Professional anglers have always loved this place, even before the water level’s rise inundated salt cedars and scrub brush and left stately saguaros standing in deep water.

“You can always catch fish here,” said tournament bass angler John Murray. “No matter what time of year, bass are always willing to bite.”

BASS Masters Classic qualifier Greg Hines, who fished competitively for more than 35 years, said that for consistency of strikes and numbers of fish, Roosevelt is one of the best bass waters in the country.

“If you don’t catch fish at Roosevelt,” he said, “you’re not trying hard enough.”

The late fishing guide Floyd Preas used to say there were more bass in “this oversize desert pond” than in many of the larger, nationally known waterways. The recent inundation should make angling even better.

Not only should there be more and bigger bass to chase, but the higher water brought in a tremendous amount of new cover to fish. But also, the fish now have more to eat and many more places to hide.

“The spring spawn in 2006 was just amazing for largemouth bass, and we’re looking forward to similar results in spring 2007,” Ester said.

Roosevelt fishing guide Art Chamberlain has taken clients in search of big bucketmouth for 25 years. His phone is always ringing. “I believe this will be the best bass lake west of the Mississippi for the next several years.” And Chamberlain, who also guides for crappie, believes the waters could also be “the best darn crappie lake in the entire United States.”

For those who like to fill their coolers, Chamberlain gets as excited as a kid with a new fish pole. “Even before the water levels went up, Game and Fish estimated, conservatively, that there were 10 million crappie here. Now they’ve got so many new places to hide and spawn that spring crappie fishing is going to be nothing short of amazing.”

Fisheries scientist Warnecke has just about seen it all in his more than 30 years at the Game and Fish Department. Two-thirds of that time, he has worked the SRP lakes.

“Ups and downs, good and bad times, and hundreds of thousands who fish, sail, water-ski, or just splash around in this man-made swimming pool. It’s a busy place, but the waters remain healthy.”

And the options for satisfaction continue to increase. The elevated lake levels are just the latest bonus for a site where the federal government has spent $425 million to heighten and improve one of the last stone masonry dams ever built.

In addition to raising the dam’s cap by 77 feet, the huge construction project included a 3,000-foot-long suspension bridge that now eases traffic on the west side of the lake as well as wider and longer boat launch ramps and hundreds of solar-powered campsites and picnic benches. “There’s so much recreational interest in this lake now, we’re being overwhelmed,” said Gary Smith, district ranger for the Tonto National Forest.

After seeing most of the plays in the playbook over his more than three decades of monitoring fishing patterns, Warnecke is usually not impressed with year-to-year fluctuations. But he likes what he sees at Roosevelt this spring. “We didn’t do an electroshock or gillnetting survey last year. But based on observations by field personnel and interviews with anglers about their catch rates, the status of several species is what we were expecting -- good reproduction, good growth and good survival rates.”