Oak Creek, Sedona AZ

So, I was finally able to get out and attempt to curb my fishing craving that I have had for a couple of months now.  I think this trip had been planned and postponed at least a couple of times.  So it was good to finally get out.   We decided to go up to Oak Creek after doing some research.   We knew that if we did not catch any fish we would at least be in a very scenic part of the state.  My good friend Jesse went with me.  Luckily, we were able to catch some fish, so the scenery was just a bonus.

The Red Rock is the trade mark of that part of the state, parts of the river actually ran right over the rocks, making for some very interesting features in the river.

The lower parts of the river right above Sedona looked amazing for fishing. However,  we were two of the hundreds of people there this weekend.  And the lower parts of the river were the most popular, this is one of the few sections without people swimming  in it.  So there was not much fishinig to be had here.

We camped in Cave Springs campground which is in the upper part of the Canyon.  The campground was full the night we got there so we found a place off to the side of the road and slept in the back of Jesse's truck.  We got up early and got in line at the camgground to make sure we had a spot. 
The upper part of the river was a lot less crowded .  Although we did have to compete with some sort of youth group, and a bunch of spin fisherman around the campgrounds and major parking spots.  We were able to find some areas of the river that we could fish on.

The water in the river was some of the clearest that I have ever seen.  Making for some tough fishing.  This was combat fishing to its most intense.  Make one wrong move, and those brown trout went flying out of their hiding places.  You could not see them until they were spooked or they hit your hook.  We spooked most of the ones that we saw, but we were able to fool a couple of them. 

Here are a couple of holes were we caught some of our bigger fish.  We did not get any good pictures of fish on this trip.  Most of the fish we landed were in the 4-8'' range.  My big fish of the trip was about 12'',  I think Jesse had one about the same size.   We also caught of few of the stocked rainbows that were in the river. 

We had to make us of every bolder and high pool to sneak up on these fish.  Needless to say both of us had some slips as we attempted to not spook the fish, watch our back casts, make good casts, and watch our footing.  

We fished with a dry dropper combination for most of the time.  The mornings and evenings they were on both the dry and dropper about the same.  During the day we switched to only a dry.  They hit the stimulator mostly.  With hits also coming on the caddis and adams.  We fished mostly some pheasant tails nymphs underneath. 

This was my big fish of the trip.  Right as we were getting ready to take his picture, I dropped him.  Sorry, you will have to take my word for it.  There were a few hatches coming off.  Mostly small midges and some caddis.   The fish really never got up on the hatches very heavy.  There were a few holes were they got fairly active and we had some success.  We just felt good any time we could even induce a strike. 

So a fun trip.  Not a lot of fish, but a very fun place to be up in the mountains.  We will probably hit Oak Creek again early in the spring or late fall.   Thanks Jesse for going with.