Arizona Lake Fishing

Worms, earthworms, night crawlers are the tried-and-true fish bait that you can’t go fishing without. If your an avid angler, you’re probably in need of worms constantly. Bellow we’ll describe how to locate and catch your own worms straight from your yard.

Harvesting Earthworms from Your Yard

There are several ways to collect worms from flooding your yard with the hose, waiting till after it rains to even using laundry detergent (this is not recommended, detergent can be harsh on grass and other plants). Bellow we list some popular techniques and tips used for gathering worms. Most you’ve probably heard of or even tried yourself but maybe there will be one or two new ones you might want to try as well.

• Water your lawn or wait till it rains After a good soaking, your lawn will be popping with worms. Look under leaves, rocks and other debris they might hide under.
• Enclose a small area of your yard off with a box. This only needs to be a few feet wide. Stick something flat in the ground on 4 sides to seal it off so the worms can’t escape. With the left half of the box soak it with water. Leave the right side dry. This is the side you will dig up to find your worms.
• Use old coffee grounds. Dump the grounds in one place in your yard and wet it down. Then at night go out and gather your worms.
• Use a 6 Volt battery With a metal rod, wire and a 6 volt battery you can give the worms a mild shock to get then to come up to the surface. With one end of the wire tie it to the top of the metal rod. With the other, tie it to the battery. Stick the bottom of the metal rod into the ground and wait for you worms to come up. This works best at night. This technique does have problems and has been known to damage the worm’s nervous system which eventually kills the worm.

Tips to Catching Worms

• Best time to hunt for worms is at night. Especially after it rains. Go out with a flashlight, be very quiet and pluck them from your yard.
• Use a red light Worms can’t see red light so you won’t scare them back into the ground when your hunting them at night.
• Pull them from the ground gently The worm will typically be half in and half out of the ground. To get them to release from the soil just give them a gentle pull and they should come out.

Once you have all the worms you want or need, it’s a good time to start a worm farm.

Catfish anglers, you’ll love Lyman Lake. Channel catfish are biting on worms and stink baits. Fishing for catfish this summer is your best bet at catching anything on Lyman Lake.

However, a few anglers are reporting a some hits on largemouth bass. Try crankbaits, spinners and spoons.

Big Lake has been a great fishing hole all summer. The fish are biting and anglers are going home happy.

Trolling with a cowbell with a worm is working for most anglers. You can expect to catch some nice sized trout.

Weather can be off and on so go prepaired for good and bad weather.

Knoll Lake has been consistently good fishing all summer for both shore fishing and boat fishing.

Shore fishing at Knoll Lake is good and you can expect to catch small to medium sized stock trout. Use orange, yellow or green Power Bait on a hook and bobber. Worms always work too, so keep them handy.

Out on the water in a boat, float tube or inflatable, fishing is a little better. You can expect to catch a little bit bigger trout even though, you have fewer bites. If your lucky you might get a big german brown.

Canyon Lake elevation is around 1650 feet and is 94% full.

Great fishing is still coming from Canyon Lake with anglers reporting that fish are lively and healthy. Bluegill, bass and catfish are all biting and if your lucky, maybe a rainbow trout will be on the end of your line.

Some of the top spots for boats are: Beer Can Point, Beaver Landing, Mormon Flat, the mouth of First Water and LaBarge Cove near the bridge. If you’re shore fishing try the Boulder recreation area, Acacia picnic site, Teddy Bear Point, Mormon Flat and Beaver Landing.

Get out in the mornings, the bite seems to be over by noon.

For best results: Head over to Beer Can Point, Beaver Landing or Teddy Bear Point with your boat and a 1/8 oz. Kastmaster on your line. If you’re shore fishing go to Acacia picnic site with worms on a bobber.

Apache Lake is 95% full with an elevation of 1900 feet.

Apache is a very good yellow bass lake with total hawgs hanging out where the substrate takes a dip. Anglers are reporting bites from bass, walleye and catfish. For bass and catfish use worms or minnows. To go for the walleye try shad like lures.

For best results: Go to the Crab Tree area in the morning. Use your fish finder to locate the lunkers and throw out your blue and silver Kastmaster.

Nice sized catfish (1-4 pounds) are being caught at Tempe Town Lake along with some small bass.

For best results: For catfish try chicken liver on a bobber, worms and/or corn. if you’re going for the bass, try a spinner bait in the evening. White, in particluar, seems to be working well.

Bluegill, crappie and bass are all biting at Green Valley lakes in Payson. Cooler waters from the many monsoons this summer have kept the fish active and biting.

For best results: Small jigs and worms on a bobber seems to be working for many urban anglers.

Due to high water temps and the absence of AZ Game Fish stocking the urban lakes, the fishing activity has slowed dramatically.

There have been some reports of 2-4 pound catfish being caught but the overall bite is low. The last stocking of catfish was back on June 25th.

For best results: To get anything to bite this time of year a little luck will be required. But for those few, myself included, who just can’t stay away from a quiet lake try stink baits for those 2-4 pound catfish. Also try shrimp fished off the bottom without a sinker.

There are some sunfish biting. Small worms seem to be working the best with a bobber. Try hitting the morning bite for your best odds at getting anything.

The road is open at Willow Springs Lake and the lake is full. The boat launch accessible and Willow Springs Lake allows only electric trolling motors and/or 10 hp gas motors.

The lake has been stocked with nice sized trout and anglers are catching them on lures. Trout have also been active at the surface down to 15 feet. Try worms, power bait and salmon eggs on a small hook. For lures try z-rays, spinners and rapalas. For flies try wooly worms, wooly bugers, peacock ladies and prince nymphs.

For best results try trolling with a lure.