Brandon and Pop

Valles Caldera
East Fork

September 12, 2009

Brandon and I have been looking forward to going on our trip to the Valles Caldera to fish the East Fork up to its headwaters. While driving on the road to the staging area we crossed the East Fork and we stopped for a look at the water conditions. The fishing access is from the stream crossing to the headwaters is about 6 and one half miles upstream. About one third of the way Jaramillo Creek converges with the East Fork.

After our orientation at the staging area we chose to hike along the fence line to the East Fork just below the confluence of the two streams. Fishing is the best from the fence-line to the headwaters. My friend Noah Parker from LOE Guides told me a few days earlier that the water was very low. Fortunately, it rained every day for a few days and the water had started moving again and was clear.

The East Fork is a little more challenging than the Rio San Antonio but not by much. The fish here are more skittish, if that is possible. Basically, if you can see the water the fish can see you even if you are fishing upstream.

We started with a yellow Joe’s hopper pattern for Brandon and I tied on a black hopper pattern. We quickly realized there would be no standing today. We both fished on our knees making 30 foot casts and we still spooked the fish. Next lesson: Lower profile and longer casts. This was one-cast water today. Brandon got a class on how to keep his line in the air until he was ready to land his fly gently on the water. It took awhile but he made some improvement along the way. The fish just were not taking our lead.

I know orange is a good color so I tied on an orange stimulator to my tippet and Brandon’s. I hobbled on my knees, trying not to lose my balance, to a long narrow stretch of water with high grass over-hanging on both sides and gently lowered my fly to the water and within a foot of drift a resounding splash occurred and a 13 inch wild fat rainbow swiftly came to hand. “Now we know what to do Brandon, I proclaimed.” Brandon agreed.

I found another spot a short pace ahead and same technique different fish; another nice rainbow to hand. We continued upstream for a mile or so and fishing was getting better. The further we went the better the fishing.

We both were so busy stalking and fishing our lunch time was passing so we found a soft piece of ground to set our table for lunch. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with shoe-string potatoes and cool water and topped that off with a beef stick each and some nutter butter cookies for desert…it doesn’t get much better than that. While eating our lunch we saw a thunderstorm brewing to the northeast. We had planned to fish to the headwaters and were only a couple of miles of stream away but decided it would be in our best interest to start the trek back to the staging area fishing along the way. The lightning storms in the part of the state can be electrifying. Pardon the pun.

Fishing continued to be good and fruitful, as they say. Do you know what you have when you set the hook in a fish too quickly and a very small fish smacks you in the face?

It took us about an hour and a half to get back to the fence-line fishing most of the way. Brandon gave me quite a compliment on our way back while we were hiking up a hill beyond the fence line and half way up the hill Brandon asked, “Grandpa, can we stop for a minute to catch our breath?” My response was, “You just made an old guy feel good,” and we continued to the top of the hill for an extra breath for Brandon. In no time we were back to the truck, braking down our rods and packing our reels away getting ready to go home.

The storm was still brewing and getting closer. We drove to the entrance to the preserve and I took several pictures of the landscape and the coming storm and started for home. We stopped at the T-Freeze in San Ysidro for an ice cream cone before continuing on with our last leg of our trip home.

By the way, the answer to the question is a happy young boy enjoying a wonderful experience.

…tight lines…Phil

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