East Fork and West Fork: Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest
The Black River forms southwest of Alpine where its East and West Forks meet at Buffalo Crossing. The East Fork is the easy one: Forest Road 276 follows it for about seven miles with campgrounds and pull-offs, and Arizona Game and Fish stocks it with hatchery Apache trout through the summer alongside browns and rainbows. The West Fork is reached from Forest Road 68 with a walk, and its upper reaches above a fish barrier hold wild Apache trout. Both forks are on national forest land and need only an Arizona license.
The upper canyon: Buffalo Crossing to the reservation line
Below the forks the main stem drops into a bedrock canyon that runs about 35 miles to Paddy Creek. Forest Road 25 crosses the river at Wildcat Crossing, the one road bridge on this reach, and a trail follows the river from there. Access is by foot, camping along the river is the practical way to reach the best water, and rubber-soled wet wading works most of the year. The forest section runs roughly a dozen miles below the bridge before the river enters the Fort Apache and San Carlos reservations.
Reservation water: Paddy Creek to the Salt
From the forest boundary down the Black is the line between the White Mountain Apache (north) and San Carlos Apache (south) reservations, and a tribal permit is required to fish, camp or even hike there. The White Mountain Apache Tribe sells a daily Special Use Permit for the Black and Salt River corridor online and at its Hon-Dah outlets, and honors San Carlos permits along the shared banks. The tribe closes the upper reservation reach above the Big Bonito Creek confluence from after Labor Day through April 1. The gauge on this page, Black River near Fort Apache, is on this lower reservation reach, well downstream of the trout canyon, and browns give way to smallmouth bass as the river warms toward the Salt.
Brown and rainbow trout
The canyon below the forks is brown and rainbow water, with the largest browns feeding on crayfish at night in the deep pools. Rainbows are the day fish in the pockets and riffles. Both are the dominant trout of the middle river, and the Fly Fisherman magazine feature on the Black describes the browns of the lower forest reach, near the reservation line, as the biggest in the system.
Apache trout
Arizona's state fish was one of the first species listed under the Endangered Species Act and has since been delisted after decades of recovery work. On the Black it lives in the East Fork (hatchery fish) and the upper West Fork (wild fish). They are not catch-and-release only: under the 2025-26 Arizona regulations Apache trout count in the statewide 4-trout limit, except on the West Fork from Hayground Creek to the reservation boundary, which is catch-and-release with artificial flies and lures from May 1 through December 31.
Season and regulations
Arizona has no closed trout season, but the forks are snowed in until roads open, usually early April on the East Fork. The West Fork above the upper Apache trout barrier is closed January 1 through April 30. The statewide limit is 4 trout in any combination and live baitfish are prohibited in Apache County. On the reservations, White Mountain Apache Tribe and San Carlos Apache Tribe permits and rules replace state rules.
No fly shop publishes a flow target for this river. The Fort Apache gauge averages roughly 45 cfs in June and around 200 cfs in the August monsoon over the last 30 years of USGS records, and the range on this page reflects that summer and fall baseflow; the upper canyon carries much less water than the gauge shows. Check the current AZGFD regulations for the Pinetop region before you go.