Communications and Public Affairs - consulting and freelancing
June Arizona fishing report: Central region – Bartlett a hot spot, Roosevelt now a trophy hole for bass
The spot spots to hit right now, and perhaps through June, are: 1) Bartlett Lake, where the water temperature tops out at about 76 degrees, triggering a great top-water bite, and 2) Roosevelt Lake. All the central region lakes (Pleasant, Apache, Canyon, Saguaro) are free of golden algae and fishable for largemouth bass.
Here’s a rundown of these top spots for June from licensed professional fishing guide Gary Senft Also, see the water levels for the Salt River chain of lakes..
BARTLETT LAKE (1,766 feet, 59% elevation) – The top-water bite has begun. As the water temps rise, the bass’s metabolism becomes optimal and they begin to chew. For top-water bites, hit the lake first thing in the morning and throw Libino Rico’s or Whopper Ploppers. Clear colors have been working best for Senft since the lake is the clearest he’s seen.
Once the sun comes up, bass move deeper (they have no eyelids) and anglers can follow the fish by throwing dropshot rigs to the shoreline and working them back to 10-15 feet of water. Watermelon candy and green pumpkin have been the best colors (as has been the longtime trend).
ROOSEVELT LAKE (2,146 feet, 95% elevation) — An hour and a half north of Phoenix, this lake is more than 30 miles long and is the largest lake in central Arizona.
Senft said the predominant bass species at this lake is now a largemouth/Florida-strain hybrid (due to Arizona Game and Fish Department beginning stocking the Florida-strain bass around 5 years ago). Senft said the bass are now 2- 10 pounds. Their main forage, he said, is gizzard shad, which themselves can get to 15 inches in length. So want a trophy? Add Roosevelt to the list for trophy bass lakes in the area, along with Canyon, Saguaro and Apache.
For beginning anglers, Senft has a ton of fishing videos on his website, www.fishingwithGarySenft.com.
May fishing report, Central Arizona region – top-water time at Roosevelt
The highlight of the central region right now according to Arizona fishing guide and instructor Gary Senft is Roosevelt Lake, which has seen an excellent top-water bite, especially during afternoons when water temperatures rise to around 70 degrees. Bartlett Lake is a bit slow, Apache Lake is experiencing a golden algae bloom, Lake Pleasant is fishing average (decent numbers of stripers being caught) , and no report from Saguaro. The best option for shore anglers right now, however, is Bartlett Lake.
The Salt River chain of lakes elevation all are more than 90 % full. In the Verde system, Horseshoe Lake is at 82% and Bartlett 63%. See the SRP lake levels.
In general, during the next couple of weeks, fish warmer water during afternoon for largemouth bass when water temperatures peak as we’re coming off an unseasonably cool spring.
ROOSEVELT LAKE (2,148 feet in elevation, 97% full) –– Hit afternoons when water temperatures max out at around 70 degrees. The top-water bite has been good “all day” using Ricos, Senft said. Try different retrieval patterns. On Friday, May 3, from 10-11 a.m., Senft was ripping Ricos across the surface and getting bass to emerge from trees to blast the steel. Also, flipping Texas-rigged brush hogs has produced good numbers of largemouth bass, but Senft does not recommend throwing dropshots becauise of the high numbers of trees that get anglers snagged. Senft said bass have had a spawn at Roosevelt Lake despite an unseasonably cool spring. Senft also reported his son caught a nice smallmouth bass on May 3.
BARTLETT LAKE (1,770 feet, 63%) – The top-water bite has not begun yet at Bartlett Lake, which has seen a water temperature of 65-68 degrees lately. Senft said SRP plans to add 14 feet in elevation to the lake beginning Monday at 12,000 cubic-feet-per-second. “The fish have been confused because the water level has been up and down,” Senft said.
For more videos and reports from Senft, visit FishingwithGarySenft.com.
Campaign tracking: a crucial tool for marketing success
Understanding how a campaign is performing saves marketers time, money, and probably a ton of coffee.
An efficient and accurate campaign tracker is a vital analytics tool we use that allows for optimization of a campaign and keeps your content efforts on a straight and safe path toward your objectives. Running a campaign without link tracking is like driving through a mountain pass … while looking through the back window.
End of the day, it answers a vital question: Is any of this working?
Campaign tracking 101
Campaign tracking shows the performance of links that point to a website. Links a marketer has identified as important to track could go to a direct purchase, newsletter sign-up, or more information on a product.
With each link in a campaign, parameters associated with a link are set, such as:
• Source: Website or other referrer where the click originated.
• Medium: The type of clicked link (organic, email, social).
• Term: Keywords a user entered in a search.
• Content: Type of ad (display, Facebook).
• Campaign: The name of your campaign.
How did a visitor get to my website?
What prevented a visitor from reaching my product page?
How many visitors clicked on a link?
Answers to these questions wipe a picture clean to see a campaign’s performance associated with your business objectives.
Consistency is key
Organization and communication regarding the use of campaign parameters can make or break a campaign.
Be sure your team enters exact names used in these parameters so that data is organized and effective.
Take the following example of Google Analytics Campaign URL Builder:
With each link that is built — in this example “Resolve to Renew” campaign — the campaign source, medium, name and content fields must be consistent with spelling, including underscores.
For example, people might use different variations of the campaign medium. One team member errantly builds a link with the medium “Twitter” and others correctly enter “social” (to track all social mediums). One result is that clicks from these links will show up as having separate referral sources in analytics reports.
Consistent communication across team members as to the exact use of terms when building campaigns will allow for accurate aggregating of campaign data.
Making sense of campaign data: a simple spreadsheet
Marketers could use Google Docs or Excel to manage parameters used campaign tracked URLs, but across an entire organization that is not always a viable option. Try one of the spreadsheet program available.
Get started building your campaign links today and see how tracking your URLs saves time, money and yes — coffee.
Fish AZ blog wins National Award
What started as a once-a-week blog turned into a content marketing machine. In 4 years of WordPress hustling, the Fish AZ blog, created and maintained by Walter Outdoors sole proprietor Nick Walter from 2014-2017 while working at The Arizona Game and Fish Department, had reached a half-million pageviews.
Walter was humbled July 9-12, 2017 for honors from the Association for Conservation Information Inc’s, which presented a National Award in the Online Community Engagement category for “Fish AZ.”
The blog was the featured platform for engagement and was promoted by social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram) and the weekly fishing report newsletter. The blog turned into a microsite that was finally fazed out in 2022 in lieu of new fishing report options.
Blog content strategy
The blog utilized polls and surveys and simple questions to help guide a content strategy for the target audience — beginning anglers to Arizona.
Using Google Analytics to create and measure goals, the blog was constantly optimized and content was re-targeted. The eventual result was a blog that hit the target audience (primarily 25-45 year olds and new-ish anglers) with content that spoke that audience’s language.
See a presentation analytics report.
Online community engagement
Engaging topics were formed through the ideation process. A good idea for a blog or other piece of content is like setting the coordinates of a space shuttle. If you want to land on the moon, you better have taken time to set a precise course of action.
The blog featured a “Join the discussions” call to action on the left sidebar:
And the “Got questions?” widget encourages more problem-solving opportunities.
Comments were answered promptly and cheerfully (and drive a customer through the sales cycle — in this case to the purchase of a fishing license).
This the the cocktail party that a blog can feature!
Marry me? The power of brand storytelling
Brand storytelling is like common sense dating. Don’t go straight from the cocktail party to the wedding altar.
Like a relationship, trust is formed over time: the first meeting, a coffee date, lunch, dinner, friendship, kiss … and finally a commitment.
In the same way, great customer relationships are formed over time — relationships are NOW created with content, and less so with people. A content creator builds trust with a potential customer through content that speaks to their soul before encouraging them to buy.
Like this:
The content marketing cycle
Walterations uses the “8 steps to successful content marketing” as developed by Vertical Measures:
- Strategy development. Develop a target audience, content strategy and objectives.
- Ideation. What are the best ways to reach this audience?
- Content creation. Develop a content calendar. We were born to create and cultivate.
- Optimization. Get content OUT FRONT: featured on page 1 of Google or on the local news station.
- Content promotion. Social media tools, paid advertising, news releases, story pitches.
- Distribution. Hit “publish” or “tweet” or “send.”
- Lead nurturing. Follow up on potential clients, share updates, continue newsletter creation.
- Measurement. Report results and go with what works. Walterations prefers Google Analytics Data Studio.
How else will we know what is working — and is not working?
To have Nick Walter brand your story onward, email nick@getwaltered.com
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