Salt River below Stewart Mountain Dam Fishing Guides and Conditions, Arizona

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.

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.