Streams and Lakes
Green Valley Lake – Payson
We help keep our city lakes clean, There are 3 lakes which are stocked with trout from October to May, and used for fly fishing classes for kids and adults. Periodically we host veteran fly fishing groups from the valley, and we routinely do a lake cleanup prior to their visits.
East Verde
Our members worked for several years with the Arizona Game and Fish Department and the US Forest Service on a habitat restoration project on the East Verde River, north of Payson.
Upper East Verde
The Upper East Verde River is a spring-fed, wild rainbow trout, catch and release stream. Plunge pools, undercut banks, boulders and wood debris provide cover in much of this stream, but some sections are scoured down to sheer bedrock and are barriers to trout passage and production.
Dude Creek
Dude Creek is a stream that AZGFD has designated as a recovery stream for Gila trout. Several years ago, members of PFC helped pack down young Gila trout to Dude Creek to help establish a recovery population of this threaten native trout species. Catch and release fishing is permitted outside of the spawning window for Gila trout on Dude Creek as the population numbers remain healthy.
The stream requires some additional improvement to help maintain cover and provide added depth to allow for adequate movement of trout throughout the stream.
Silver Creek
Silver Creek, just north of Show Low, is a two hour drive from Payson. This spring-fed creek that
maintains 60 degree temperatures all year, is stocked with Apache trout and very large rainbow trout during the Catch and Release season from October 1 – March 31. The rest of the year, the creek is under the normal regulations that allow for the keeping fish to daily bag limits.
The stream is generally a slow moving current that is fished from the banks where openings in the reed growth allow access to the stream. Recently, flash flood damage severely impacted the stream and reduced the depth in several sections, and exponentially increased the reed growth along the banks.
While substantial and expensive stream improvement work planned by AZGFD for Silver Creek remains, there was some recent work that our members volunteered to help with that drastically improved access to about a 1/4 mile of the stream but cutting and removing reeds, and increased the depth of the stretch just above the footbridge.
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