Phoenix Urban Fishing after work...help

[Jinxd12]

To get rid of my fishing itch I've been hitting up a few urban ponds after work. The last 3 weeks have been tough fishing! Up until about 6 months ago I didn't know I could fish in the city, so even tough fishing is better than nothing. I do have some questions on anyone who has some opinions, or info.

 

I'm from the north east, and fishing here is much much different than what I grew up doing. Especially because we didn't have urban ponds such as the ones here in Az. 

 

I've been trying out some decent sized swim baits/glide baits and haven't got a single biet in well over a week. I switched up to a few smaller fluke type baits and still nothing. The thing is i can literally see a few 2-3lb bass, they just hover next to the 100's of bluegill around some rocks. 

 I've been throwing a savage gear 5" bluegill that my wife bought me randomly, but I kind of like it!

 

Right before it started to cool off i was catching bass on a swim jig, and a smaller chatter bait, but the bite quit.

 

Does anyone have any pointers in these lil ponds, during summer-fall?

[Choporoz]

Not sure if you'll find info that will be real specific to your situation, but there's some good bank fishing threads the past few years that you might find some helpful nuggets in:

https://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/203719-how-do-you-fish-from-the-bank/?tab=comments#comment-2282830

 

 

[OCdockskipper]

A couple of summers ago, we spent a week in Arizona in late August.  Apparently my wife felt that Southern California wasn't hot enough...

 

Anyway, I fished the 3 ponds over by the Phoenix zoo a couple of days.  The upper pond (the smallest) produced the biggest fish, most of them on a small (1.5) squarebill.  The middle pond was the most pressured & least productive (for bass) while the lower pond produced well with a small jerkbait.

 

So for those ponds, my general advice would be to downsize & look for reaction strikes.  

 

On a different note, lookout for homeless dudes sleeping in the bushes..

 

[Jinxd12]

Hawg, I have read just about every single forum topic on bass resource. I have been a lurker for years, just finally decided to join. I will give the links you posted a 2nd read though!

 

Kicker, those are papago ponds, I fish those aswell. A few weeks ago we had storms and it made the fishing super tough! I have pulled a few bass out of the middle lake, never the top the lake. Beautiful area!

 

Anyone have swimbait tricks to offer in these ponds? Only advice I have received in the past is just keep throwing them, and mix up the way its being retrieved.

[Dorado]

Pm me..... I fish PHX urban ponds once a week and will give you so many tips it will make your head spin. I’m all about sharing secrets with BR members. Check out my profile and my pics...... all Phx urban bass.  Forage is small so learn finesse fishing. Save the swimbaits for the trout stocking starting soon! 

 

Last thing, please don’t share with others because I don’t see a lot of catch and release around here and it infuriates me so I’m very tight lipped, but learn quickly learn the Ned Rig and finesse Tubes for the spring. PS the cats here love them too and there are some monsters lurking out there! Oh yeah, GRUBS! pumpkinseed and white colors in 3” with chartreuse jigheads.  BOOM! 

Threadfin Shad and tiny craws make the forage base here. Bluegills are summer and most get devoured by cats and bass by the time winter hits. Orange is killer for imitating craws along with black and blues at night   White and Shad-colors (grayish) will suite your colors so don’t go over board 

[WRB]

Learn to finesse bass fishing, the standard casting tackle has it's place at night. During the day it's more productive to use spinning tackle with 5lb to 7 lb line and split shot, slip shot, drop shot with 4 1/2"-6" worms and 1/8 oz jigs or Ned rig with 3" soft plastics. 

Take a look at the presentations suggested on this site and start with Roboworms.

Tom

[camman]

Can you still fish at the ASU Research Park?

 

i use to fish that 10 years ago and my biggest bass was just under 5lbs.  Also when it’s Tialpia spawning season they were super aggressive and finally a great place for carp

[Dorado]

3 hours ago, camman said:

Can you still fish at the ASU Research Park?

 

i use to fish that 10 years ago and my biggest bass was just under 5lbs.  Also when it’s Tialpia spawning season they were super aggressive and finally a great place for carp

You certainly can. I fished it earlier this year and the bass were very finicky.  Ton of Tilapia and Carp though. 

[C-milli]

I've been fishing the Urban lakes and ponds around Phoenix for the last few years and with the amount of pressure they get from the bait-soakers and the shark bait throwers, it can be tough. When out walking the banks, you see a ton of people that tie on a big spinner bait or huge worm and these fish see so much of it that they're conditioned not to go after them. to make it tougher, many of these ponds don't have much in terms of underwater structure for the fish either, they're more like man-made bowls.

I've learned that smaller #1 inline spinners in chrome or silver work pretty well, and finesse style baits, like the Ned Rig with a TRD or dropshot with small fluke, slowly dragged will catch a few for you. Also, now that the weather is cooling off, I've been noticing a few more bites on the end of my line too!

[Jinxd12]

Just got back from my hunt, apologize for not responding. I have fished ASU research park a ton, caught some big ones too. Last 2 times in was there people were keeping all the bluegill to take to the river for catfish. That's a big bummer, my son caught a bluegill and a big bass jumped out of the water to grab it as he pulled it from the water. So they definitely eat bluegill over there. The last storm dumped a ton trash into the lakes, so haven't been back for awhile.

 

Fishing towards end of summer to now is odd out here for me, never fished warmer water in the falls, back home it's ice cold already!

 

Suppose it's time to go small and slow right!