Today was our last day of urban fly fishing around Phoenix, Arizona. Though the canals have produced for us they haven’t been stellar due to the mud and cold temperatures. Instead of a fourth day on them Gentry took us to some park ponds near his house.
Nearly every body of water around Phoenix has grass carp. The water bodies need them to keep down the weed growth. Sure enough, as we stalked our way around the first pond of the day we found a few. This guy was munching on huge clumps of algae off the top along a current seam.
Gentry hooked into this one. Like always it was a great fight. We hastily didn’t think we needed the net. The big grassie was playing possum with us towards the end. Gentry reach down to pick him up and he went nuts and broke him off before we got a picture.
We found more though feeding in similar situations. I found the monster I’ve been dreaming of. I kid you not, the white Amur may have been 30lbs. I stocked him carefully and got him to eat my olive hopper. The problem is he never put the hook in his mouth but rather chewed on the legs then spit it out and spooked. I had to settle for this little guy.
I ended up catching two grass carp before lunch. We went to Rick’s pub and caught their beer and lunch special then headed to a different pond. I walked it and saw more turtles than grass carp. I was a master of catching the fun reptiles in my youth and proved to Granny and Gentry that despite being in my 50’s now, I haven’t lost a beat! This is the non-native pond slider tearing my hand up with his sharp claws.
While there weren’t a lot of grass carp to cast too in the afternoon there were a few small common carp and mirrors. They were brutally tough to fool but at last I nailed one on a nymph. It’s been a great few days here in Arizona. A special thanks goes out to Gentry and his wife for looking after us. Time tomorrow to return to the snow of Idaho and get caught up and ready for some exciting fishing later in April.
Stay tuned!