May, 2024 Fishing Diary

May, 2024

5/6-7: A quick trip to Aker Lake in Northern Arizona.

This was supposed to be a three day expedition to the Mogollon Rim in Northern Arizona to see if some decent trout fly fishing could be found outside the goofy Silver Creek rainbows we try each fall. Unfortunately a combination of iffy weather and an inability to refuel the car up in that part of the state shut us down after only a short two days.

We inadvertently came upon a small blurb about an Aker Lake in one of the local Forest Service descriptions of camping and other activities up in the White Mountains so decided to try to find the tiny piece of water that it is. It was not an easy trip nor an easy find. Getting to the area where it's located turned out to be about a six/seven hour haul from our place in Green Valley. We drove east on interstate 10 past Wilcox to the hwy. 191 ramp and headed north. Went through Safford, turned right and continued on to Clifton and then to Morenci. Difficult passage through these towns, and then it got worse.

191 north became a 20 mile per hour max speed drive for the next three hours with 10 and 15 mph curves - just a slog. We also lost all cell phone and gps service in the area so locating the tiny lake on unmarked forest roads became something of a crap shoot. Miraculously we eventually did locate the road to the pond. Found a decent camping spot and walked around the roughly one acre piece of water that night. It was cold. I had every piece of warm stuff on that evening and again the next morning.

After breakfast with the sun finally on the water we headed out to try our luck. After guessing that nothing but tiny midges might be available for the trout for their breakfast, tying on a #20 BWO comparadun kind of did the trick. For a couple of hours I had fun success with the stocked grayling, but saw nothing of the Apache trout that are also supposed to be here. About nine o'clock the rain began - again - so we bundled stuff up and drove away hoping the something at lower elevations might be more promising. It didn't happen. When we got to the town of Alpine to refuel, the only gas station in town was shut.

After that, without knowing how far the back forest roads would take us, I simply threw in the towel and headed to the likeliest fuel stop in Pinetop/Lakeside. We'd had enough messing around after that and chose to make the long loop trip back to Green Valley the same day. It was another four hours back home from Show Low. A lot of driving, a little bit of fishing, and probably even less fun for the trip.

Here's the clunky video of a few clips:

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