Jonathen Kosik, 10, holds a catfish hooked at Silverbell Lake as Brianna Castleman, 3, and Branden Castleman, 6, give it a look.

james gregg / arizona daily star

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If you've seen a "gone fishin' " sign, hope the person who hung it out isn't headed to Silverbell Lake in Northwest Tucson.

It's not that there's no fishin' at Silverbell. Just hardly any fish. Haven't been many since early April because of a failure in the city pump that fills the lake with groundwater.

There won't be any fish stocked at the lake at Christopher Columbus Park, 4600 N. Silverbell Road, until at least September, say Arizona Game and Fish officials, meaning the entire spring and summer fishing season is lost at the popular spot for senior citizens and children.

The broken pump caused the lake's water level to drop and the water's pH levels to rise, said Eric Swanson, the urban fishing program manager for Game and Fish. With high pH levels, Swanson said the fish will either die or become so lethargic they hover at the bottom of the lake and don't bite.

"We'd spend the money on them, and no one is enjoying them," Swanson said of the fish. "We've missed four stockings to date."

Karen Larkin, Parks and Recreation superintendent for the Northwest District, said the city needed time to fix the pump because "it's not something you pick up at a local hardware store." But it's fixed now, and Larkin said fishermen will be "back in business very shortly," although she added Game and Fish decides when to stock the lake.

That means fishermen won't be back in the business of catching fish at Silverbell until at least September, according to Game and Fish.

Swanson said Game and Fish normally stocks the lake every two weeks through the spring and early summer. But Silverbell has been bypassed since early April because of the high pH levels. And there's only one more stocking until mid- to late September because the lake isn't stocked over the summer, Swanson said.

"There's nothing indicating that new water has been brought into that lake to change the pH level," to allow the lake to be stocked at the end of June, Swanson said.

He said it's up to the lake's owner — the city of Tucson — to get the lake into condition where it can be stocked. He said the city potentially could have used chemical treatments to lower the pH, but that hasn't happened.

What's worse, Swanson said, is it's a popular spot for many who like to fish.

"We've been getting numerous calls from anglers who are quite concerned," he said.

One of those concerned is 65-year-old retiree Steve Radosevich, who said he hasn't been able to fish for six weeks because of the pump outage. He said he has tried to contact the city several times, but nobody he speaks with "knows anything about this."

"I don't know what to do about it," he said.

Radosevich said plenty of people head out to Silverbell to fish — himself included — because its relaxing and it's cheap, only $20 for an urban fishing license to fish all year. "I sit out there a couple hours, and I really enjoy it," he said.

He wants to know why the problem has taken so long to be rectified.

"That's six weeks now," he said. "They've got money for everything else, but nothing for us senior citizens."

Find more photos of fishing at Silverbell Lake at azstarnet.com/slideshows