Lower Lake Mary or Ashhurst lake in mid October?

[longbowpilot]

Taking my 7 and 4 year old fishing when we go up to Flagstaff in a few weeks.  For anyone that has fished both lakes, which in your opinion would be better for trout fishing action for the kids that time of year?

[IA Born]

Lower Lake Mary will be lucky to have much water in it.  You're better off hitting Ashurst, or driving to Williams and fishing Kaibab Lake.  Always had good luck with trout in Kaibab using power bait.  Kinnikinick Lake is supposed to be great that time of year, too.  I keep forgetting to head out there then, though.

[AZ8]

Drove by Lake Mary this afternoon on my way into Flagstaff. Lower Lake Mary is nothing more than a marsh and pond near the picnic area.  Upper LM looks good.  

[longbowpilot]

Thanks for the info guys.  Will try Ashurst and Kaibab.  We’re all pretty excited about fishing up there, not much water down here in Marana. 

[Explorer]

If you go to ashurst get there as early as possible. The bite is better early in the morning.

[PRDATR]

Hey Explorer did you get any Pike?

 

[Explorer]

28 minutes ago, PRDATR said:

Hey Explorer did you get any Pike?

 

No i have never been able to hook into one on that lake. The biologist said they go in about twice a year and gill net for pike removal.

[longbowpilot]

10 hours ago, Explorer said:

If you go to ashurst get there as early as possible. The bite is better early in the morning.

Awesome, yeah kids don’t mind getting up early so will get there at dawn.  Will post some pics if we catch any.

[Explorer]

2 hours ago, longbowpilot said:

Awesome, yeah kids don’t mind getting up early so will get there at dawn.  Will post some pics if we catch any.

Take multiple colors of power bait. They sometimes favor on color or flavor and wont touch others.

[PRDATR]

On 9/28/2019 at 11:37 PM, Explorer said:

Take multiple colors of power bait. They sometimes favor on color or flavor and wont touch others.

I prefer Power Eggs.

 

[oz31p]

Garlic flavored chartreuse 

[Explorer]

Put a split shot 18 - 24 inches up to keep the bait out of the rocks and crawdads. Found that out the hard way. heck take a crawdad trap and the kids will enjoy a good time catching some mudbugs also! 

[IA Born]

On 9/30/2019 at 8:57 PM, Explorer said:

Put a split shot 18 - 24 inches up to keep the bait out of the rocks and crawdads. Found that out the hard way. heck take a crawdad trap and the kids will enjoy a good time catching some mudbugs also! 

Yep.  I usually put a split shot 16-18" up and have a blast.  The brown trout are starting to bite hard at Kinnickinik Lake, too.  Might be worth the venture!

[longbowpilot]

Ended up going to Ashurst and fished about 3 hours in the morning.  Caught 4 rainbows about 12-14" on the chartreuse garlic powerbait.  Was letting my 4 year old son try to get the hook out on his own on the last one but he dropped the fish out of his hands and it flipped back into the water and got away.  The bites were constant but had trouble hooking them.  Going to bring some treble hooks next time I go so they won't keep stealing the bait.

 

 

 

[PRDATR]

Treble hooks will help but they are harder to get out if you want to release the smaller ones. I usually use a #6 Octopus Hook with one or two Power Eggs since they are harder to get off and I can usually catch 3-4 fish on the same eggs.

I use a hemostat to remove the hook but it looks like you did ok.