White River, Arizona

Permits and where to start

Everything on the White River is inside the Fort Apache Indian Reservation, and an Arizona license is not valid there. A White Mountain Apache Tribe recreation fishing permit is required for anyone 10 and older; buy it online from the tribal Game and Fish Department, at its office in Whiteriver, or from the department's permit vendors. The department's regulations page is the place to confirm which streams are open and which carry special rules before you drive in.

North Fork White River

The North Fork is the more heavily fished of the two forks. The reach at Ditch Camp, east and upstream of the R78 road crossing to the confluence of Snake and Becker creeks, is a catch-and-release, single-hook artificials-only area that is closed to vehicles; the rest of the North Fork is open under general tribal rules and receives stocked trout.

East Fork White River

The East Fork joins the North Fork near the town of Whiteriver to form the main White River. It is stocked, gets less traffic than the North Fork, and is general-regulation water where the tribal bag limit applies. Below the forks the main White River warms and drops toward the Salt through Fort Apache, past the USGS gauge.

Apache trout

Arizona's native trout was pulled back from extinction by the White Mountain Apache Tribe, which closed its headwater streams decades before federal listing. Self-sustaining Apache trout live in the tribe's designated catch-and-release creeks and the North Fork at Ditch Camp; elsewhere they count toward the general trout limit, so learn the fish and release the natives. Hatchery Apache trout are also stocked on the reservation.

Rainbow and brown trout

Rainbows are the put-and-take fish across the reservation and the tribe stocks both forks; browns hold in the deeper runs of the lower forks. The tribal permit covers all of them under one limit.

Season and regulations

The gauge near Fort Apache sits below the forks, so it reads higher than the water you will fish. It averages 50 to 100 cfs from June through September, rises with snowmelt to 300 cfs in March and April, and falls to 45 cfs in October. No outfitter publishes a flow target here, so this page compares the gauge to 30 to 150 cfs, the summer and fall band in the USGS record when the high-elevation forks are at their best; runoff and monsoon storms push it above that.

White Mountain Apache Tribe rules: season open year-round unless posted; daily trout limit 5 for adults, 3 for ages 10 to 14 and 2 for children under 10, all trout species combined; one pole with no more than two hooks, flies or lures; the North Fork at Ditch Camp and the tribe's listed Apache trout creeks are catch and release with single-hook artificials only. Confirm in the current WMAT Game and Fish regulations.