually get broke off twice in this area. Mikes carp however was a gentle giant. Mike landed him easily. Lifted him from the water and it was as if the carp wanted its picture taken. It wasn’t until I went for the fly that all hell broke loose. The fish ended up stealing Mikes fly in the end.
All three of us landed one more common carp. They were smaller than the one Mike kicked us off with. We landed some nice bluegill, a few small largemouth bass and Mike caught the one and only Rio Grande cichlid. After about two hours of playing around we called it a day. The heat had taken it out of us.
Granny and I fly home tomorrow but not until evening. Steve and I plan to seek out some koi at one of our old stomping grounds. It’s been a great trip!