A Bad Day Fishing

Arizona Outdoorsman / AZOD

A Bad Day Fishing.

By Chip Chipman

AZOD Staff Writer

I have a coffee cup that my daughter Jane gave me for Father’s Day many years ago with the inscription, “A bad day fishing is better than a good day at work”. I have also seen that inscription on many other items including caps, t-shirts, and bumper stickers.

Until just recently that was my credo. There are bad days and there are bad days. Let me tell you about one of them that happened to a friend of mine from Scottsdale. He said it was one of those days that starts out bad and gets worse.

He and a buddy of his planned on a mid-April fishing trip to Chevelon Lake up on the Mogollon Rim, several hours drive from Scottsdale. My friend - let’s call him Travis -was to meet at his buddy’s house at 6’oclock in the morning.

Travis overslept 2 hours and his buddy left without him, so he drove up to Chevelon Lake alone. When he got up on the Rim it started snowing heavily. The unpaved road to the lake became muddy. He came to a deep snow patch and tried to go through, only to have his 2-wheel drive pickup get stuck halfway through. It took an hour to dig the truck out.

After taking a wrong turn and wasting another hour driving, he arrived at the trail that descends to the lake. Carrying a fly rod and a float tube, he decided that instead of taking the trail, which was a series of switchbacks he would go straight down the mountainside. After all, the shortest distance between two points is a straight line and it would save time.

Halfway down, Travis slipped and slid down the mountain 50 feet or so before recovering. Unscathed, he picked up the tube and his 3-piece rod, which had been a 2-piece when he started his descent.

Travis climbed back up the mountain to get a spare rod from the truck. This time the trail seemed like a better idea. He finally got on the water around 2 o’clock. After fishing for an hour and a half without a bite in quickly deteriorating weather, he figured he would try Woods Canyon Lake.

On his way out, the snow patch where he had been stuck was now a quagmire of brown muck. There was no way around it so he hoped to test the horsepower on his truck and hope for the best. Like he said, it was one of those days that starts out bad and gets worse. He got stuck again. After two hours of gathering rocks and wood, he finally freed his truck.

Arriving at Woods Canyon just before 6pm, the inclement weather followed him and it began to snow heavily. Undaunted, Travis got in his float tube and tried to salvage what remained of the day. Fishing in driving snow he caught two dinky fish and called it quits, but the story doesn’t end here.

When he exited the lake, a Game and Fish officer greeted him and as they are known to do, asked to see his fishing license. Travis did indeed have a proper license…but 100 miles away in his fanny pack located in his garage, in Scottsdale (remember, Travis overslept by 2 hours and had to pack fast).

As Travis said, it was just one of those days that starts out bad and gets worse.

He got a ticket.

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