If you want more fishing trips to happen, put your date on the calendar. You may need to be vocal; you may need to work with family and coworkers, but that is a better situation than not fishing. Planned fishing trips happen more frequently than spontaneous trips. Usually, the planned trip is more successful because you have checked into the best time of year for the target fish. You have checked weather conditions, wind, tides, travel considerations, and other variables. I have lucked into some spontaneous trips where someone needed to drop out last minute of a well-planned trip and I was able to fill in and get a sweetheart deal on a destination trip. Usually for half price.
With the new 2025 Calendars out, I am planning my fishing year. I use the Upper Sea of Cortez Puerto Peñasco/San Felipe Tide Calendar. It’s the same tide calendar used in the Rocky Point Times, but I can peek ahead in the year for fishing dates of special interest. You can’t always plan on holidays to be good fishing days. I like to fish the neap (smaller) tides than the spring (larger) tides. I am usually fishing out of a kayak with fly fishing gear and my boat and gear match up better with the smaller tide swings.
Fishing locally is a good thing for anyone living in the Phoenix Metro Area. There are 500 miles of canals across the Valley of the Sun. So, there is a good chance that your home is less than 15 minutes from one of the canals that holds the same fish one would find in the Salt River plus a healthy population of Grass Carp. Carp fishing has become fashionable, they are not an easy catch. Winter months are slow, but once the water starts to warm up, March through November is a good time to study carp fishing. With carp close to home you can fish more often, and that is a good thing.
Vince Deadmond The Retired Fly-Fishing Hardware Guy can be reached at vincehasgonefishing@outlook.com or 480 818 1797.
