Indian reservation hidden lake

[steve in so la]

About 50 years ago (I'm 70) my dad took me to a little known lake he read about on the White Mtn Apache reservation that had big bluegills. We got a map, paid an entrance fee and drove about 2 hours to go 16 miles to the lake, dirt, rocks & all slow going. It was about 10 acres , rainfall runoff lake , probably about 10-12 ft deep .

Our first casts produced fish and it just kept on for 2 days we camped there. The unusual thing was that almost all gills were 10 inches and more. Some flopped over a dinner plate both ends. Standard plates are 10 1/2 inches wide and we probably ate a few state records. We didn't keep many but the memory was more than rewarding. We waded out waist deep, weed beds around the deeper end, flung white Doll Flies and caught them. Only caught a few bass and we found a catfish that must have been 20 lbs ,dead on the shore line.

After the coming winter we went a second time but figured they had mostly died off from a hard freeze in the mountains as we caught very few fish, all smaller.

Those were the days, as they say. Steve in so la

[steve in so la]

This was in Arizona.