Girls 6…Boys 0

Jemez Mountains

September 5, 2009

I work out of town and my boss decided I needed some therapy and who am I to question his judgment. I will be working in our local office for the month of September and I intend to get caught up with chores and some much needed time with my family.

A few weeks ago Kyra had to stay home with a tummy ache while I took my wife Ella and Kyra’s brother Brandon to fish in Northern New Mexico (previous post below).

Today is Kyra’s day for fishing…

Holiday weekends are usually very busy in the Jemez but I know a couple spots we could go if we get there early enough. One spot is hiking along the Rio San Antonio upstream from La Cueva above the San Antonio Campgrounds. We arrived at 8:00 am and started upstream and to our disappointment, after about a quarter of a mile there were “Private Property – No Trespassing” signs prominently displayed.

The area has always been private property but access was never a problem. As it turns out, recently all the owners decided to close all access…can’t say as I blame them.

The etiquette on public and private lands today is certainly not what it used to be when I was a kid. A few years ago I was fishing in thigh deep water and a guy actually lifted my fly line and passed under it to make his way through. Mortified and speechless was my response...I am convinced that our country might be losing its decorum.

We went back to the truck and drove to my other spot at the Las Conchas trailhead, on the East Fork. There were no parking spots left but we found a spot to park about a quarter mile up the road. We knew most of the people who use this area are hikers and not anglers, so were not concerned.

There was a full moon the night before and the water was off-colored so the girls chose to use worms for bait. I tied on a hopper pattern and slapped long stretches of water with not action at all. Grandma and Kyra were not doing much better with live bait. I was thinking how could a fish resist a worm even on a slow day?

After hiking and fishing downstream about three-quarters of a mile Ella got the first fish…then the second and we continued downstream. I was fishing the long wide stretches and the girls were fishing the deep pockets and big holes. I tried a yellow humpy, a red humpy and finally the red humpy got me a little excitement when the white mouth of a small brown trout lipped the fly and spit it out as quickly as it broke the surface of the water.

I changed to nymphs. A Prince nymph got a couple of nibbles…would not even call them strikes. I tied on a Peacock Lady fishing the nymphs deep in the pocket water and deep holes…nothing. It was as if I had never done this before. Taking that hint I figured that taking pictures and helping Kyra might be more productive.

The further we hiked the better the water structure. Kyra found a deep pocket, no larger than 2 foot in diameter in-between small logs and other debris. She slowly lowered her line to the bottom and within seconds a nice rainbow trout took it and she caught her first fish of the day. She said, “Grandpa, I always catch rainbows. I wonder why?” I told her she was just lucky.

The weather was changing a little. The sun was beginning to hide behind the rapidly forming clouds, not threatening just normal mid-afternoon rain clouds. By now we had come across a very large deep hole. The water was still murky but Ella and Kyra did not allow that to discourage them from fishing it very methodically a section at-a-time. This worked well for the next hour or so. The girls caught and released many small fish only keeping some nice ones to take home for dinner.

By mid-afternoon we were all getting hungry so we hiked back the truck.

We drove in the direction of Jemez Springs to get ahead of the clouds and find a place to pull over and eat our lunch. We found a place near La Cueva with some shade. There is something great about a sandwich, shoe-string potatoes, hard-boiled eggs, some fruit and a cold soda-pop out in the woods. They always seem to taste better in the woods than in the comfort of your own home.

After lunch we were driving down the road to Jemez Springs, and realized how crowed the Jemez Mountains actually was and passing the water of the Jemez Creek, muddy from the runoff of the day before, we also realized it was time to get home. We stopped at the T-Freeze ice cream place in San Ysidro for our customary ice cream cone before our final leg home.

We had a lot fun today, and the girls could not be more proud of their "Girls 6...boys 0…"

Saturday September 12 Brandon and I will be fishing the East Fork on the Valles Caldera Preserve. We were planning to go to the Rio de los Pinos but decided to wait until October depending on the weather conditions.

…tight lines…Phil