7 Insider Secrets to Catching Fish at Silverbell Lake

Looking for a great place to fish in Tucson? Look no further than Silverbell Lake at Christopher Columbus Park. Silverbell Lake if one of 4 urban lakes here in the Tucson area.

How to get to Silverbell Lake?

Silverbell Lake is located in Christopher Columbus Park in western Tucson. Its just east of Silverbell Road between Camino del Cerro and Grant Roads west of Interstate 10. Its not hard to find

If you using GPS to find it, the coordiates are: N32° 17’06.14″ W111° 02’01.43. I’ve also taken the liberty of adding a map to show you how to get there:

What Makes Silverbell Lake So Popular?

Silverbell Lake covers close to 13 acres of water. It’s a good sized lake for an urban lake. The depth is a maximum depth of 6 feet with an average depth of 4 feet. That’s not very deep and it’s probably less now after it was originally built several years ago due to a couple of bad floods years ago as it dumped a lot of silt into the lake.

Regardless of its shallow depth, Silverbell Lake is still a fun and viable fishery. And equally as important, is just how easy and convenient it is to get there.

Want to make it a more popular fishery? Shut down the lake during the hottest 2 months and drain it. Why, you ask? Dig it down to an 8′ to 14′ foot depth, then re-fill it and restock it. That would turbocharge this lake. One can only dream I suppose.

Silverbell Lake North Side Boat Ramp Area Looking West

Silverbell Lake Conveniences

Besides being easily accessible, the “Bell” has several amenities you may enjoy while there like:

Large Shade Trees
Group Ramadas
Dog Park
Model Airplane Area
Model Boat Lake. (This is Archer Lake which is right next to Silverbell)
Plenty of restrooms

Silverbell Lake is also a great place to walk your dog, go paddle boarding or kayaking, ride bikes, and more. Honestly, you can’t beat the convenience of coming here to fish or relax.

One of my best times there, I spent a day trout fishing with my daughter a few years ago. While we were settled in fishing, a family started unloading coolers, charcoal, tables, and chairs under the ramada behind us. Before long there was a huge birthday party going on for a young child. It got noisy and for a while, irritating as I felt my peace and solitude were being disturbed, however, it wasn’t long before a mariachi band started playing live music and you could smell all the food grilling.

This family of strangers came over and asked my daughter and me if we were hungry and to come over and help ourselves. We sure did. We ate and mingled a bit and it made a great day fishing even better. I’ll never forget these people’s kindness and some way-cool mariachi music to boot.

Silverbell Lake – Looking To The Northeast From the North Boat Ramp Area.

Are There Any Restrictions At Silverbell Lake?

Of course. That goes without saying. Every place has rules to follow and here they are:

Boats: Canoes up to 17 feet and boats 14 feet and under are permitted. You must have proper floatation devices on board. Gasoline motors are prohibited.
No live baitfish allowed.
Swimming or wading is prohibited.
No fishing allowed in Archer Lake.
No glass containers.
The feeding of waterfowl is prohibited.

By the way, these rules are pretty much standard for all the Tucson urban lakes.

So Why Fish Silverbell Lake?

Silverbell Lake has a lot of fishing options. It gets stocked with Rainbow Trout, Largemouth Bass, Channel Catfish, Carp, Crappie, and Bluegills/Sunfish. Game and Fish will stock trout in the late Fall and Winter, then catfish late spring into late summer. But keep in mind, these fish stockings will depend on not only the water temperatures but also the PH balance of the water for both trout and the catfish.

Can you keep what you catch? I personally prefer “catch and release“, but if you want to keep your catch, here are the bag limits. You’re allowed to catch 4 catfish, 4 trout, 4 bass (13″ inch minimum), 10 sunfish. 1 white amur (30” inch minimum). There is no limit on crappie or carp.

They also have crawdads there. Get yourself one of those folding/collapsible crawdad traps and toss some hotdog chunks or raw chicken in it and catch yourself some mudbugs. Crawdads ar not native to Arizona and are considered an invasive species. So go get ’em!

Silverbell Lake Trout Fishing.

Trout are “seasonal.” They stock rainbow trout late fall through the winter. When they start stocking will depend on the water temperature. They monitor the temps and when the water is consistently cool enough, they’ll do the stocking. These are “catchable” size trout say 10″-12″ inches. They’ll stock every two weeks until the water temperature gets too warm for them.

You can expect one possibly two “trophy” trout stocking during the season. The same goes for catfish. When they do the trophy stocking, its the same weight of fish they normally stock, but with less number of larger fish. In this case, they’re sized ranging from 14″-20″ inch size. Its a case of quality v/s quantity

Click on my Arizona Trout Fishing Guide to learn more

How To Catch Urban Trout At Silverbell Lake

Basic Powerbait Trout Rig

I’m not gonna kid you. 90% of the time I use a simple Trout Powerbait rig like you see on the left side of this paragraph. You’ll recognize this as a Carolina Rig. This is a very simple and effective rig. I use an ultralight rig similar to the Lew’s Laser Lite Speed 6′ Spinning Combo or the Zebco 33 Cork Reel and Fishing Rod Combo.

For hooks and sinkers I like to use a couple of 3.5g Bullet Sinkers back-to-back and either a Eagle Claw 038A-12 Classic Hook or the Eagle Claw 376A-12 Classic Treble Hook. That’s it! And for bait, go with a couple pieces or corn or a little ball of my favorite White Berkely Powerbait or Corn Yellow Berkely Powerbait. Both work great.

Keep in mind, this is a setup for light or ultra-light fishing gear. That’s my preference for trout fishing, but if you have medium gear, that will work too. Folks also catch them on Z-Rays, Roostertails, jerkbaits and trout jigs too. Be sure to check out my Arizona Trout Fishing Guide for more information on catching Arizona trout.

Remember, trout in our Tucson area urban lakes is “seasonal.” Winter only! Once it warms up if they aren’t caught, they’ll die off.

Silverbell Lake Catfish Fishing.

Catfishing is year-round entertainment at Silverbell Lake. But they only stock Channel Cats in early summer and late summer. Game and Fish stops stocking in July & August because it gets too hot. This causes a lot of oxygen depletion in the lake and it kills off fish. But you can still catch catfish.

How To Catch Urban Catfish.

I use a Lew’s Cat Daddy 7′ medium-heavy Spinning Combo and I also fish for cats with a medium-heavy 9′ Cabelas spinning combo I bought years ago.

Lew’s Cat Daddy 7′ medium-heavy Spinning Combo

I’ll run one or two rigs. One is the Three-Way Rig, the other is the Carolina Rig. I use 30lb braid with 1/2 or 3/4oz Egg Sinker egg sinker and either a 3/0 or 5/0 circle hook. It’s not complicated and both rigs will catch you catfish.

Click on my Arizona Catfishing Guide to learn more

For bait, I like to use a variety of baits. My go-to catfish baits are in order, chicken livers (marinated in garlic), cut-up raw chicken breast/tenders (marinated in Koolaid powder), raw jumbo shrimp, night crawlers, and hotdog chunks.

I prepare my chicken livers well before a fishing trip. I open up a fresh pint of chicken livers, split them into 2-3 small ziplocs, and dump in a heaping tablespoon of minced garlic in each ziploc. Then I leave the sealed bags on the counter or set them outside to “stew and brew” at room temperature.

Let that garlic infuse itself to the livers and allows the blood to coagulate Later I’ll double bag them into a larger ziploc and into the freeze they go until I make a trip catfishing.

For my cut-up chicken breast, I put these in a ziplock and sprinkle in a pack of strawberry, black cherry or berry Kool-Aid powder (unsweetened). Mix it well, then put it on the hook.

This is all you need to catch catfish, and don’t forget to have some patience.

Silverbell Lake Bass Fishing.

Lew’s Mach Smash SLP Baitcast Combo

Many of you will fish for the Largemouth Bass Silverbell Lake has. There is some nice size bass in the “Bell”, but you got your work cut out for you to catch them. I would encourage you, that if you hook a bigger bass (or catfish, crappie or trout), take your selfie and let it go back into the water. Catch and release lets other find the same enjoyment you did.

Finesse Tackle

My recommendation is to saddle up with some finesse gear and go for it. I think if you ask local experts, pairing up finesse gear with rigs like a Wacky Rig, Drop Shot or Ned Rig will usually do the trick. The water at Silverbell is very stained. So pick your bait colors carefully. You’re looking at the various pumpkins, watermelons, june bug, black, and dark blue & purple colors.

Medium to Heavy Tackle

Now if you want to throw heavier stuff, you can go wrong with a nice medium or medium-heavy baitcast combo like the Lew’s Mach Smash SLP Baitcast Combo. You can get this rig in 6’10” or 7’2″ lengths. The reel has a 7.5:1 gear ratio. I love Lew’s rod and reels. You cant go wrong with a Lew’s.

Do you need a heavy flipping stick? Well.., if all you have is heavy gear, then fish with what you got. But I feel heavy gear is overkill. Especially at Silverbell Lake.

I’m also a big fan of KastKing reels. I have a KastKing Royale Legend reel that I work with a lot. On both of these rigs I run 15lb braid with roughly a 10′ 15lb flourocarbon leader. I like to use these around ground cover and structures, or maybe throwing a frog on some lilies and grass mats on the water surface.

Local Bass Fishing Socal Media Sites

Join the local urban fishing Facebook like Tucson Urban Lakes Fishing or AZ Urban Fishing Community – AZUFC for additional information and local fishing tips. I think if you took a poll, the winning fishing method for catching bass for any Arizona urban lake is the……., drop shot rig.

Bass are bass and they have the same behavior as all bass do. Plan for dark/stained water conditions, high fishing pressure conditions, and fish those conditions accordingly

Silverbell Lake Crappie Fishing.

Silverbell Lake has always had crappie in it. But something changed in the past year or so. I heard a rumor that a couple years ago, some guy went to Patagonia Lake south of us and caught a cooler full of crappie and he transported them up here and dumped something like 50 of them into Silverbell Lake. 18 months -2 years later… BOOM! Folks are catching some decent sized crappie out of Silverbell lake. Go figure!

Regardless of whether that rumor is true or not. People are catching decent sized crappie and I’m starting to see a trend of folks targeting crappie at the Silverbell lake. More so on the north end of the lake.

My favorite rod and reel combo to use when Crappie fishing is my Shakespeare CrappieHunter Spincast Combo. It an ultralite rod and reel rig with a 9 foot rod. It’s sensitive and it’s also economical. It won’t break your budget.

Crappie Jigs

Crappie Magnet Fin Spin Kit.

One of the most popular methods to catch Crappie is the jig. Jigs are easy to use. You drop them into the water, then twitch your rod tip up and down, then do a slow retrieve, jigging all the way up. Pretty easy huh? You can also cast and retrieve them too.

I like to use the Crappie Magnet Fin Spin Kit. These for example have spinners added to the lure to give them some flash and sparkle in the water.

Artificial Tubs/Grubs

Add a small artificial tube or grub and let the magic happen. There are many more jigs available to you. These come unpainted (plain), or painted in a variety of solid colors and solid colors with eyes. When you buy your jigs, make sure you get yourself a mix of soft baits to use with your jigs.

These can be grubs, tubes, grubs with split tails (like squids), worms, minnows… and more. Whichever you choose, but sure to get a mixed pack of colors to go with your jigs.

plastic trout fishing lures

Well. I think this about wraps it up for this post. We covered the Silverbell Lake basics here. and of course you can use whatever tackle and baits you want

Suggested Tackle For SilverBell Lake

Looking to go fish Tucson’s Silverbell Lake? Here is a basic list of what I carry when I go there.