Day 3 was a long day for us, but it was so worth it. Rio Grande cutthroat trout were still the target, but we had crossed state lines and were now fishing in southern Colorado. This was a new watershed for us and one that was far more open and inviting than the tight little bluelines we fished in northern New Mexico.
We parked at the trailhead access and unfortunately the lot was not empty. It wasn’t crowded, but it looked like we’d run into another fisherman or two. Then a van pulled up while we were rigging up and a whole family with fishing rods dumped out. Now I knew for sure we’d run into other anglers. We had to hike in to get to where wanted to fish and these folks appeared to be very casual anglers at best, so hopefully we weren’t vying for the same water.
We passed the family on the trail as we were hiking in. Then we ran into two anglers on the hike in and while chatting with one of them we learned that they had fished the same stream the two days prior and done well. Now they were fishing a section downstream and they pointed out where they planned to finish the day, which wasn’t much further, and if we started there we’d have fresh water (at least as today was concerned).
I wasn’t really sure why’d you fish the same small stream three days in a row, especially with all the other great water in the area, but after our day of fishing was over, I came to understand why.
I used a mix of sources to plan this trip out, but New Mexico Game & Fish and the Western Native Trout Initiative make it very easy to find where you need to go to target these fish. I’ll be very honest and admit that it takes some of the fun out of it with how free and available information is to find these days. This is not necessarily a complaint because the more people that care about the fish the better and the only way to really care about something is to experience it, so in that way the available knowledge is appreciated, but the process just isn’t the hunt that it used to be. I can pretty much figure out in a night what use to take me weeks. It’s still rewarding to put in the effort to travel out and catch something you’ve only seen online, I don’t think that will ever change.
We started our day with a stop at The Drift Fly Shop in Pueblo and the guy working behind the counter couldn’t have been any nicer. He wasn’t able to give us much intel on the area we were headed, but he was very pleasant and engaging. We stopped at another shop later in our trip that was in the area we were fishing and we didn’t get that same feeling. It was pretty much just a big circle jerk of guides who looked at us like we just broke into the place. There was one young guy that sold us flies who at least tried. I just hate when fly shops give me bad vibes, I mean we all enjoy the same thing, why would my presence put you off? Fly shops can go either way in my opinion and if you’ve got a good local one take advantage of it.
After the customary Wal-Mart stop for supplies we continued onto our destination, which was in northern New Mexico, where we set up camp and then hit the nearby trailhead to hopefully take us to some RGCTs on day one. The drive was a pretty one; I’ve never been to the southern Rockies, it’s such an interesting mix of mountains and desert. We passed dust devils, prairie dogs, and pronghorn on our drive, and I loved every bit of it!
It did not take long at all to catch a fish. In fact the first hole I stopped in a brown whacked my dry. I think Blake’s experience was similar. It’s been customary for us to take a picture with the first fish just in case we never catch another, so we put check marks next to a New Mexico brown trout on pretty quickly on day one.
The stream was a tight one with a pretty good amount of elevation change and a healthy amount of brown trout. If you could find a place to get a cast off you generally had a really good shot at catching a fish, they were there, casting to them was just tough. North Georgia prepared us for this though! If you can fish a blueline up there you can fish a blueline anywhere.
I vaguely recalled a barrier on this stream in my research and we hiked the approximate distance I thought it was from the trailhead, but we did fish a fair amount below it to start. We ended up finding the actual barrier falls on the hike back out, but as you can see above, I was able to find a Rio Grande cutthroat trout somewhere above it – my first one!
We quit fishing not long after that fish simply because we ran out of daylight. It’s been a while since I’ve hiked out of somewhere in the dark but this was one of those days. We probably covered more ground than we should have, especially on day one, but I was fueled by adrenaline and excitement, it would have been tough to pull me off the water otherwise.
Packing up to leave is always bittersweet for me. On the one hand I’m usually ready to be home and see my family by the end of every trip. On the other hand getting back home means getting back to the daily grind and the stresses that go with it. Plus I hate the activity of packing up, I’d rather be fishing.
We did do a little more fishing before we headed out. I had to make one more try at a bull trout before putting the fly rod up to travel home. I chose a juicy looking roadside run to pick apart with a streamer and did manage to fool a cutthroat, but no bulls were raised.
Up above the juicy run was this cliff face that produced several fish for Marcus and I, much more productive than the run below. We headed out shortly after fishing those two spots. It was time to head back to civilization and talk to the families we had not spoken with since arriving at our campsite.
Milk shakes were secured at the nearest gas station and breweries were visited once we were back in Spokane – milk shakes and beer – staples for any western native trout trip! Stay tuned for a report from this year’s trip to Northern New Mexico and Southern Colorado!
Mountains to Marsh 