Out West Crankin’ – Its Just Plain Different! - Part I
The Secrets to Fishing the Clear Deep Reservoirs of Arizona
by Chuck Bailey
Intruder Baits prostaffer Bill Garcia shares some hard earned bass fishing secrets to unlocking the clear deep reservoirs of Arizona. If you are thinking of visiting or moving to this part of the country - you will need to make major adjustments in your angling techniques to find success.
Humbling. That’s the term a Midwest or southern fisherman uses to explain their initial fishing experiences in Arizona. Take Navy Chief Bill Garcia for instance. Raised a bass fishermen in Texas, then later stationed in Louisiana, Florida, Alabama, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin – this Net-Pro Lure prostaffer was a bass catching machine - until he launched his boat for the first time on Lake Pleasant near Phoenix.. How humbling was his baptism into the clear deep waters of the Grand Canyon State? “First four times I went out I didn’t catch anything but a headache.”
It’s a frustrating but typical scenario for fishermen who were raised fishing the stained or muddy waters of shallow Midwest lakes or southern reservoirs. Across America the majority of freshwater fishermen float on darker waters that are often filled to the brim with submerged trees, stumps, and endless acres of vegetation, lily pads, or grass fields.
In contrast, the gin clear water in Arizona is typically encased in sun-baked orange or red canyon rock. The lake’s near-vertical shorelines drop off quickly into depths that only saltwater anglers are used to. Quickly transplanted or visiting bass anglers discover that most of their traditional, ‘tried-n-true’ presentations that faithfully filled the livewell “back home”, now fail to produce. As Bill Garcia says matter-of-factly, “It’s just a different kind of fishing.”
His new neighbors, after discovering his life-long passion for bass fishing, told Bill he should take up a new hobby while stationed in Phoenix, because the fishing in nearby Lake Pleasant was bound to be disappointing. Bill’s well intentioned neighbors thoroughly underestimated this navy man’s appetite for new challenges. Whatever adjustments were necessary to find and catch bass in Arizona, Bill was determined to discover and master.
FLUOROCARBON
The first of many “revelations” came to Bill at the end of his fourth day of being skunked. “I kept asking myself - ‘What am I doing wrong? These lures work for me everywhere I go.’ I couldn’t figure it out… Finally it dawned on me as the sun was setting. I was looking at my electronics, reading 135 feet, and I could see down about 80 of those feet. I’d heard of fluorocarbon line, so I went to the store and bought some.”
Fluorocarbon’s claim to fame centers around it ‘invisibility’; it virtually disappears in clear water. “The next weekend,” continued Bill, “equipped with fluorocarbon, I went out and caught bass. Out here, the ‘line’ is the most important factor! You can have a 20 cent lure, or you can have a 20 dollar lure. It doesn’t matter. The water here is so clear, and the fish are so spooky, that if you are not using line that literally vanishes in the water, you are not going to catch them. I cannot over emphasize the importance of line selection in this clear water. It’s huge!”
DRAMATIC WATER LEVEL CHANGES
Back home in Texas, Bill has fished lakes that were consistently 8 to 10 feet deep, even out in the middle of the lake. But one look at the structure of Arizona’s deep-water canyon lakes and you soon realize that the bottom of the lake can be hundreds of feet deep out in the middle – unlikely bass habitat. The bass here in this part of the Wild West, will be holding primarily to the shoreline. And even then, the shoreline changes from spring to fall due to dramatic drops in the water levels due to irrigation usage and evaporation.
“You’re talking 80 to 100 foot water depth changes.” Bill explains “When I first started out at Lake Pleasant it was on an Easter weekend, and it was at 98% capacity. Here it is now in the middle of September, and the spots I was running 60 miles an hour over in my boat in the spring – are now 65 to 75 feet up in the air. It’s like fishing a whole new lake.”
WHERE TO FISH? THE SECRET!
Robbed of any familiar ‘home water’ structure, visiting anglers naturally seek advice from the locals. Unfortunately, free recommendations can often come with ‘assumptions attached’ that can be misleading: such as “Deep water? Fish deep!”
Bill remembers what he was told. “They told me ‘Well, you need to wacky rig, or Carolina rig and go down 85-90 feet!’ Well, I didn’t find that to be true. Sure I’ve caught some fish like that out there off of primary points and submerged structure, and by the way, the only structure you’re going to find around here is the rocks. There are a couple of isolated pockets and coves where you will find some wood, but that’s rare. Besides, you don’t want to fish there anyway, because every bass angler on the lake has hit the same spot 50 times before you get there.”
Luckily for us, our Net-Pro mentor ‘thinks outside the box’ and challenges all assumptions. Purposely avoiding the pressured couple of “local fishing holes”, Bill experimented relentlessly until he discovered bass could be caught consistently in only 8 to 16 feet deep – on crankbaits!
SHADY METHODS
With a complete lack of vegetation or trees in the water, a fisherman must analyze the rocky shorelines and try to determine what makes one spot appealing to the bass over another. The key in this climate is “shade”. Bill summarizes his early discoveries “So now I use 10 pound fluorocarbon and I bank fish, and I fish just inside the inside pockets. I fish wherever there is any type of shade at all, provided by the cliff sides. That’s where I’ve been getting all of my fish.”
As clear as the water is, visiting anglers incorrectly expect to be able to see the bass in less than 20 feet of water. But Garcia says the bass will tuck themselves up in the shadows and become almost invisible. So an angler will rarely see the fish they are targeting, and it takes a certain amount of faith to believe the fish are somewhere underneath those overhangs or wherever there’s a big boulder providing shade. Don’t trust your eyes to visually point out fish, use them to locate shade – it’s the key! What’s next?
FROM SHADE TO SHAD
“If you want to catch bass this time of year,” Bill continues, “with the summer finally starting to taper down a little bit, and the days are shortening themselves off, you need to be able to mock the baitfish out there and put a similarly shaped crankbait in their strike zone, which I think is between 8 to 16 feet. So the best thing I have found is to try and mock the baitfish – and the primary forage out here is shad.”
Bill has discovered that the crawfish are scarce in Lake Pleasant. This was an unfortunate revelation because this Texas-taught pro-staffer has a tremendous amount of confidence in throwing a jig - which does a great crawfish imitation. But, in all the time Bill has placed bass in his livewell, he has yet to have any of them cough up crawfish parts. The primary forage appears to be shad. And that’s why crankbaits shine when fished properly – they have the ability to imitate the primary meal of Arizona bass.
WHEN? WHERE?
Most bass are caught early in the morning or later in the evening, even at night – but that has more to do with the comfort zone of the anglers than anything else. With 90 to 100 degree plus days, most fishermen seek shade themselves come noon. Another motivation that pushes anglers off the lake in the middle of the day is recreational boat traffic. As bees are drawn to flowers, dessert dwellers are drawn to reservoir waters. Boaters and skiers come out in large numbers to enjoy the rare commodity. The locals believe the bass know this surface activity is not natural, and so the theory goes: “In the middle of the day the fish are trying to get to cooler water, but they’re trying to get to cooler water where there are not many boats.” Bill agrees there may be a degree of truth to this.
However, Garcia suggests that the boat traffic, the bright light, and the hot temperatures, (while discouraging to most anglers), are factors that can actually present some ‘opportunities’ for a dedicated angler willing to fish throughout the day. “The best time I have had fishing, and the most fish I have caught, happened in the heat of the day.” Why would 2 o’clock in the middle of a scorching July day be productive? Bill explains, “Because your other bass anglers are off the water. It’s too hot!” Less competition. And the fish rarely see a crankbait during the middle of the day.
The mid-day ‘key’ is to look for the isolated places on the lake where the recreational boat traffic isn’t, because the fish will be less spooky. (Although, when the fish Bill has patterned are coming down at the deeper 18 foot level, he admits he will actually seek out recreational boat traffic knowing that 1) most bass fishermen avoid these areas, and 2) the fish are less affected by the surface activity that far down. Regardless of where you fish, it’s important to look for shoreline shade, because that’s where the fish are in the middle of the day.
ANY SHORELINE?
With as many miles of shoreline that Lake Pleasant has, Bill truly believes that there are fish on all of them. So if a local suggests, “Oh no, you want to hit the northern bays or southern points”, Bill laughs at that. As far as he is concerned there are fish around that entire lake, and most of the time the majority of the bass are just not being fished.
New anglers to Lake Pleasant are advised not to run 30 miles down the lake to go to some “local hotspot” mentioned at the tackle shop. “I have found that everyone wants to fish the primary points and they want to fish submerged vegetation. There are a few spots like that out on Lake Pleasant, but the ones we have are tired spots.” But Bill says, “I stay away from those pressured spots because everybody goes out there. And, let’s face it, big fish don’t hang out where lots of fishermen do. I’m sorry but an 8 or 9 pound largemouth knows where they are going to be harassed and avoid those places.”
Bill suggests the larger fish hang out where most anglers don’t. “I try to find wherever there’s the least amount of ‘fishing activity’ by looking at the boats. That’s why sometimes I go to where there is the most ‘recreational boat activity’. Once there, I fish the deeper side of that 8 to 16 foot zone, because the average recreational boat is not going to disturb those bass down at the 16 foot level.”
And if so inclined, new or visiting anglers to the lake don’t even have to start up the big motor; they can just drop the trolling motor and start working the nearby shoreline. “In fact,” says Bill, “If a guy wanted to, he could fish from the bank. Some of your best anglers out here are the older guys that don’t have a boat, who fish from shore.”
Bill suggests a fisherman trust their instincts – if it looks “fishy” – stop and fish it! Don’t waste a lot of gas running around the lake, there’s going to be fish nearby. Look for deep cracks up the little canyons, providing shade. You won’t see the bass, but they are there.
ADVICE FOR BEGINNERS
When Bill first launched at Lake Pleasant he was overwhelmed by the steep rock canyon walls, and confused because all the shorelines looked alike. Now he has advice for beginners, “First, the beginner might start by finding the nearby primary points of the main body of the lake.” If it gives the beginner a certain amount of confidence to do so – Bill feels it will help them stay the course.
“Secondly, I would attempt to find those deep cracked crevices that are in from the coves, those hard to reach navigational spots are good. It’s just like hunting; the one who travels furthest into the woods is most likely to succeed. Same thing out here; the harder it is for a boat to get to it, that means the fish are probably tucked in there.”
Thirdly, to build confidence initially, Bill suggests starting early in the morning, and late in the evening. But again he reminds us that if the angler is dedicated enough and has gained a degree of confidence that the fish are there, (hidden but catchable), then midday may put out the hottest temperatures, but it can also be highly productive.
“Remember,” our teacher says, “in terms of bass behavior, Arizona Lakes don’t differ from anywhere else I have ever fished in the world. Bass go for two things; 1) they go for cover and 2) they go for food.” It’s essential therefore to locate the shaded cover, and then provide a perfect imitation of their forage.
“And the fourth thing, the most key thing I can tell anybody, is ‘persistence’; don’t give up there are fish in the water!”
HOW TO FISH IT!
How to fish a shoreline that provides some shade? “I would position your boat 40 to 50 feet from the shoreline,” says Bill. “You don’t want to run your fish over; you don’t want to scare them out.”
Why not fish the really shallow water? “If you are using a crankbait, I’m not going to say you are wasting your time fishing the top couple of feet of water, because you will always find a occasional ‘surprise fish’ up a little shallower than the rest. But your chances are probably not that great. I move my boat between 40 to 50 feet off from the shoreline line. And I try to cast 8 to 10 feet out from the actual rock, angling my casts. Depending on what type of crankbait I’m throwing, I either let it sink or let it situate itself. And then I try to mimic the local bait fish.”
THE MUTANT
How does Bill imitate the shad? “Most of what I throw out at Lake Pleasant is called the Mutant, (a lip-less crankbait - one of the Intruder Baits). With the Mutant the maximum depth with a fluorocarbon 10 pound test line is probably 8 foot.”
When asked to explain the Mutant, Bill laughs, “It is like a rattlebait, but it’s a rattlebait on steroids. The body, the design, the way it moves the water… well, it does not finesse itself through the water, it causes a huge commotion through the water. The water displacement is huge, and the sound - well… whatever it sounds like - it works! And the colors the Mutant line is available in, is phenomenal for desert fishing. In terms of size, color, sound, and the water displacement – a crankbait has to mimic the bait fish out there. And believe me, the Mutant does all that.”
The color that best works for Bill is the “Golden Perch”. With its golden stripes and its silver bottom, it imitates the look of the local shad. Bill suggests, “The way the sun reflects off the rocks, a successful bait has got to be natural to that of the actual environment around it. I’m pretty sure the ‘Golden Perch’ captures that.”
The Mutant is a 5/8 ounce lipless crankbait that best represents the size of the forage from late summer into fall. When Bill wants to fish something a little smaller he reaches for the Tater Bug (Spelling?).
TATER BUG
Another of Bill’s confidence baits, the Tater Bug is a lipped ¼ ounce crankbait that is a bit smaller, working well in the spring when the shad are not as large. It is also used anytime Bill wants to give the bass a different profile to look at. The Tater Bug also has rattles. And yet, because of the bill, this crank displaces water very differently than the Mutant. “The Tater Bug has a very erratic motion to it.” Bill explains, “It has no set pattern; traveling 2 inches to the left on one crank, 4 inches to the right with another, and a half an inch to the left, etc... It has a very erratic motion to it. And I believe the motion of the Tater Bug gives a teasing presentation ‘Here I am – eat me!’”
Though Garcia believes the Mutant best resembles the size and shape of the shad in Lake Pleasant, there are times when the fish mysteriously want something different, which the Tater Bug provides. He thinks its shape more likely resembles an injured minnow. Bill emphasizes that it is the ‘change up’ – in both shape, and size that often triggers a bite.
ADJUSTMENTS
Bill doesn’t not “run and gun” on the lake – he believes the fish are there, and if he works a short stretch of shoreline but catches nothing, he simply needs to turn around and re-fish it – making adjustments until the fish tell him what they want. “Let’s say I get just a bump, or perhaps a reaction strike from a fish that is just barely hooked - I ask myself, ‘How fast was I reeling it in?’, ‘What was my rod tip placement?’, ‘What was my speed?’, ‘What was my depth?’, and I try to repeat that again another 15 or 20 yards ahead. And if I get another tentative bump or reaction strike, now I’m on to something; I have a trend going on that needs to be tweaked.”
Bill’s analytical brain begins to dissect what is happening. “Obviously they’re not taking the whole bait into their mouth. Perhaps that’s because I’m fishing it fast with a constant retrieve, and deeper. So what do I need to do to adjust? Do they want it faster yet or slower? And I will adjust something at that point. If they want it a hair deeper, then I know where to move my rod tip. If they want it a tad bit slower, I obviously know how to modify my retrieve.”
“And then, after making my initial adjustments, if that doesn’t work - I go back to where I started. Then I try the complete opposite. (If I originally thought they wanted it lower and slower, now I speed it up and bring it up another 6 or 7 inches). Generally that’s when ‘Boom!’ – they’re willing to hit.”
Bill says the mistake most beginners make is to work a short stretch, and then move. A better strategy is to re-work that stretch again and again, making deliberate adjustments until the fish encourage your latest choices through solid hits. “Once you isolate what the bass want here,” says Bill, “you can then motor all over the lake and 95% of the time those fish are doing the exact same thing.”
“Remember when I said that most beginners think all the rocky shorelines look the same? The reality is – they pretty much are all the same. It’s not like I was going out to Sam Rayburn back home, where I could fish in 35 feet of water with nothing but dirt and silt on the bottom, and yet 200 yards away I would have a rock embankment. There I could go up another mile and a half to fish a three foot flat with nothing but grass. You don’t have that here.”
SWITCH-UPS
When the Mutant (lipless) and the Tater Bug (billed) still do not trigger fish, Bill turns to the T-Shad – another shallow running bait. It looks very much like a jerkbait with its long minnow contour. Ironically, Bill does not twitch or jerk it – but prefers a constant retrieve. When asked “why?” Bill chuckled and said, “It triggers strikes. It just triggers strikes. Suppose someone tells me this is a ‘topwater only’ or the packaging suggests the proper presentation is to work it like a jerkbait… But, if I steadily retrieve that bait a foot below the water and start catching fish – well, ask yourself, am I only going to restrict myself to popping this bait on the surface? Hardly.” Through experimentation, Bill has discovered that when the bass on Arizona lakes want something different – it can sometimes be a long minnowbait fished on a constant retrieve.
While all three baits mentioned so far are shallow running, (6 foot average), they displace water differently and present alternative offerings to the fish. Bill believes many anglers fail to recognize the importance of each lure’s unique water displacement. Presenting a variety of variety of crankbaits at the same depth can make a huge difference in triggering strikes.
Throughout history fishermen have been unable to decipher the code that informs bass to prefer a fast wiggle one day and a slow wobble the next. Therefore, it’s up to the fisherman to present as many variations as they can until they stumble upon the right size, shape, and presentation the fish prefer at that very moment. Tomorrow, or even an hour from now, the fish will mysterious demand something else.
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In part two, our Intruder Baits pro-staffer will continue to share with us the knowledge that is essential to fishing those clear deep-water Arizona lakes. Including… what crankbaits to use to fish down deep, how to work a stretch of rocky shoreline, the proper equipment (including rods and reels), some livewell advice, how to fish bait boils, and why Arizona lakes are some of the best kept secrets in the country.
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Bill Garcia is one of the brightest young anglers impacting the fishing industry today. A pro-staffer for Intruder Baits, http://www.netprolures.com/, Bill is a man of great faith, a strong husband and father to his three 3 children, and has been serving his country in the Navy for more than a decade. Comments and questions should be addressed to Bill Garcia at info@netprolures.com.
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