Catfish season in Arizona

[asukevin]

its almost time to start catfishin!!! The azgfd is gonna start puttin cats into the lakes around town for those who cant regularly make out to the big lakes (like me). hope to see yall out there.

[AZflats]

You betcha!
~ Have you ever caught a flathead in any of the urban lakes in the city?
* I have never tried live bait fishing in any of the urban lakes. I will usualy just throw out some stink or shrimp for channels and do okay year round.
* Have a good one!

[Tym2Fish]

ASUKevin which local parks do you go to the most. I usually go to Chaperral.

[asukevin]

AZFlats, word on the street is that Alvord Lake off 35th ave and baseline has flats in there, as well as Kiwanis and Chaparell, or so I have heard. I also talked to some girls when i was fishing at canal park and they said they have caught some flatheads outta there. some dude also said that he threw some flats in desert breeze, but all that could be heresay. i know that the game and fish has actually stated that there are flatheads in kiwanis, chaparell, and alvord lakes. some guy actually caught like a 70 pound cat out of either kiwanis or chaparell. if you wanted to give it a shot you should get a 2 pole stamp and use one pole for your usual stink baits and shrimp and the other one with live bait and see what happens.

Tym2Fish, i usually fish canal and papago because they are really close to my house. but i also do alot of fishing at desert breeze, i actually caught an albino cat outta desert breeze once. if i dont feel like going to those places, i go to a lake by my girlfriend's house and have caught some really nice hard fighting cats out of there. also on ray and dobson there is a lake where i caught alot of cats with hotdogs.

[Tym2Fish]

also on ray and dobson there is a lake where i caught alot of cats with hotdogs.
I know there are flats in Chaperral because the paper had an article a couple of years back about a kid catching one on a cheap kiddie pole. It was a nice article. How is Canal park? I used to fish there years ago and would make a killing using cut mackeral suspended by bobber but I havent been there for a while since I live so close to Chaperral.

When you talk about Dobson and Ray isnt the Dobson park? My in laws just bought a condo on the golf course around there. They asked if they were allowed to fish it and were told that as long as they didnt remove the grass/ weed eating species of fish it was ok. Since this is a gated community, fishing could be really prove to be interesting there.

[asukevin]

yeah i know about that place, i know there are bass in there and that is all i see people fishing for. directly across from there is a lake chain where i have caught a cat or two, but the place i am talking about is on dobson and ray, if you are going east towards alma school you can see it on the right hand side and i have caught some good size cats outta there. i have only fished canal for trout and have done decent there, but have not tried for catfish. i will when they stock them on march 20th.

[Tym2Fish]

I am going to Chaperal this evening (Saturday) to see if I can pick up a left over cat from last seasons stocking. The AZ game and fish says that they stocked trout a couple of weeks ago. I would bet that since the weather has been so warm they shipped in cats instead. No matter.... Looking foward to going anyways. WIll post results. Fish on:)

[cassidythedog]

what kind of cats are there in tempe town lake? Also help what other lakes are in close range of casa grande if anyone knows, the urban ones.Is it still to cold for cats out a lakes or should i go and try again?:0a31:

[topjimmy]

what kind of cats are there in tempe town lake? Also help what other lakes are in close range of casa grande if anyone knows, the urban ones.Is it still to cold for cats out a lakes or should i go and try again?:0a31:

Only channels in Tempe Towne, and they are not very big as the lake hasn't been around very long. I wish they would stock some trophy cats in there. Still fun to catch some two pounders though, and the scenery is good there.

[asukevin]

so i went out fishing today at like 11 and caught 6 cats! shrimp seemed to work well. they stocked the lakes around town at 730 this morning so id get out there and catch some fish!

[Tym2Fish]

so i went out fishing today at like 11 and caught 6 cats! shrimp seemed to work well. they stocked the lakes around town at 730 this morning so id get out there and catch some fish!

Game and fish stocked 7 tons of channels in the urban lakes around the valley. I have found that in past years the first stockig they usually throw in some larger fish. I am going to give it a try tonight.

[silverbell]

Game and fish stocked 7 tons of channels in the urban lakes around the valley. I have found that in past years the first stockig they usually throw in some larger fish. I am going to give it a try tonight.

That is for sure. The first stocking of the season is full of big cats. I was down at Silverbell in Tucson and it was one big cat after another!

[dadcheek]

Did they stock all the urban lakes? I now live out by Alvord and just wonder if they stocked that one.

[asukevin]

yeah they stocked all of them

[Tym2Fish]

Game and fish stocked 7 tons of channels in the urban lakes around the valley. I have found that in past years the first stockig they usually throw in some larger fish. I am going to give it a try tonight.
Went friday evening. 5:30 to 7:30 could do no wrong. Limited out with eight fish (for two of us) with a srtinger weight around 25-30lbs. I almost felt like a pro for a while.:)

Went back Saturday evening and picked up 3 more. Its going to be one heck of a fish fry this weekend:002: That is unless I end up at Bartlett fishing again.

[T-Bone]

Dang y'all got water AZ ? I thought it was just a big sand lot !!!! LOL ;)

[asukevin]

hahaha youd be surprised! arizona has some of the best fishing in the state here. plus plenty of lakes around the city to fish in if you cant get out to the big lakes. its a blast!

[Tym2Fish]

Dang y'all got water AZ ? I thought it was just a big sand lot !!!! LOL ;)
LOL.. I found it odd that Arizona has more boats per capital then any other state. At least that was the stat several years ago. Not bad for being in the middle of a desert

[T-Bone]

Wow that's my lesson for the day Mike. I thought y'all only had dirtbikes and 4x4's and bikinis out that way. :) So I guess y'all pretty much fish yr. round like us Texas boys do ?

[asukevin]

oh believe me, the bikinis (or lack there of) are EVERYWHERE:grin-big: as for the fishing being year around, it usually slows down in the winter for warm water species, so then trout fishing gets huge

[tdpasser]

Yes Trout and monster Stripers at Mohave if you haven't tried the Stripers your missing a good winter fishery. Trolled anchovie they bite all day and get in the 50's. Lots in the 2-6 lb range. Great eaters.

[asukevin]

i dont know what is goin on with the cats as of late. ive been skunked by them the past 3 times. i was finally gettin bites yesterday, but they were very light and hard to set:mad:

[explayer]

The best Bait for The Tucson Uban lake Sliverbell that has work for me is The Magic Stink bait called Blood or shad

[topjimmy]

AZFlats, word on the street is that Alvord Lake off 35th ave and baseline has flats in there, as well as Kiwanis and Chaparell, or so I have heard. I also talked to some girls when i was fishing at canal park and they said they have caught some flatheads outta there. some dude also said that he threw some flats in desert breeze, but all that could be heresay. i know that the game and fish has actually stated that there are flatheads in kiwanis, chaparell, and alvord lakes. some guy actually caught like a 70 pound cat out of either kiwanis or chaparell. if you wanted to give it a shot you should get a 2 pole stamp and use one pole for your usual stink baits and shrimp and the other one with live bait and see what happens.

Tym2Fish, i usually fish canal and papago because they are really close to my house. but i also do alot of fishing at desert breeze, i actually caught an albino cat outta desert breeze once. if i dont feel like going to those places, i go to a lake by my girlfriend's house and have caught some really nice hard fighting cats out of there. also on ray and dobson there is a lake where i caught alot of cats with hotdogs.

According to AZGFD.com only Chaparral and Kiwanis have flatheads in them.

[Tym2Fish]

i dont know what is goin on with the cats as of late. ive been skunked by them the past 3 times. i was finally gettin bites yesterday, but they were very light and hard to set:mad:
I have experienced the same thing. Usually with the first stocking its size over numbers. The next stockings will be numbers over size so your production will likely increase but they wont be as large.

[asukevin]

it should be due again for more stockings soon right?

[Tym2Fish]

it should be due again for more stockings soon right?
Should be today or tomorrow. They tend to stock towards the end of the week.