Fishy stuff in Vegas proper | Rural Southern Nevada | Utah streams | Northern Arizona: Lees Ferry Flagstaff area | Further Afield: Southern California, salt and fresh; Premium tailwaters (Green, San Juan) | General Las Vegas links | Digest of this guide

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OPPORTUNITIES IN NORTHERN ARIZONA

Lees Ferry on the Colorado River

Part of the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area [National Park Service site or National Parks Fishing Guide site ], Lees Ferry on the Colorado upstream of the Grand Canyon in Arizona is about a four-and-a-half-hour drive away from Vegas. Fishing there is returning to its former glory, after years of mismanagement of Glen Canyon Dam.

Most of the fishery at the Ferry really requires a boat, and your first float trip should be with someone who knows the river, both for the sake of getting into some big, strong trout and for the sake of not destroying the boat on the rocky bars. I was aboard when a former FFF president holed his on the aptly named Prop Bar, which set in train a comedy of errors leading to the boat being trailered upside-down into a snowbank on the road back to Vegas. The prop was recycled as the club's annual fishing-disaster trophy.

Lees Ferry Anglers (HC-67 Box 2, Marble Canyon, AZ 86036; phone 520/ 355-2261 or 800/ 962-9755 ph; 520/ 355-2271 fax; email: anglers@leesferry.com), is a good shop with first-rate guides and a jetboat rental, and e-mail reports in addition to a handsome, informative web site. Now located at Cliff Dwellers Lodge, it's about 15 miles from the Navajo Bridge and the turnout to river access. Terry Gunn, co-owner, is a fine guide (though some of my friends say his wife, Wendy, is the better angler). I really like George Peat, an MD who got fed up with the healthcare rat race. George is especially good with inexperienced anglers:  when my then-girlfriend and I took a trip with him (a trip Terry and Wendy donated to a Las Vegas fly club raffle), she outfished me 28 fish to 15! (She says it was 29 to 13 .... Ahem.)

There are other guides as well, but I can't speak from personal experience. Dave Foster (Email:LEESFERRY@aol.com) has a good reputation.

The "walk-in" section of the Ferry has really come back in the past few years, sometimes even out-fishing the boat-in areas. This stretch can be intimidating, since trout are not as easily spotted, and the current can be nasty over the slick rocks.

Bring a wading staff and/or studded or metal-cleated wading sandals, along with the water bottle, big hat, and sun screen you should be carrying anywhere. If you can bring only one rod, or you're still learning the water, a five-weight is about the lightest you can go comfortably to meet various conditions. Heavier rods give you more options with weighted flies and the wind. Lighter outfits make midging more interesting, particularly since the walk-in section fish don't run as larger as their upriver cousins, but you can rue their limitations when you have to hike back to the parking lot for something more potent when the wind is up and the fish are down.

The main stem of the Colorado here a big river, but there is plenty of cover, hence trout, along the edges. As on so many tailwaters, anglers will march toward the edge of the deepest water, right through or over lots of fine fish. So when they're throwing heavily weighted scuds on 6-weights into the current, I'm having a fine old time inshore of them with a 3-weight and a size 26 herl midge emerger.Often I'll fish the water just downcurrent from pairs of rocks (I look for saddle-shaped waves and drop the fly just above them) and eddies within a rod's length of the bank.

The walk-in describes a broad "S" curve, generally wide and flat water at the upper end, narrow and swifter at the lower. In slack sections and eddies there can be fine top-water midge fishing for most of the day, especially on weekends (and, as of 2000, summers). The boulder-filled flat water below the boat ramps can be challenging, technical, and fun when fish are rising to midges. Now that populations are bouncing back, this section is fishable at most flow rates. Pay particular attention to side channels and pockets. It seems that the smaller fish are especially inclined to take midges on the downstream swing, whereas the bigger fish want dead drifts. Streamers can also be effective, though I've seen comparatively few anglers use them. At the bottom end, you can watch what other anglers are doing, since much depends on the flow. The bar and hole at the mouth of the Paria River are especially popular and can be treacherous.

You'll need mostly midge nymphs and scuds in various colors (gray and brown nymphs, usually with contrasting ribs; olive or orange scuds), fished on weighted leaders with strike indicators. Yarn indicators, rigged so you can adjust depth, are best. Egg patterns and woolly buggers are handy during the winter spawning season. Two-fly rigs are pretty conventional: a bushy indicator dry with a midge nymph a foot or so beneath it, a pair of midge dries or emerger with a couple feet of fine tippet between them, an egg pattern trailed by a midge nymph. Very long-line drifting -- working most of your line downstream in a current seam, with a swing at the end -- is very popular at the Ferry, but I've not mastered it. Conventional wisdom says the weight on your tippet and its distance from your fly are more important than patterns: change your shot before your fly. I've found this true with weighted flies in fast water, but less so in the flat.

There is a Park Service campground there for $10/night (cash only), and there is very limited, primitive camping (permits required) upriver. Along the river, summer highs around 120 are common. Camping fees do not include the main entrance fee. So remember to bring water bottles and sun protection. Expect temperatures in the 25-50 bracket during winter, the more popular fishing time because of the spawn. When the sun drops behind the canyon wall, there is a distinct cooling effect you should prepare for. Winds can be very nasty as well, so be ready really to nail down your tent at any time of year.

There are some general stores around, but you'll save money on gas and groceries in Hurricane, UT, about halfway between Vegas and the Ferry. Incidentally, the access to the higher, less-crowded, more-scenic North Rim side of Grand Canyon National Park -- May to October, snow permitting -- is on your way: take a right at Jacob's Lake instead of the left to the Ferry. (I've never fished the Grand Canyon.)

the restaurant next door to Lees Ferry Anglers has the finest food in within at least a 100-mile radius (with an excellent selection of beers from all over), though Nedra's in both Fredonia, AZ, and nearby Kanab, UT, has good Mexican dishes. The Marble Canyon Lodge/post office/store/laundromat, right at the turnout to the Ferry from the Navajo Bridge, is a better bet than the other lodgings in the region simply because it is the biggest motel around. There's a small general-aviation landing strip there as well. Page, AZ, the nearest town of any size, is an hour or so away, overlooking Glen Canyon Dam. There's even fast food and a Wal-Mart.

The scenery is striking: red canyon walls, pillars, hanging rocks, just like in a John Ford Western. Of course, he filmed some there. More recently, the Ferry and runaway stage scenes in the Maverick movie were filmed there, as were major segments of Broken Arrow. (Reflecting my Eastern upbringing, my taste in mountain scenery runs toward gray granites and limestone, with plants, so I'm not the best judge of whether you'll like it.)  Wildlife abound: I almost always see bald eagles and ducks, and now several California condors have been released in the vicinity. (See also the Arizona Game and Fish condor page and my discussion of where I've fished inSouthern California for links to their nature and home turf)

The future of the Lees Ferry trout fishery is always more or less in doubt. In spring 1996 (and then in fall 2004), federal agencies released controlled floods through Glen Canyon Dam to simulate pre-Dam spring high water. The idea was that this "spike" would move sediment off the bottom of the river channel and redeposit it as bars, beaches, and terraces downriver in the Grand Canyon. (Or course, most of the sediment that would naturally have gone into those beaches is trapped behind the dam, but no matter.) A permanent flow regime, based on several years of flow studies that (at least in the short term) had generally screwed up the trout fishing, went into effect in late 1996.

Government officials with the the Glen Canyon Environmental Studies project initially said the bar-building was generally successful, but vegetation, the base of the trout food chain, took an early hit. Trout habitat improved in later years, but eventually the folks behind the fake flood admitted it failed.

So call one of the local guides or web-check flows before making a special trip to the Ferry. New flows regimes call for these big simulated floods every decade. Remember, though, that the drainage for the entire Upper Colorado collects behind Glen Canyon Dam for management. In years with high snow packs and/or extreme electrical demand, expect dam operators to run greater flows so that the reservoir doesn't get too high.

And making things even more interesting for game fishers, rumors circulated among anglers that the Phoenix office of the US Fish and Wildlife Service was pressuring Arizona Game and Fish to outlaw catch and release angling around the Grand Canyon (cf. this Bureau of Reclamation 2003 press release but ultimately through the Colorado River drainage. The goal is to protect endangered native fish from non-native predators like trout and bass. Perhaps the next step will be for the feds to blow up their own dams. (Slick interest group brochures with that goal are already showing up in environmentalistically correct gear stores.)

Smaller treasures near Flagstaff

Northern Arizona's high country around Flagstaff has a lot of other fly fishing opportunities within four or five hours of Las Vegas (or two hours from the Ferry, or a couple hours of the South Rim of the Grand Canyon).

In wet years, the trout in Northern Arizona lakes will be big by fall, owing to the lakes' fertility; I prefer these Arizona lakes to the Nevada ones I mentioned earlier. They are vastly more scenic. Marshall Lake, a natural depression atop a plateau with a lovely view of the San Francisco Peaks, a dozen miles south of Flag, is especially appealing. It's easily accessed, just up the hillside above Lower Lake Mary (a pike fishery).

Half an hour closer to Vegas on I-40, the Kaibab National Forest above Williams has some fun ponds, including the rehabilitated J.D. Dam, which the Northern Arizona Flycasters have taken under their wing. When there's water, J.D. can be great fun in a float tube, if only to watch the birds and damselfies. I've taken lots of trout there on August days when the bait-chuckers said there were no fish left.

Watch out for early-summer "monsoon" storms. You don't want to be in a tube on the wrong side of an impenetrable weed bed when lightning strikes. One the other hand, rain that time of year makes big carpenter ants -- nearly the size of common wasps, only brown-black -- swarm, creating tempting tidbits for big trout. I designed my Flagstaff Flying Ant pattern to match the swarms on Marshall Lake, but they work elsewhere -- in 1999 they were very effective in mid-June on the San Juan River in New Mexico, provided it had rained within the previous 24 hours.

As to streams: there is some natural reproduction, along with heavy stocking and heavier tourist pressure, in upper Oak Creek, between Flagstaff and Sedona. Oak Creek Canyon is scenic and the stream fertile, but it's not a destination trout stream unless you live there. On the other hand, it can be challenging and solitary fishing between October and March. Sedona is too touristy and enthralled with "New Age" mystical claptrap for my taste.

There are other streams, such as West Clear Creek, that are smaller and more remote in the surrounding Coconino National Forest and over toward the Mogollon Rim. If you head down toward Phoenix on I-17, you'll pass through the Verde River watershed, which (I'm told) offers pretty good fishing for smallmouth bass in scenic, historic surroundings.

Further east, of course, are the streams and impoundments of the White Mountains, where you can try for rare and exotic fish like Apache trout and even grayling. These areas are popular with folks from the Arizona lowlands, so they get written up in the Phoenix papers and can get pounded. You'll need a special tribal fishing license to fish on the Apache reservation. There are some general tackle shops and general stores around, but I'd suggest checking with fly shops in Flag or metropolitan Phoenix for reports and appropriate fly supplies. Arizona Game and Fish posts brief fishing reports on its website, by fax-on-request (602/ 530-2210, Document #4001), and on a Recorded Public Call-In Line (602/ 789-3701; 800/ ASK-FISH), among other places.

The Northern Arizona Flycasters meet the first Wednesday of the month, 7-9 p.m., at Northern Arizona University Recreation Center, next to the NAU Lumberjack Stadium, September through May. You can get meeting information, and usually the current newsletter, at Babbitt's Flyfishing and Peace Surplus (site of 6:30 pm "Lie and Tie" sessions on the second Monday of the month). Since 1996 they have experimented with not holding meetings over the summmer; I don't know whether this will continue.

NAF sponsors a regional conclave and banquet every May or June; the raffles and door prizes are good, with excellent odds.

For the best information on the region, check with Babbitt's Fly Shop in Flagstaff (520/ 779-3253 ph; 520/ 774-4561 fax) for reports. At 15 East Aspen Avenue in the middle of downtown and diagonally across from Babbitt's camping store (formerly called the Edge) up the street, they're an Orvis store, usually with a good bargain bin. Peace Surplus (520/ 779-4521), across Route 66 from the Flagstaff Amtrak station, has developed a good fly fishing section as well, including the locally rolled and built Steffen Bros. rods. Both stores are solid supporters of the fly club.

Downtown Flagstaff has all sorts of neat places to eat. It's not angler-food, but to get ready for a day on the water or the road, try the oatcakes (only one -- they're very filling) at La Bellavia or the breakfast couscous next door at Macy's; both are on Beaver St, just south of the very busy Santa Fe rail line. Flagstaff also has a pair of microbreweries, an excellent public library, and a very good, undergrad-oriented university. The usual chain eateries are near I-40, especially at the west end of town by the junction with I-17, a section that has grown appallingly ugly in just a few years.

National Public Radio did an interesting, if excessively breathless, feature story on "Flag" on March 7, 1998. (Try NPR's Real Audio version.)