"Let's Go Fishin'"

WITH CRYSTAL WATER tumbled down over the rocks. It pulled and gurgled around the waders of the fisherman, pushing with solid force against his legs. He fought for better footing against the current, found it, then surveyed the pool ahead. It lay in the sun.The towering cliff rising sheer shaded the ant-man at its base, but the pool, lit by a shaft of sunlight, was glistening with mirror brilliance.

He shook the line clear from his light bamboo rod, then whipped it gracefully while playing out more line.

The fly, a royal coachman, floated out on the end of the wispy leader. It traveled back and forth in the air above the fisherman, apparently in aimless flight. When it passed from shadow to sunlight it shone with reds, green, and browns. It drifted down with tantalizing slowness to kiss the mirror surface then dartedaway to come back again even more slowly.

An Arizona angler for trout goes prepared. He knows he's going to get the best of fishing and he is ready to get the most fun out of it. For sometimes those flashing torpedo-shaped lengths of Rainbow act as coy as a country maiden then it takes artful casting of the choicest multi-colored flies to bring one up in a swirling, fly-engulfing rise.

The pool dimpled prettily at the touch.

A dark torpedo-shaped length came hurtling out of the blue depth. The mirror shattered into a million crystals. The fly disappeared and a tiny curl of water lifted from the leader slanting away across the pool. As it neared the other side the water exploded again and the leaping Rainbow flashed brilliant hues as it shook itself free of clinging drops of icy water.

The royal coachman was riding jauntily on the tough, stubborn lip of the trout.

The sheet of water rising from the falling fish had not dropped back before the leader was again slicing across the pool. Under an overhanging ledge the trout pulled doggedly. The tension on the triple X tippet reached the breaking point and the angler gave a bit to the battling trout. The Rainbow took advantage of the slack and leaped again, but he was tiring. Finally the gamy fish gave in, wavered and turned over. Then the angler netted him.

The fish was hard, and clean a beautiful Rainbow.

Such are the trout that come out of West Clear Creek, a cold, fast-running, mountain This angler is "away from it all" up near the head-waters of West Clear Creek. In these rock-bound crystal pools Eastern Brook, Rainbow, and even native trout wait for him. He wears waders, even though he fishes from the top of a huge rock, for around the next bend the walls of the canyon may close in and force him to wade a deep blue-water pool.

Bass fishermen on Havasu Lake, which is formed by Parker Dam on the Colorado River. No record breakers have come out of this lake, yet, but it is one of the best bass waters in the state.

Here they are, seven to nine inch Rainbow trout, being put into a mountain lake for you. These were planted in late March. Now add an inch a month until May 30th (when trout season opens) then add another inch a month until until you get one and you have a sizeable trout in any angler's language.

stream down in the bottom of a deep canyon. West Clear Creek is a remote gorge that slashes deep into the Mogollon Rim, widening out to empty into the Verde River miles below. No road goes down into its fastness, only a few foot trails drop off the canyon's high rim rocks down to the water's edge. Nevertheless, many fishermen during the trout season drive to some point on the rim and climb down into the canyon to fish. They are willing to face that two or three hour climb out because they know they'll catch trout!

It is no whim of Dame Nature that fish are to be found in this remote canyon. It is the result of a planned program of stocking conducted each year by the Arizona Game and Fish Commission.

Each year thousands of fertilized eggs of Rainbow, Brown and Eastern Brook are ordered from commercial producers by H. L. Reid, Director of Fisheries, a department of the Arizona Game and Fish Commission. The eggs are shipped directly to the three hatcheries operated by the Commission which are located at Pinetop, Tonto Creek and Page Springs.

The eggs come packed in ice and are immediately transferred to screen-bottomed trays, the mesh of the screen being just a shade smaller than the fish egg. These trays laden with a layer of trout roe are then placed in troughs of running water.

Not many days later a hair-like line appears in the egg. Soon the head and tail emerge and a tiny wriggling trout still attached to the egg -is attempting to battle the current of the fresh cold spring water running through the trough and across the tray.

As the tiny fish grows it takes its nourishment from the egg which shrinks in size until it becomes so small it with the small fish (or fry) still attached drops through the mesh pulling the fry to the bottom of the trough. As the trout grows in length and strength the egg gets smaller and finally becomes the belly of the fish. The trout is then able to swim "free and easy"; although he is hardly more than a half-inch in length.

With thousands of other little trout he is placed in a rearing pond. Besides the many located near each of the three hatcheries, the state has two other groups of rearing ponds, one located at Indian Gardens and another group of twenty-eight pools on upper Oak Creek. In these pools the young trout are fed a balanced ration of ground meat, cereal, and other prepared foods. Under favorable conditions they will average about an inch of growth a month.

Years ago it was the policy of the Game and Fish Commission to plant thousands of small fry indiscriminately, in streams which were in the need of restocking. It is now estimated that as high as 95% died under that haphazard program.

Now, Arizona's Game and Fish Commission have a fishculturist make a survey of the stream to be restocked. The volume of water is measured, temperature taken and food content and the number of species of fish already in the stream are determined. Then the plant is made.

Page Springs, Arizona Game and Fish Commission's biggest trout hatchery and rearing pond. The Twenty cement raceways containing growing trout. There are again that many more rearing pools back in the trees and out of reach of the camera. When the fish are seven inches or more they'll be taken in an iced, aerated tank to some tumbling mountain stream or some forestsurrounded lake.

Trout of good size, several months of age, are taken from one of the rearing ponds and placed in an aerated tank truck. Ice keeps the water cool while they are transported across the desert or mountain to the stream or lake to be stocked. Only as many fish as the volume of water can support are put in. This method of stocking streams and lakes has been proven to have a 90-95% survival of planted fish.

Because of this far-sighted program the Arizona angler is assured of a good catch when he goes fishing. No matter where he goes he will find that the Arizona Game and Fish Commission has been there ahead of him, made a survey of the body of water, and has seen to it that it is stocked to its capacity. There will not only be trout in the streams at the beginning of the season, but even during the last days, because as much if not more stocking is done during mid-season and the last few weeks as is done at the beginning.

And there are other game fish, too, in Arizona's warmer waters. Bass, crappie, and blue gill breeding stock coming from the Papago Bass Hatchery, a series of artificial lakes on the desert near Phoenix, have created good fishing in every body of warm water in the state.

A few years ago a large mouth bass from Lake Mead took all prizes for being the largest of its kind to be caught anywhere in the United States. It is predicted that the Colorado River below Boulder Dam will produce the prize Rainbow trout in the very near future.

Such is fishing in Arizona. Wherever you may go: West Clear Creek, East Verde, Tonto, Barbershop, Thunder River, Bright Angel, there will be trout waiting for you. Mormon Lake, Havasu Lake, Lake Mead, Bartlett Dam, Big Lake; they will give you bass, crappie, channel cat, bluegill and even lake trout.

There's good fishing for you, here in Arizona; come and get it!