SAGUARO LAKE SATURDAY

[TubeDude]

[cool]For anyone who has never lived (and fished) in Arizona, let me tell you that there are more excuses available for "having a bad day" than in almost any state in the union. Most, but not all of them, involve the wierd and extreme weather swings.

During the summer, Arizona experiences "monsoons"...in a normal year (whatever normal is). This is where a flow of tropical, moisture-laden air comes into the southern part of the state, after passing over the Gulf Of Mexico, and results in a series of afternoon thunderstorms from about the first part of July through mid September.

The past few years of drought have seen our monsoons become "non-soons" The only storms we get have been big duststorms, pushing towering clouds of dust and sand hundreds of feet in the air. These things destroy backyards and dump dirt and debris in swimming pools...and cover every surface in your house with a layer of gritty dust.

Thursday and Friday nights this past week, we had back to back wind and dust storms. They blew in at 8 PM Thursday and 7 PM Friday...the night before our scheduled fishing trip. No rain. Typical "nonsoon" stuff...just a month or so early. But, it apparently had its typical affect on the fishies. It temporarily shut down what had been a hot bite on Saguaro Lake.

I couldn't have talked TubeBabe out of going fishing, even if there had been a hurricane. Actually, we were both overdue for some on-the-water R&R. Left the house at 5 AM, with positive expectations. It was warm (80 degrees) and calm, and fishing had been great for the past few weeks.

Hit the water just before 6 AM. The water temp was 79.5 and the surface was almost flat. Although a little breeze came up and kept changing directions, it did not affect casting or touch. Only a couple of boats on the water early. We dared hope.



I started out with a small spinner jig, using a new color I had found last weekat one of my craft outlets. It was a pretty blue sparkle in a bright white background. A couple of bumps and then a 14 inch largemouth grabbed it and shot out for a couple of jumps. Nice way to start the day.

Then, nothing for another hour. We were seeing almost nothing on our sonars, where the previous trips our screens had been full of fish. While TubeBabe stayed and worked the area we usually found most productive, I prospected in a couple of other areas that had been good in the past.

At 7:15 I caught my first yellow bass...using ultralight and finesse jigging presentations. After picking up a couple more, in quick succession, I hoped that maybe we might have something started. I used the walkie talkie to tell TubeBabe to paddle over to the other side of the cove to get in on the action. But, as often happens, by the time she arrived, the fish had mostly gone. She did catch her first yellow bass, however.

I kept moving around and alternating lures and tactics. I had brief flurries of three to five fish, but they were very tentative and needed finesse. I was doing best with a new combo of a light action 6 1/2 foot spinning rod, rigged with a light baitcaster, spooled with 6 pound line. I had it tuned so that I could throw my 1/16 oz. Roadrunner jigs about fifty feet. I would let them settle to the bottom and then either shivver lift and hop them back, or slow retrieve them, making the spinner blades work. The fish would often bump the jigs several times before I felt the weight of a solid munch.

At one point, there was a procession of vehicles arriving in the parking lot, followed by a gathering of people on a little point at the end of the main beach area. Then the music started and a baptism service ensued. There must have been a lot of new converts...or a lot of sinners in the group...because there was a steady procession of folks entering the water and being dunked under. TubeBabe and I did not sing along.



Fishing started to pick up for awhile...at least for me. As TubeBabe observed...she was "snakebit". She was getting lots of the bumps, and a couple of overenthusiastic bluegill, but no yellow bass...and no cats.

The next procession of vehicles included two trailers stacked with canoes. We know this was a bad omen. A single aluminum canoe, operated by the typical amateur, makes lots of noise as the operators pound the gunnels with their oars while they thrash around and try to go somewhere. This group turned out to be a bunch of canoeist wannabees that had mostly never even been in canoes before.

Obviously, they also knew nothing about sportsmanship or fishing either. In singles and in groups they ran right over the top of us where we had been fishing and catching fish (at least I was). We could see no more fish at all on our sonars, so we migrated to the other side of the cove and watched the idiots dump their canoes and just alltogether trash the serenity.



Fortunately, I did locate a small area where the yellow bass were congregating to get away from the melee. I caught several more nice ones for the basket and TubeBabe got a string going too. However, she never did get any large enough for the fillet board...and still no cats.

As the fishing shut down totally, and we were already talking about leaving the insanity behind and heading home, the final indignity. TubeBabe actually had to move to keep from being run over by a party boat full of idiots that didn't have any other place on the lake to shut down their boat and for everyone to jump in the water. With hundreds of yards of open water in all directions, why they had to move right on top of her...wellllllllll. (I thought to shoot the pic only after she was making her exit...leaving a good wake.)



The water temp was 82.6 as we left the water, and the air temp was just under a hundred. Since the saguaro cactus were in bloom I thought I would include a couple of shots of them...the namesake of the lake...for anyone who has never seen one up close and personal.





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