Dec 20th, 2009 5:13pm

With all of the other silly crap I've done this year, I've been neglecting the local fisheries.  Even though its been cold and rainy, I took this last week off and couldn't resist heading out to Saguaro with my dad.

We both knew that fishing wasn't going to be epic, but since neither of us had been to Saguaro in many years we decided to make a day of it.  The 2 of us headed out Wednesday morning for what was a seriously cold day on the water.  We didn't leave early, maybe 7:30, and when we arrived there was only 1 other car/boat there.  Something kind of eerie/cool about having a lake all to yourself.

Saguaro is very close to town so if the weather isn't crappy its usually full of jet-skiers and Sunday boaters - not great fishing conditions.  In a way then, these kinds of days are the only way to fish the lake.  Times when no one else wants to be there.

We headed east down the canyons to get out of the wind right off the bat.  In the decade or so since I've been on the lake, things have changed quite a bit.  The lake has become much greener, trees and tall grasses have overgrown what used to be sandy beaches and flat camping areas.  It was also a lot smaller than I remember.  That phrase seems to keep haunting my trips to our lakes here.

The fishing wasn't much to speak of - only really had 1 bite all day.  With that few people though, the wildlife were out everywhere.  Herons, falcons, ducks, we even saw a brief fight between a bald eagle and a pair of red-tails.  The whole place was quite peaceful, something I'm sure happens there all too infrequently.

We did manage to get a few bites over by Butcher Jones Beach.  Almost certainly from trout they had dumped in the lake recently.  In the end, ever fearful of crowds :) - we headed in as the sun finally came out and a few more boats showed up.  A cold but amazing day on another majestic Arizona lake.