Big Lake

[kennyazman]

Anyone been up there lately?Just wondering how its been up there. getting ready to head up on thursday and stay through memorial weekend. I cant wait!! didnt get to go last year because of the wallow fire so Im really itching to get up there.

[firstcoueswas80]

Ill be there this weekend as well. Setting up camp Thursday, then heading back to Pinetop for the night with my grandpa, then the fiance and little girl will be up Friday... I plan to have a line wet for a long time.

[Big Tub]

We just got back. Big Lake was really slow following that big wind event on Friday but the 4 fish we did catch were the biggest average fish we have caught there in years (2 @ 15", 1@ 13", and 1 @ 11" in 2+ hrs) -- all were very chunky. On the other hand, Nelson Reservoir had a huge load of fish dumped in there (I heard the fish wagon had brake trouble and had to dump the whole load.) My wife had a limit of 6 in 25 minutes; my buddy and I caught somewhere around 25 fish in about 2 hrs, releasing all we could but those suckers kept swallowing the hook. The fish were smallish compared to the monsters at Big Lake. We started using cowbells/worms but ended up using Z-Rays to avoid the gut hooks. Bad News: they predict high winds the rest of the week. WOW was last Friday bad for the wind! Good Luck.

[bonecollector]

Headed up to big bear for the weekend, hope its not windy.

[Pine Donkey]

I'm headed up Friday. I'll try to avoid the weekend crowds by fishing a small almost unknown pond on the weekend. Probably will visit Big Lake on Tuesday or Wednesday. Either way, it will be a weekend in the White Mountains with the family, what else could a guy ask for?

[Heat]

Went to Big Lake towards the end of April. Hooked 4 fish and landed two between four of us. Keep in mind we were all rookies fishing there and 2 were 11 year old kids. All the bites came on half a crawler fished in about 10 to 15 feet of water about 40 feet off the bank. One of the fish we caught was a decent sized holdover cutthroat. I can't wait to get back there for a re-match!

 

[JLW]

nice!

that's a good lookin fish!

we usually do well trolling using a snelled hook with spinner and beads on it I think it's a small colorado blade and a pinch of a crawler size 10 or 12.

wolly buyggers black or brown with a pinch of a crawler on it slow trolled work well too.

the hotter it gets the deeper they go, then you bust out the flashers(cow bells) which I hate using. Gold bells when it's cloudy and silver when it's sunny.

If you go all the way to the back wear the cove starts to narrow and gets rocky you can throw spinners and let them sink to the bottom and slow retrieve you might get into some of the brook trout in there. We use mostly panther martins but everyone has their fav.

 

thanks for sharing with us.

 

James

[mattnduke]

I'll be there this weekend with the wife and little ones camping.. Hoping to hook in to a few on the fly rod. If you see

a black four door chevy pick up with Alaska plates, say hello!

[kennyazman]

Just got back from the trip. It was nice to see the lake again. It was really windy from Thursday to Saturday so we didn't even get our boat in the water till Sunday. But the fishing was pretty good and you just can't beat the white mountains even after its been burned up.

[Pine Donkey]

The winds have died down and the weather is beautiful. Fished Nelson Lake this evening with the family, caught 19 stock trout in an hour. Little niece and nephew loved it.

[Drew23]

Is it a good fishing season there?

[Coues79]

How is Big Lake this weekend? Heading up to nutrioso on Thursday for a few days and feel the need to hit Big Lake a time or two with my boy and old man.

 

Long shot on Pratt but has anyone fished it this year too? Any water? Fishable?

[Big Tub]

We fished Big Lake on Tuesday and again was really slow and this time with smallish fish. Nelson Reservoir was really good with small fish. With Pratt, take two extra spare tires!