Try Simi Seal Leeches, Humpies, Midges and Adams dry flies. Most of the fish here will be stockers and not hard to fool, but you may find yourself switching baits from time to time until you get just the right fly. There are many fish in the shallows close to parking lot. You can see plenty of evidence of the fire on the drive in, and even a little at the lake itself, but the area is still fairly scenic and worth the drive.

TONTO CREEK
Tonto Creek is easily accessible and is a great place for bait-fishers to dangle a worm. Try letting out line and drifting one downstream, or toss salmon eggs or spinners in deeper pools. But Tonto is also a great place to learn to fly-fish on streams. You can't go wrong with an Adams or caddis. If that doesn't work, try a Red Humpy or Yellow Stimulator.

Fly-fishers have the advantage of being able to work pocket water, those little riffles, seams and small holes behind boulders. Each one of these can hold fish. In deeper water, tie on a nymph dropper. A Pheasant Tail should be deadly.

There is plenty of camping in the Tonto Creek area. But avoid the rush. After Memorial Day, there should be plenty of people as well.

KNOLL LAKE
This lake is close to some outstanding Rim views and some great camping. It's a little off the beaten path, and may offer relatively uncrowded fishing.

It helps to fish this lake very deep as the year progresses, but in May, you may have luck in shallow water. Try Woolly Worms, Woolly Buggers, Peacock Ladies or Simi Seal Leeches. Bait-fishers should have luck with worms, PowerBait and salmon eggs. Z-rays and spinners should also take fish.

Most of the fish will be stockers, but this lake is one of the prettiest lakes on the Rim.

WET BEAVER CREEK
This little stream off the road to Sedona is a good for stocker rainbows and is friendly for bait-fishers and fly-fishers. It has a few smallmouths in the lower stretches as well. As you travel from Phoenix to Flagstaff, take the Sedona exit and go right. Drive two miles, and you're there.

"I would get there early because as the day heats up people start swimming," Howard said. "If you get there early, you can fish it by yourself."

As you move upstream, you'll find a population of wild rainbows.

Stocked streams are great places to fish for people just starting out in any kind of fishing. Look for riffles, seams or deep holes and try attractor patterns, caddis patterns, spinners, worms or PowerBait. The wild fish will be harder to catch than stockers. They are also harder to replace. If you want to take fish home, take the stockers.

LEES FERRY
Lees Ferry is coming back. Years of floods, high flows and political jousting has scoured the river bottom, killed the bugs, starved the fish and sent many guides and anglers to other waters. In the last couple of years, the plant life and the bug life have returned, and the trout have followed.

They are not the monster trout of old -- those days are probably gone forever. But there are now consistent reports of plenty of healthy 16-inch fish in the river. This is not what the old-timers want, but it's a start. What happens next is anybody's guess, but the Ferry has been able to bounce back in the past.

"The Ferry has been really good," Howard said.

Terrestrials and other dry flies are now part of the mix, including a cicada hatch that comes off in the summer.

Rohmer said he was there for it last year.

"We caught stuff on top, and that was a blast," he said.