There is not a lot of info about the Rio Pueblo Gorge as far as fishing but it is supposedly really good Brown fishing.
As soon as we get a week of good weather I will make the descent and hike up it and see what I can do there.
Should be good!
Come on down…
If anyone is still keeping up with this thread I am sure you are getting a bit tired of hearing about the Pecos and the Rio Grande. Well, get ready! I put feet in new water this weekend.
The Rio Chama just below Abiquiu dam is where I found myself on Sunday. This trip was with a few people from High Desert Angler. This isn’t a paid function it is just something they do every now and then. I think they were going to cancel it since I was the only who showed any interest in going but luckily I made a quick stop by the shop Friday night after work and a couple of the guys were in there and we made some plans.
So, on Sunday we all showed up at 9:00 AM and headed towards the river. The Rio Chama is located about 45 minutes NW of Espanola. The drive is very nice and I have been by the lake before after riding some of the FSR on my DR650 Dual Sport bike. This particular trip dropped us down the backside of the dam. After a few switchbacks you are there. The river surroundings are very scenic. It is a nice small canyon that twists along for a good little clip then opens up into your typical High Desert valleys you see all over this region.
The river is a major tributary of the Rio Grande and flows at around 80-100 cfs. Where we fished was very slow moving water with deep pools and large submerged structures, mainly large boulders that were successful in making it all the way into the river from the cliffs above.
It didn’t take long to hook up and as I pulled the first fish close I was sure it was a rainbow but as I got it closer it definitely had a browns spotting but the color of the fish was rainbow all the way. Either it is the lightest skinned brown I have ever seen or it is a hybrid of some sort.
The fish I caught that day were all about this size. Mr. Norman Maktima, a 13 year senior guide with High Desert Angler, managed to pull out a few good sized fellas.
Here is a distinguished member of the future of NM Fly Fishing. I forgot his name but he had to be around 13 or 14 years old. Just about the age when I started. He has some years behind him though.
Some of the slow sections we fished.
I only stayed for a couple hours but this will be my next trip as soon as I get a day off. I want to get a whole day in here. There is so much more to explore.
Over…
Great report. Thanks for sharing. Good to start 'em young, but hurts when they show us up…
Kelly.
Awesome report!
That is a good looking brown!
Keep posting the reports we love reading them.
Sasha
The plan was to go to the Rio Chama this morning but the couch was just a bit too comfortable after waking up. So I quickly talked myself into a day on the Pecos. I knew there would be some more river open since the last week has been brilliant weather.
The wind was kicking up a bit but you can never tell how it will be in the canyon. I could immediately see that a lot of the river has opened up. I thought that even if I did not catch anything I would still be happy to get into some new sections of the river. Hotting the same three spots all winter was getting old fast.
I won’t say much about the first pool. The only action I had there was catching the bait fishermans birds nest that had been anchored on the bottom. It didn’t take long to call that one.
The next spot I was hoping would be open is Mile Marker 13 or at least that is what I call it. As I rounded the corner I could see up the river to the Private Property Cable (PPC) and sure enough it was nice and open. I didn’t change rigs from what I first had on, a Green Rock Worm with a small red San Juan Worm dropper. I made my way to the first section I would hit before heading the the PPC.
Maybe two casts? I don’t remember but I certainly felt the strike, which has no been common throughout the winter here. I got him in and it was a nice looking small brown.
After I let him get back to whatever business he was up to it didn’t take but a few more casts and got another fairly aggressive bite. I got this guy close and he wiggled off as I reached for him. I kept working this section and then got the most aggressive bite of the day. It kind of shocked me a bit. This one didn’t stay on too long, I did get to see that it was another brown of similar size.
They all were hammering the Green Rock Worm I had on. Nothing I put as a dropper even phased them it seemed. I figured that was enough in that section. I moved up to the PPC. It didn’t take long here either until I felt another strike.
This time it was a rainbow and he loved that worm as much as the browns below him.
This is the fly of the day. They were hitting this and only this with some serious intensity.
I figured that was enough for the day. I didn’t want to hit my other go to sections today. I might want to get their again tomorrow if time permits.
The action is picking up now and I can’t wait until the smaller tribs start clearing. It has been so long since I have caught a nice Rio Grande Cutthroat.
I must have patience…
… yeah, we’ll have some of that too, Buck. But not a lot.
Looks like things are shaping up nicely for you. Haven’t been to NM so it still surprises me when I see the snow and ice, even though I know that you guys do have some serious elelvation there. Keep posting reports like this and I may have to put it on my itinerary one of these days.
John
P.S. Love the headon shot of the rainbow.
You won’t be disappointed…!
Thanks for posting another great report! It looks like you had a fun day.
Awesome, as usual. Like the Green Rock Worm fly. I tie one similar to Bob Jacklin’s recipe, but I like the looks of this one better. Worth tying up a few for my waters. Thanks for sharing.
Kelly.
The Pecos continues to open as the weeks progress. We have a few snow storms that try and bully us around but their bark seems worse than their bite. It will snow with intensity for a few hours off and on but once it stops the temperature cannot support it.
I was extra excited to get out on the water this weekend because of two things. 1) I have brand new line on my reel and 2) I will be using a furled leader for the first time.
The furled leader I came across was at the Reel Life’s garage sale. They were two bucks a piece so I couldn’t pass them up. I have always heard about them and now I would finally see what all the hoopla was about. The leaders I bought were unithread in a green color and 7 feet in length. Now I usually fish with a 7.5 foot leader so the first order of business was taking a couple feet off them. All I did was go from large end to small end and tie a perfection loop then snip off the excess of the large end. Easy, now I have a 7 foot furled leader.
I put anywhere from 3-4 feet of tippet on that day. I started with 3 and moved up to 4 as I moved into a deeper pool. I was fishing one of my Green Rock Work (Caddis Larva) Patterns with various droppers. They always seem to hit that Larva though but I did get a taker on a red bead head midge. I had been throwing various colors of midge out for the last few trips on the pecos and I have to assume this is related to them also liking very small red San Juan Worms.
The first fish of the day wiggle off but I could see he was on the Larva. The next fish was the motivator that took the red midge. He was small but obviously hungry.
His spots were small and he didn’t have the usual look of the Browns in that river.
I kept working this pool from a good distance as I could not find my hippers for some reason. I was wearing my knee high insulated North Carolina Specials so I was limited to where I could go. Well, pretty much all I could do was step off the ice into the water and that was about my max depth. It was right on the edge and a couple of times a little water spilled over into the boot.
So I was throwing long casts that I am not necessarily used to. I even conjured up visions of the turbo spey casting videos I watched the other day and practiced that a bit. I felt a couple of them do their thing but I was unsuccessful at getting any type of consistency.
I got the line where it needed to be and pulled in a nice looking Brown who was also hungry for some green larva, who can resist? They actually look really soft and bugggy when they are wet.
So I need to mention how the leader performed. It was excellent. I loved how it rolled out the tippet with ease. I even tried a little dry fly action and it presented excellent. Much better that any tapered mono leader I have used.
I think this will be a new staple for me. The only thing I will do next is get my hands on a furled leader made of mono and see how that stacks up to the unithread leader I had.
I also want to say that the leader made the fight a bit easier. I tend to see a lot of fish wiggle off my line but not today. Only one fish popped off and in my book that is an improvement. I will have to get out for a full day with the leader and see what ratio I have after a dozen or so fish.
All in all though I think I am a changed man…
… for sure, Buck. Great job writing it up.
Glad you joined the furled leader gang. Soon enough, you’ll be making your own. Very easy, you know, and much less expensive than the $2 you paid for the ones you found to buy.
Changed for the better …
John
Very cool report and those are some awesome pics. Well done! I am glad you like the furled leader!!!
Ya, I already got the dimensions for the jig and plan to go to Home Depot tonight LOL!
Another day on the Pecos; another day of seeing new water emerge from the ice and snow. On this trip Michigan Jonah from Outside Magazine came long. This was Jonah’s first trip out on western waters. While he has been known to seek out giant Steelhead in his home state of Michigan this would be his first introduction to Western waters.
Who knew he would score a Trifecta while he was out?
As we cruised up the canyon we stopped at a trusty spot just before MM13. It had recently cleared it’s last thin layer of ice so I thought it might be good to see what we could get out of it. Jonah took the deeper section first and I hit a section just above where the riffle met the pool. After a few casts a little brown decides to take the Gold Ribbed Hairs Ear I had dropped off the usual Uncased Caddis I have been using.
I hooked up with a little Rainbow just after that couldn’t have been more than 4 inches. They both hit on the Gold Ribbed Hairs Ear. That got me thinking about what they were saying at the Reel Life about Mayflies starting be present in the river. So I searched a few rocks in the riffle above the pool and there it was.
Not having any action after that we moved up to another section. Jonah worked one pool with out any luck so we kept moving farther up. We reached a go to spot which borders private land and always seems to produce decent fish. Jonah started working his way through it as I re rigged my line from an earlier casting disaster. I have to remember to look behind me before I start screaming the line out. So there is a tree along the bank of the Pecos that is now decorated with two of my flies and a strike indicator.
It’s very festive on the Pecos this time of year.
Well, right in the middle of my rigging Jonah hooked up! He got it in quick and netted it no problem. This is where the Trifecta comes in. This was his first Western Tout, his first German Brown, and the largest fish of the day.
Nice work!
I managed to pull another small Rainbow out before we left.
So the day was good. The fishing will only be getting better from here on out that is for sure. I really can’t wait for the dry fly action to start kicking in. I love the challenge of getting the fish out of this river nymphing in the winter time but it’s time for a change.
I did drive up to the confluence of the Mora on Saturday and I actually saw some small pieces of water through the snow! I also saw a slew of spinners and baiters out battling for any section they could toss their crankbait into. I almost forgot what this river was like in the warm season while I basically had it all to myself through the winter.
I don’t want to sound elitist towards bait fisherman but you have to walk a few hundred yards in this water to know my frustration. Let’s just say a lot of these types of fisherman have zero respect for this wilderness.
It kills me…
It looks like you guys had a fun and productive day! That sure looks like a fun little place to throw one of my 0wt rods. I might have to head to the southwest sometime. Plus I still want to get into some Apache and Gila trout in AZ (too bad I was not into fly fishing when I lived there).
I do have a question though. What is the deal with that “Keep Out” sign strung across the river?
That is where a private section of river starts. The guy isn’t very friendly either. He sat at the bank of his section up a ways there and stared at me for about 10 minutes one day. I waved and said hi and he never flinched.
It is a weird area of New Mexico…
Oh ok I wasn’t sure; besides the laws on fishing private property waters here are a bit different. Sounds like that guy is a real “nice” person :lol:
So I finally got the old man out on the water a few weeks ago. He is rusty to say the least. I think the fish can actually sense it is him fishing and they will go to another spot.
Either way it was fun. There was a lot of leader changing because of the knotmaster casting style of his and his skills at catching trees.
Fish were caught on this day, by me, between sessions of rerigging LOL!
The one gem for this day is I got to use a Scott S4 fast action 5 wt from work. What a rod that was. I will have to get a fast action rod in my quiver here soon. Shooting line was effortless and the accuracy was astounding.
It was a good day, we even got a surprise snow shower!
The old man:
Me showing him how to not knot your line
One of the fish that day
It’s always good to get out and fish with pops! good stuff!
I would like to drag him out more but he seems to be getting his *** kicked by allergies lately…