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Show Low Lake Fishing Report

Updated Fri, Oct 23, 2026 from live gauge and weather data

The White Mountains' walleye pocket: a small, deep lake where Arizona's unlikely gold swims beneath the ponderosas.

2/5
Slow. Work for them.Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing.
Water temp
~55 F est.
Air / High
58 / 59 F
Wind
SSW 19 mph

Sources: Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.

Satellite view
Friday
23
October 2026

Today's Fishing Report

Generated this morning from live readings: gauge, weather model, sun and moon. A fresh report is published here every morning.

2/5Slow. Work for them.Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing.

Show Low Lake is in transition: bait on the move and predators following. Today brings clear skies, wind SSW around 19 mph, rising pressure near 1011 hPa and a high of 59. Water sits around 55 F for the season (estimated). With the waxing gibbous, the solunar majors run 8:59 AM-10:59 AM and 9:26 PM-11:26 PM: the windows to build the day around.

The plan, species by species

WalleyeGood

Spring: post-spawn fish scatter and can be slow for a couple of weeks. Fall: one of the best windows, with minnows on jigs and three-way rigs as the water cools toward ice-up.

Smallmouth bassGood

Spring pre-spawn and fall: Iowa DNR notes the larger bass come up to shallow structure, where a shallow-running minnow bait or a spinnerbait just under the surface works.

Northern pikeGood

The best band for pike: right after ice-out they move into flooded vegetated shallows to spawn, and they feed actively again as the water cools in fall.

Yellow perchGood

Spring and fall: perch hold shallower and, by Michigan DNR's account, feed through the day, so shoreline weed edges, flats and the shallows near spawning areas are worth searching.

Tomorrow: Cooler at 54 F. The solunar majors shift about 50 minutes later.Next report: Sat, Oct 24, 6:30 AMHow this report is made β†’

Before you go

Arizona requires a fishing licence from age 10, from $37.00 for residents. What a Arizona licence costs and where to buy it β†’

Chasing walleye here? Check the size and bag limits with AZGFD before you keep anything. The season dates for Arizona, read off the agency, are on the Arizona seasons page.

Water and weather

Live readings.

No live gauge on this water

Conditions here are modeled from weather, season and the nearest stations. Water readings appear when a USGS gauge is available.

304050607080JanMarMayJulSepNovOct, ~55 F now

Right now

Latest readings

Air temp58 F
High / Low59 / 46 F
WindSSW 19-29 mph
Pressure1010.9 hPa, rising
Sky / Rain5% cloud, 10%
Sunrise / Sunset06:32 / 17:36
MoonWaxing Gibbous, 91%
Water temp (seasonal)~55 F est.

Bite planner

Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today. Tap a bar to see why.

5 AM8 AM11 AM2 PM5 PM8 PMsunrisesunset

Which day to fish Show Low Lake this week

The best day on Show Low Lake this week looks like Saturday Oct 24, at 3 out of 5, against 2 today.

Best day this week: Saturday, Oct 24 β€” fair at 3/5, rising pressure behind a front, typically the slowest.

Today, Oct 23 β€” Tough

Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing.

Solunar majors
8:59 AM-10:59 AM and 9:26 PM-11:26 PM
Minor period
3:21 AM-4:21 AM
Sun
06:32 to 17:36
Moon
Waxing Gibbous, 91% lit
Sky and wind
Overcast, 19 mph
Rain chance
10%

Forecast-based scores, less reliable further out: how the score is built.

Species guide

The species that matter on Show Low Lake: seasons, structure and how to fish each one. Today's ratings live in the report above.

Walleye illustration

Walleye

Best: spring and late fall, around dawn, dusk and night

A cool-water perch of large lakes, reservoirs and rivers whose reflective eyes are built for low light, so it feeds most at night and in murky water. The Missouri Department of Conservation ranks it among the continent's most important freshwater game fish. Spring: post-spawn fish scatter and can be slow for a couple of weeks. Fall: one of the best windows, with minnows on jigs and three-way rigs as the water cools toward ice-up.

Smallmouth bass illustration

Smallmouth bass

Best: spring and fall, when bigger fish come shallow

A bronze-brown black bass of clear, cool streams and rocky lakes, with dark vertical bars instead of a side stripe. Michigan DNR says its southeastern coast, from Port Huron to Lake Erie, is known nationally for both the size and the number of its smallmouth. Spring pre-spawn and fall: Iowa DNR notes the larger bass come up to shallow structure, where a shallow-running minnow bait or a spinnerbait just under the surface works.

Northern pike illustration

Northern pike

Best: cool water, from ice-out through spring, in fall and under the ice

A long, duck-billed predator of weedy lakes, slow rivers and backwaters that ambushes fish from vegetation. Wisconsin DNR points out that, unlike most of the state's common game fish, pike do their best feeding in cool water. The best band for pike: right after ice-out they move into flooded vegetated shallows to spawn, and they feed actively again as the water cools in fall.

Yellow perch illustration

Yellow perch

Caught all year, including under the ice through winter

Yellow perch are schooling panfish of the Great Lakes and northern lakes, and Michigan DNR calls them the game fish most often caught in that state. Spring and fall: perch hold shallower and, by Michigan DNR's account, feed through the day, so shoreline weed edges, flats and the shallows near spawning areas are worth searching.

When to come: the Show Low Lake calendar

Activity by species and month, and how the water warms through the year. Tap any cell.

Species activity by month

1 = slow, 5 = peak. Current month highlighted.

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Walleye
Smallmouth bass
Northern pike
Yellow perch
SlowPeak

Water temperature through the year

Typical surface temperature for this water type; today is around 55 F (estimated, not a reading).

304050607080JanMarMayJulSepNovOct, ~55 F now

Angler reports

Real reports from real anglers, reviewed before publishing. The water log below tracks each day automatically.

No angler reports yet this weekBe the first: your report helps every angler who checks Show Low Lake today, and we feature the best catch of the week.

Water log, last days

Auto-logged from live data
Thu, Oct 22

3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Walleye led the card at good. High of 64 F, wind to 22 mph.

Wed, Oct 21

3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Walleye led the card at good. High of 70 F, wind to 20 mph.

Tue, Oct 20

3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Walleye led the card at good. High of 67 F, wind to 16 mph.

Where roughly, what depth, what bait. Skip anything you want to keep secret.
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Before you go

License

Arizona requires a valid fishing license for adults. Buy online from the state agency; one-day options exist for visitors.

Regulations

Arizona license. Walleye 6/day: trout standard stocked rules: check AZGFD.

Access

Show Low Lake County Park ramp and rentals; bank access throughout.

About this water

100 deep acres at 6,500 ft, Navajo County, AZ. The state's walleye pocket in the pines.

Fishing Show Low Lake: the full guide

Arizona's walleye outpost

Show Low Lake packs 100 surface acres and 50-foot depths into the White Mountains' pine rim: one of Arizona's few legitimate walleye fisheries (the state record has lived here), layered over stocked rainbows and resident smallmouth. High-country cool at 6,500 feet: Phoenix's summer refuge with a serious side.

Working the little deep

The walleye hold the drop-offs and the dam basin: slow jigs and crawler harnesses at 15-35 feet, dawn and dusk in the clear water: while rainbows (stocked spring through fall) take the trolled cowbells and bank baits, and the smallmouth patrol every rocky edge. Small water rewards moving: three species live within one troll lap.

Seasons on the rim

Ice-out (March) wakes everything shallow: summer stratifies the walleye deep and hands mornings to the trout: October's cooling puts the gold back on the banks: and hard-water years (the lake caps in real winters) offer Arizona's rare ice-fishing novelty. Elk bugle over the September bite: the rim's soundtrack.

Rim-lake practicalities

The county park runs ramps, rentals and camping (10-hp limit keeps it calm): Fool Hollow and the Pinetop lakes sit minutes away for the multi-lake day: and afternoon monsoon cells demand July-August respect: mornings, as everywhere in the high country.

Common questions

Does Arizona really have walleye?

Show Low is the proof: the state record swam here and the population persists on the drop-offs. Slow harnesses at dusk: think Minnesota tactics at Arizona elevation.

When should I fish Show Low Lake?

April-June and September-October for the full three-species day: summer mornings for trout before the recreation hours. Ice-out is the walleye window locals guard.

Is fishing good at Show Low Lake right now?

Check the daily report at the top of this page: it is regenerated every morning from live data. Today's read: Slow. Work for them. Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing.

Nearby waters

Fool Hollow Lake6 miBig Lake (White Mountains)40 miBlack River44 miWoods Canyon Lake54 miRoosevelt Lake74 miSan Carlos Lake76 mi

Where this page's numbers come from

Weather and pressure
Open-Meteo forecast model
Queried at 34.2000, -110.0000 in this water's own timezone. A model, not an observation.
Moon and solunar windows
Calculated on this site
Astronomical calculation from these coordinates and the date, not a third-party feed. How much weight it deserves.
The written guide on this page
Pablo Ruiz Quintero
How this page was made. The daily report is computed by our scoring engine from live readings; nobody types it. The written guide was drafted with AI assistance. Unlike our newer pages, it does not yet list the official pages its facts were checked against: that audit is under way, and anything it cannot verify will be taken out. Pablo Ruiz Quintero sets every guideline, the data-verification system and the minimum standards a page must meet to be published, reviews page structure and approves what goes live; the responsibility is his, and the AI carries out the work. We work this way because it is how one person can keep every page current with named sources. Errors are published in the verification log; the full policy is in the editorial policy.

Readings refresh on a 30-minute window. The full method, with every figure and its source, is on how our reports are made. Something wrong here? Tell us and it goes in the log with the date.