Beta

GuidedFloats is in beta. The full site launches March 1, 2027. The mobile app follows.

Guides: claim before March 1, 2027 and your first full season of Premium is free. Claim your founding spot →

Log in List your guide serviceFor guides
Home › Waters › Arizona › Salt River below Stewart Mountain Dam
Tailwater · Lower Salt River, Tonto National Forest, Maricopa County · Arizona

Salt River below Stewart Mountain Dam Fishing Guides

Phoenix's tailwater - cold water released from Saguaro Lake into the Sonoran Desert, stocked with trout in winter and busy with tubers all summer.

A concrete dam releasing water into the river below it
Gauge location. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Guides on the Salt River below Stewart Mountain Dam

Claimed profiles take booking requests. Unclaimed profiles are built from public records so the river is never empty; the guide can claim or remove one any time.

No guides listed yet

Guide or outfit this water? Create your profile. Listing is free, the commission is 10% or 7% with a premium profile, and premium profiles list first on this water.

About the Salt River below Stewart Mountain Dam

Stewart Mountain Dam impounds Saguaro Lake, and the reach below it is the Lower Salt River, the closest thing metropolitan Phoenix has to a trout stream. The USGS gauge immediately below the dam watches roughly six thousand two hundred square miles and reports discharge and stage; it carries no live temperature series, which is a real limitation on a tailwater whose entire trout fishery depends on how cold the release runs.

Arizona Game and Fish stocks rainbow trout in this reach through the cool months, and that winter stocking program is what draws anglers. The trout are a put-and-take fishery rather than a wild population – desert air temperatures in summer push the water well past what trout tolerate, and the fish do not carry over in most of the reach. Warmwater species are the year-round residents: largemouth and smallmouth bass, channel and flathead catfish, and bluegill hold through the recreation sites and in the slower pools.

Flow is entirely a function of Salt River Project operations at the dam, and it swings substantially. Releases are managed for water supply and for downstream demand, not for fishing, and the river can change from a wadeable stream to a strong push within a day. Anyone planning to wade here should check the gauge first as a matter of routine safety, not merely for fishing conditions.

The other governing fact is recreation pressure. The Lower Salt is one of the busiest tubing rivers in the American Southwest, and through summer the recreation sites along Bush Highway carry very heavy use. Anglers work around it by fishing early, fishing in the cool season, or fishing the reaches away from the tubing take-outs. A Tonto National Forest recreation pass is required at the developed sites.

This water needs a real photo

The photo at the top of this page is not Salt River below Stewart Mountain Dam.

It is a regional stand-in, honestly captioned but generic — we will not put a name to a river we cannot prove. Send us a photograph you took here and it replaces the stand-in, with your credit on it.

Add a photo of this water See the badges

Pioneer badgeUnclaimed

Add a photo of this water

Landscape, not fish — the water itself. Reviewed by hand before it appears. The first one published here earns the Pioneer badge.

Never published. It is how the badge is held for you until member accounts open.

Posting to Salt River below Stewart Mountain Dam.

JPG, PNG or WebP, up to 12 MB. Landscape orientation looks best at the top of the page. We resize it and strip the location data out of the file.

The name printed under the photo and on your badge. Leave blank to stay anonymous.

Reader photo license v1.0 — the short version:

  • You grant Guided Floats, LLC a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to publish, resize and crop your photo on guidedfloats.com and in GuidedFloats’ own social posts and apps. You keep the copyright and can use the photo anywhere else.
  • You confirm that you took the photo yourself, that publishing it does not infringe anyone else’s rights, and that anyone recognisable in it (or a parent or guardian, if they are under 18) is happy for it to appear here.
  • Credit is printed beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, using the credit name you give us. Leave it blank and we use your name; write “Anonymous” for no name. Your email address is never published.
  • Withdrawing is one email to hello@guidedfloats.com naming the photo. It comes off the site within 7 days.
Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

Fished this water? Add a photo

Reviewed by hand before it appears. Pick the water, not the spot — we never publish exact locations.

Never published. We use it only if we need to ask about the photo.

Posting to Salt River below Stewart Mountain Dam.

JPG, PNG or WebP, up to 12 MB. We resize it and strip the location data out of the file.

The name shown under the photo. Leave blank to stay anonymous.

Reader photo license v1.0 — the short version:

  • You grant Guided Floats, LLC a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to publish, resize and crop your photo on guidedfloats.com and in GuidedFloats’ own social posts and apps. You keep the copyright and can use the photo anywhere else.
  • You confirm that you took the photo yourself, that publishing it does not infringe anyone else’s rights, and that anyone recognisable in it (or a parent or guardian, if they are under 18) is happy for it to appear here.
  • Credit is printed beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, using the credit name you give us. Leave it blank and we use your name; write “Anonymous” for no name. Your email address is never published.
  • Withdrawing is one email to hello@guidedfloats.com naming the photo. It comes off the site within 7 days.
Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

Flow alert

Tell me when the Salt River below Stewart Mountain Dam cfs

Now: 0.1 cfs, read 5:44 am CST, Mon Nov 2, 2026 (USGS 09502000, SALT RIVER BLW STEWART MOUNTAIN DAM, AZ).

We never use this address for anything else and never share it. See the privacy policy.

Access

Stewart Mountain Dam and gauge - the release point and the flow reference for the reach.
Saguaro Lake Ranch area - the uppermost river access below the dam.
Blue Point Recreation Site - developed access on Bush Highway.
Pebble Beach Recreation Site - popular bank access and tubing take-out.
Water Users Recreation Site - developed parking and river frontage.
Granite Reef Recreation Site - the lowest developed access before the diversion dam.
Phon D Sutton Recreation Site - access near the Verde River confluence.

Seasons

Spring: trout stocking continues into the cool spring months and flows are moderate.
Summer: hot, heavily used by tubers and too warm for trout; fish warmwater species at dawn.
Fall: cooling water, thinning crowds and the start of the productive season.
Winter: the prime window - cold releases, regular trout stocking and quiet river access.

From the water

No logged trips yet. Be the first to put this water on your map.

Log this water

Fished it or cleaned it? Log in or create a free account to log a trip with photos and earn the waterway badge.

Questions

What species can you catch on the Salt River below Stewart Mountain Dam?

Anglers target Bluegill, Channel Catfish, Flathead Catfish, Largemouth Bass, Rainbow Trout, Smallmouth Bass on the Salt River below Stewart Mountain Dam in Arizona.

Where can you access the Salt River below Stewart Mountain Dam?

Stewart Mountain Dam and gauge - the release point and the flow reference for the reach. Saguaro Lake Ranch area - the uppermost river access below the dam. Blue Point Recreation Site - developed access on Bush Highway. Pebble Beach Recreation Site - popular bank access and tubing take-out. Water Users Recreation Site - developed parking and river frontage. Granite Reef Recreation Site - the lowest developed access before the diversion dam. Phon D Sutton Recreation Site - access near the Verde River confluence.

When is the best time to fish the Salt River below Stewart Mountain Dam?

Spring: trout stocking continues into the cool spring months and flows are moderate. Summer: hot, heavily used by tubers and too warm for trout; fish warmwater species at dawn. Fall: cooling water, thinning crowds and the start of the productive season. Winter: the prime window - cold releases, regular trout stocking and quiet river access.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Salt River below Stewart Mountain Dam?

Regulations change by season and section. Read the current rules on the Arizona agency site: https://www.azgfd.com/fishing-2/licenses-and-regulations/