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Some friends and I would like to plan a fishing trip to New Mexico in the spring. We have already fished Ruidoso and would like to try somewhere else on a budget. We are exploring various leases and clubs in the southern part of the state.
Anyone have any experience in this area and can give suggestions?
I went to college in Las Cruces and used to fish southern NM a lot. One of my favorite trips was to the Gila river. If you head for the Gila hot springs you will cross the gila river several miles before you get to the springs. And a few miles south of the river crossing is a trail called the alum mt. trail. It drops down into the gila river canyon. Hike down the trail and then a couple of miles downstream and you will be in some of the best smallmouth and channel catfish fishing in NM. The water still has some trout in this area but they thin out quickly as you go downstream due to water temp. I used to catch lots of 2 to 4 lg smallmouth and channel cats up to 20 lbs. the further downstream you get the fewer other people you will meet. (You rarely meet anyone anyway) You can also begin your hike at the river crossing and avoid the alum mt descent. this would add about 2 to 3 miles to your hike. I've always wanted to take a kayak through the entire canyon- bet you would catch some real trophies. The take out would be about 30 miles downstream (I can't remember the name of the campground though) . There are also a couple of lakes in the Gila area that are stocked with trout.
You don't say whether you are just after trout, or if you are looking for warm water species, there is Elephant Butte reservoir for stripers and downstream I have heard there are nice walleye. Our club has a leased area on a trout stream on the east side of the Sacramento mountains, if you are interested, pm me for details.
We are mostly interested in trout waters but not opposed to exploring some warm water areas.
If you want a shot at big fish, try Stone Lake on the Jicarrilla Apache Reservation. You do NOT need a guide to fish the lake. A boat (no motor) or float tube would be good but you can also fish it from shore. Use a damsel nymph fly. You need to buy a daily tribal fishing permit.
http://www.jicarillahunt.com/fishing/
You can take a day trip to Stone Lake from Navaho Dam on the San Juan adn fish both the San Juan and Stone Lake.
Google fly fishing on the Gila River and the Rio Penasco. You'll find some articles on my blog, UPSTREAM that are less than 18 months old. The Penasco is a spring creek with some run-off from the mountains up around Cloudcroft in the Spring. There is a bit of public access from the Lincoln National Forest, but not much. Most of it is private. The Mulcock Ranch has the good fishing on the Penasco. That'll cover the scoop on trout fishing in southern NM worth traveling for.
There is good warm water fishing on down the Gila as indicated above. Do your homework! The Gila is serious roadless wilderness country from 12 miles below that bridge on up. Below that it is still pretty remote and extremely rugged national forest. Runoff is usually over sometime in early to mid-May.
We're getting a lot of snow above 6k feet in southern NM this winter.