Knoll Lake up on the Mogollon Rim of Arizona has always been a choice northern lake to camp and fish. If you have a higher clearance vehicle, you can get to the southern point and have an amazing large campsite all to yourself while having a short hike down to your own quiet piece of the lake where other campers can’t get to without a boat. The stocked rainbow and German brown trout seem to find particular interest in this side of the lake, likely because it’s away from all of the fishing pressures and activites on the north and west shores. I’ve camped here for many years because it’s one of the lakes a bit further down dirt roads than the others so it weeds out some of the people traffic that the other Rim Lakes see every weekend.
We discovered that the crayfish population in this like is rather robust. Full of edible sized adults, we began crayfish trapping here years ago with great success each summer and turned it into quite an event. Hundreds of boiled and seasoned crawdads spread out on cookie sheets on the camp table make for some really fun social time with your people.
Here’s a look at some of my favorite pictures taken over a dozen years camping, fishing, and crawdadding at Knoll Lake.
