Red River, New Mexico Trip

[newtofly]

Doing a trip to Red River NM with a few friends from church in the first week of Sept. We plan to spend 2-3 days on the water.
I have 2 questions.

One what would be the best flies to use in that area during early Sept as I would like to tie some up before we go?

What would be the best couple of places to fish with our limited time?
The Red, Rio Grande, Rio Hondo, Cabresto, Goose Creek, or another???

Thanks in advance for the advice!

 

[mcnerney]

I've never fished there, but you might try calling one of the Taos fly shops. Here is a link to one that recommends using a dry dropper rig with size 14/16 nymphs. Taos, Chama, Rio Grande, Cimmaron, Red River, New Mexico Fishing Report / Taos Fly Shop - Taos New Mexico

Larry

 

[newtofly]

Thanks for the link Larry. I have been looking it over.
Has anyone got some good advice on the best waters to fish on this trip in Sept?

 

[cimarron]

May I suggest driving up through Questa to the Valle Vidal area and fishing the Rio Costilla. I usually try to fish in early Sept, it's gorgeous that time of year. The Shuree ponds are still open and stocked with 16" Rainbows that are a lot of fun to fish. Limit is 2 over 15", though. In the Rio I used #14 Hares ear and assorted Pheasant tail, Copper Johns, and Prince nymphs. In the ponds, use beadheads to get down. Olive wooly buggers were said to be the hot stuff but I didn't have much luck with them. BH Hares ear and Princes were my best flies. Aditional flies may be Blue wing olives soft hackled and Barr's emergers in #16. I even tried a #12 double BH olive stone fly in the pond with some luck. It's a good idea to tie your own since they are pricey in Red River! Good Luck! Glen

 

[newtofly]

Thanks so much for the advice and another place to consider. It sounds like it would be worth the trip over. I will look into it.
Thanks again!

 

[cimarron]

go to YouTube and search Valle Vidal comanche creek Rio Grande stocking. You will see some of the stream and views. Remember, it is release fishing. Glen

 

[newtofly]

The Valle looks great on the video, but it looks like we are going to be sitting right next to the Cimmaron. Couple of questions. How long does it take to get to the Valle from Eagle nest Lake? What can anyone tell me about Tolby, Clear, and Maverick Creek? Found some info on the Cimmaron, but not much on the feeder creeks. Thanks!

 

[cimarron]

Newtofly - From Eagles Nest lake going up through Red River, Questa, and Amalia, it will be around an Hour's drive, depends on how fast you go. Don't be in a hurry, too much to see! Don't know much about the other feeder creeks, except a friend of mine who works for NM Parks told me Tolby is a good place to go for more water. I think that means the Cimarron may be running a bit low. The Cimarron is a very good stream to fish, don't misunderstand, it's just that the Valle's Comanchee and Rio Costilla are so magnificient!
Now, there is another way of getting up to the Valle. East of Cimarron(town) about two miles is a small blue sign that says Valle Vidal. It's a gravel road and a bit rough in places but a 2-wheel PU can make it fine, just go slow. It's 21 miles to the entrance then another 6-8 miles to Shuree ponds, then another 3 miles to streams. I went that way once, wouldn't recommend! Good luck, I know you'll enjoy the trip. Glen E

 

[newtofly]

Thanks a bunch Glen and have been tying flies to get ready for the trip. We will be there in a few weeks and I am looking forward to it as it will be my first NM trip. I keep hearing so many great things about the fishing in NM. Cant wait to get hooked up. I will print out those directions you gave me to the ponds and the Valle. Thanks for all the help and I will let you know how the trip went when we get back.
Thanks!!!

 

[cimarron]

Saw where they stocked Shuree ponds with 400 - 17 inchers last week. The Cimarron got 1400 rainbows West of Cimarron. The flow is up around 50 in the Rio Costilla. I was leaving on the 8th Sept. May be leaving earlier, now!
Cheers, Glen

 

[cimarron]

Just got back from trip last night. Great trip, but the wind almost ruined it all! Newtofly, did the wind blow much where you were? Fished the Rio Costilla and Comanchee creek a couple of days. Caught my first true Rio Grande cut-throat! They are truley beautiful fish! Caught some of those 17 inchers in Shuree pond. My biggest was 20". Saw a 24" caught by a young lady using a purple/sparkle streamer of some sort. I got one and am going to try to have it duplicated for sure! Hope your trip worked out well. Isn't the Valle Vidal a beautiful place? Cimarron/Glen

 

[newtofly]

Fishing was good, but couldn't catch much on a dry. One highlight was catching my first fish on a fly that I tied. It was a 12" brown on a parachute adams!
Wind was kinda tough some of the time with the wind being up. Out fished all my buddies when we were below the hatchery outside of Questa( I think that was the town). Loved the water there much clearer than the Cimmaron.
The Cimmaron fished very well and I caught lots of fish every day. Largest fish I caught for the trip was a 14-15" rainbow.
Ended up nymphing most of the time. Only had three fish rise that I saw in three days. Nymphing was new to me as I had never done it. It took me a little while to figure some things out and visiting with the local fly shop helped. I ended up catching probably 30+ fish and had a blast with some great friends.
Glad your trip went so well. I am going to have to try the Valle next time. From where we were the fly shop said it was a 2 hr drive so we stayed a little closer.

 

[mcnerney]

If anyone else wants information on fishing northern New Mexico rivers, you might want to listen to Doc Thompson's episode on Fly Fishing Internet Radio called Wild Rivers of Northern New Mexico.
Doc Thompson | Fly Fishing

Larry

 

[ffcc82]

I hope I'm not too late but i just joined literally a couple minutes ago to answer your question. I fished the red just this last weekend for the 1st time. i started the weekend (camping) hiking into the rio grande gorge and fishing the upper. Aside from a couple bumps early, no luck but the scenery paid us back for the hike even w/ out fish. after a good nap, we decided on fishing the red for the evening. we had a few strikes and a couple hook-ups but only managed to land a couple fingerlings. We were however, dead set on returning the next day. The rumer was when we got there (by the fish hatchery), that some of the monsters from the feeding pond had been released into the red. I believed it later. I started the morning at the 1st decent size hole down from the bridge where i had watched a monster take my elk hair only to spit it before i could hook him. I also had hooked a smaller one and in the same motion, caught my rod tip in a tree. We all know what happened then. I saw a wooly bear catapillar that morning and flicked in off a rock to see what would happen. it flowed down the current and the same trout came up and hit it like a largemouth. Of course, I had nothing even close in my tackle. after a small hit (and miss), I decided to go furthur down. I decided to tie on a #12 mayfly dry and caught a little brownie. I got a large dry from another fisherman i ran into furthur down. It looked remotely like the wooly bear so i tied it on for a try. I decided to put a dropper on down to a #16 copper john. My second cast rendered my line traveling in the opposite direction of the current. It took me a poor hookset and about 30 seconds to pull the nymph out of his mouth (I would estimate him to be about 15 in). After some sulking i went to the next hole down and caught a fingerling rainbow. A few more misses would send me back upstream (I had a 4+ hr road trip back) I hit the rockwall one more time and caught 8 and 6 in rainbows. The last spot was of course where the monster was. I decided to feed him line from upstream w/ the crazy looking dry and a bh fb pheasant tail. upon noticing movement in my line, i pulled up and felt a return of at least three pounds of muscle flashing back and forth across the hole. i jumped up above him and observed the strugge. I couldn't do too much so eventually he just decided to try to go back into his current and get to the bottom. a few times of up and down and eventually the nymph came out of him also. After conversating w/ friends, I found that they had similar results and one of them was a 1st time fly fisherman. I had eventually caught fish on a dry mayfly (and seen may nymphs under rocks), an olive baetis nymph, copper john and a pheasant tail (all 3 beadheads). You could probably get away w/ some smaller detailed terrestrials also. The lower rio grande looked good w/ a lot of fisherman but we never got to it. We stopped momentarily at the rio pueblo on the way back and my buddy got 1 hit casting off a cliff w/ a yellow sally. I didn't have any luck but i was using a broken (and consequently shortened leader). Plus the water is mostly crystal clear and shallower so they w/ see you easily if you're close. In short loved the trip and definately loved the red. Hope i helped

 

[mcnerney]

ffcc82: Welcome to the forum and thanks for posting the excellent trip report! Sounds like you had a good time on the water.

Larry

 

[ffcc82]

New Mexico fishing advice

I am a new mexico resident and have been so for a year now. I am by no means a veteran on the fly but I started as soon as I got here a year ago. I have only put in about 6 trips so far since I have a wife and two kids to speak of. I have noticed all the threads about New Mexico seem to be questions on where to fish. My thoughts on this matter would be to set up shop in Taos and get some advice from the Taos fly shop. Most of the best fishing in the state is within a two hour drive w/ the rio pueblo, the lower rio grande, and the red being a 15 minute drive out of town. I have tried other fisheries like the Cimmeron. The problem that I had with that river is that it is heavily overgrown so if you're not a technically advanced fly caster, then this is not the place for you. The pecos is good but don't expect to catch any big ones. There's a few better places that you have to know how to get to though and that will get you into the possibility of better fish. I have also fished the upper rio grande in the canyon and although beautiful, this requires a more advanced approach to its deep and fast pools. Taylor streigt has a book about fly fishing new mexico. It is only about 20 bucks and has all the best trout waterways in the state mapped w/ his favorite areas, the best times of the year to fish them, and some guidelines of what to use. Asking someone at a fly shop what to use on a particular waterway is the wrong question. That's just like telling a charter captain in florida that you want to catch a particular fish and not even asking what's fishing well. Taos will offer you an area where something's always going to be biting therefore I would say start there and work your way out. Try it and you won't regret it.

 

[Fly2Fish]

Re: New Mexico fishing advice

ffcc82, welcome to the Forum, and many thanks for your informative review of fly-fishing possibilities in the Taos area. This will be particularly useful to me, as I love New Mexico but am not all that familiar with northern New Mexican fly-fishing venues (with the exception of the over-fished San Juan River).

 

[ffcc82]

Re: New Mexico fishing advice

If you read the question that new2fly asked in august you'll see that I responded (I guess a little too late). But It has the details of my first trip up there last weekend. It is an absolutely amazing area. There are at least 6 fisheries within the immediate area although from my limited experience, I am especially partial to the red. You can feast your eyes on monstrous trout in the feeding pond at the hatchery and then walk up or downstream and be in beautiful fishing waters. I'm sure after a day or so you'll want to go exploring and costillo creek is 1 hr out of town, the cimmeron; 1/2 hr, upper rio grande; 1 hr, lower rio grande; 15 minutes; rio pueblo; 15 minutes and even the mora river and the pecos are within 2 hrs, not to mention a few other creeks. Heck, even the chama and the san juan are within a couple hrs.

 

[Fly2Fish]

Re: New Mexico fishing advice

This thread needs to be combined with that earlier "Red River New Mexico" thread, because the synergy together of both would be much more helpful to the membership. I'll PM FranK W. to see if this is possible.

 

[mcnerney]

Re: New Mexico fishing advice

This thread needs to be combined with that earlier "Red River New Mexico" thread, because the synergy together of both would be much more helpful to the membership. I'll PM FranK W. to see if this is possible.

Fly2Fish: I agree, these two threads have now been merged so that it will be easier for everyone to either read about northern New Mexico fishing or input some new information into the thread.

Larry