Too Early or Restricted?
The first stream I tried to reach is a good sixty mile road trip on a narrow forest road. As I was enjoying the ride through the national park area and gawking at the scenery, while surprised there was no snow remnants anywhere on the ground. The landscape was dry and snow free. And then it happened. About three miles from my destination, I drove up to a snow drift on the road that was frozen solid. I mean, the road all along the way had been graded, dry, and was the smoothest I've ever seen here...up to this point anyway. I could see where a truck had tried to enter this drift, got stuck, and aborted their efforts. Yeah, too risky for being off-grid I decided. I turned around and returned to town to make other plans for fishing in the area.
The next day, I drove down to another stream that I have been wanting to fish for a long time now. It has a popular tourist area at the lower end of the stream, but that's not where the fishing is located. The sweet parts of the stream is upstream beyond the canyon area and is a bit of a hike. I decided to hike up to the stream area I wanted to fish and then rig up my rod in hopes of catching some trout. But, just as I entered the canyon, I saw a closed sign on the pathway. NOOOOOOOOOOO, not again!!!!!
Yep, the 'signs' were everywhere...I was not meant to catch a Gila Trout on this trip. So, on the way back down the trail I stopped and rigged up my rod to float a fly, just so I could at least make a few casts and drift a dry fly before heading back home. It was an attempt to enjoy the stream as I originally planned, even though I knew there was no chance of a hook up in this section of the stream. The green Winston classic rod seemed to enjoy getting on the water and doing its thing. The temperature was around 70 degrees and it was a beautiful day. My achievement for the day? Well, seemed all the tourist were photographing the fly fisher...hope I gave them some interesting photographs.
You know, at first I thought I arrived too early in the spring...and that was the reason I couldn't reach the streams due to being blocked by either snow, runoff, or whatever. But then I began thinking. Could Game & Fish be using weather conditions as a reason to keep anglers off of the streams...for a while longer. Why? Well, it's springtime and that is spawning season for the Gila Trout. It wouldn't surprise me...
Well that's a bummer. I don't think there's a restriction on either of those streams. But g&f may have kept them closed for more spawning time. Arizona gila trout streams don't open until may 1st. Access to them is out of my reach I'm afraid and once open they draw a crowd I can't compete with.
ReplyDeleteWell, it was a pretty road trip that I love to take...at least that. The streams are roaring high at the moment in New Mexico. And, I can't get a handle when home waters will become fishable again??? Hopefully June will be good...you should come here for some fishing in June and July.
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