On the first day of the new year I thought I would go try my luck on the Pecos River in Pecos NM. I live in the town of Pecos and this river flows through the town. It originates in the canyon north of town in the Sangre De Cristo Mountain range. Most of the river is frozen over this time of the year but if you go up the canyon 10 or so miles there are some spots exposed to the sun and you have a few small sections that are fishable.
I started my day at the old mining town of Tererro. I didn’t have much luck but managed to hook a really small rainbow that wiggled off my line as I was reaching for it. After that it was slow. I moved up the river a ways between Tererro and Cowles(another old mining town) and hit a section of river there. I managed to get one small Brown landed.
No one really fishes this river in the winter for obvious reasons seeing that most of it is frozen over and there is not a lot of activity. I just went with the go to flies; the Stonefly and Hares Ear.
I will have to play around a bit more with size and color and see if I can generate more interest from the fish. But, at least I am off on a decent start for this years season, I didn’t skunked anyway…
Edit
On a good tip I will keep this thread as a running log of my trips on the Pecos and it’s feed waters for the year.
WOW - a pretty day in a great setting, with some seriously cold water and a beautiful little brown trout. I’d say that’s way ahead of getting skunked anywhere, anytime.
A nice report and a lovely setting. Thanks vmabuck. We’ve got 15" of new snow and temps in the single digits so this reportage really warms me up.
mcsteff
The Pecos is a very nice area. The river and feeder streams are awesome fishing (during season, winter is proving to be a challenge) and if you are willing to hike there are stocked alpine lakes and you can follow the creeks into the mountains for miles.
It is also one of the few places that still has native populations of Rio Grande Cutthroat. One of my favorite quick fishes in the summer is to head to the end of the canyon at Jack’s Creek and hike up that hitting the small pools and shallow flats.
You don’t get any monsters but one or two beautiful Cutthroats makes my day a bit more tranquil. It is nice to be able to do this on a daily basis if I wanted. It only takes me about 20 minutes to scoot to the end of the canyon.
If I want a quicker trip I can just stop along the Pecos at any point in the canyon. Over last summer I was probably on the river at least 4 times a week. I have actually pulled a 22" Trout out of that river so the lunkers are there.
This next summer I am planning some backpacking trips to explore the upper reaches of some of the wilderness creeks. I will focus on Jack’s Creek and Mora Creek.
