Dogtown Lake Fishing Report

THE CALL: Rainbow trout, slow-rolled hardware along the wind-blown northwest shore, 12:00–5:00 PM today, with the 2:33–5:03 major period as your prime stretch inside that window. The species record wasn't itemized in the packet, so I'm calling trout as the target — it's the fish a 50-acre high-country Arizona lake fishes best for in mid-November.

WHY IT WINS:

• Water temp: last measured 62°F on Oct 30, and that reading is 13 days stale. On a 50-acre lake at this elevation with 30s forecast overnight, I read the surface in the mid-to-upper 40s now — full late-fall, trout comfort zone, fish spread shallow and willing to chase.
• Wind: steady SE 10 mph (gusts to 17) all afternoon blows straight at the northwest shore — that's where plankton and any remaining bait stack, and the tools name the northwest shore as the wind-blown side, southeast as sheltered.
• Forecast: 0% precip, clear, 57°F high — no storm risk, and the 12–5 PM block is the most manageable wind of the day (score 70). Morning is worse: gusts hit 24.5 mph by 11 AM tomorrow's pattern shows today builds similarly late morning, so don't rush a dawn run.
• The major solunar period (2:33–5:03 PM) lands inside the calm, warm afternoon — timing context, not a bite promise, but it lines up.

START HERE: The northwest wind-blown shoreline — work parallel to it, casting into the wind push, covering the first 3–8 ft of water off the bank. On a lake this small, one shoreline pass is fifteen minutes; keep moving until you find them.

THROW THIS: 1/8-oz gold Kastmaster or a #2 gold-blade Panther Martin, slow and steady with occasional pauses — in water that cold, slow beats fast. If you'd rather anchor down, a PowerBait worm off the bottom on the same shore works while you cast. Water clarity is unknown (no measured clarity data), so gold/nickel hardware is the safe visibility call in likely clear-to-lightly-stained water.

BEST WINDOW: Be fishing by 12:00 PM. Wind holds at 9–10 mph through 4 PM, drops to 6 mph at 5:00 PM — if you want a calm-water stretch, the 5:00–7:00 PM minor period (7:17–8:47) on the dying wind is a legitimate second act before dark at 5:24 PM makes it moot. Realistically: 12:00–5:00 is the day.

NEXT MOVE: If 45 minutes of hardware on the northwest shore produces nothing, slide to the sheltered southeast shore, switch to a half nightcrawler under a slip-bobber set 6 ft down, and slow everything down — cold-water fish that won't chase will still eat a dead-drifted bait. That's your observable trigger: no chases, no taps, no follows in 45 minutes, make the move.