most of the major resivoirs have flatheads but ive been stickin to the rivers, the salt river and verde river. back home in missouri thats about all i fished is rivers for flats so I tend to stick with whats comfortable for me.

Im not sure where in tucson to go but if you head west on I-10 towards pheonix you can get to the salt river, shoot on second thought the salt may actually run through tucson. im not sure though.

asfar as livebait goes it can get tricky with all the regs on livebait and in alot of the state its illegal to use live blue gil period. but to put it simply if you want to use live bait it has come from the water you are fishing. about the only live bait stores sell is night crawlers and meal worms.

In the rivers ive been having pretty good luck for channel cats and an occassional flathead on frozen anchovies which are hard to get in my town I had to have one of the grocery stores order it for me and I keep a good supply of it too I have about 8lbs in my freezer lol.

for terminal takle I use a surf rig with 1/0 khale hooks and a 1 to 3 oz river sinker for bank fishing at lakes. on rivers here because of mild currents I'll use a slip rig with a 3/4 to 1 1/2 oz egg sinker with about 2 feet of leader with a 1/0 to 2/0 khale hook depending on the size of bait. after i feel the sinker hit the bottom then Ill slack line it and let the current drift the bait if i notice the line get tight I'll let a little more line out if it gets toofar down stream ill reel it in a bit or if it feels like the baits gone Ill reel it in to check.