AGAIN!!

Jemez Mountains

East Fork

July 17, 2010

Now that the grandchildren are gone home my best fishing buddy and I can go fishing…just the two us. The tradition in this family is on our way home we usually stop for an ice cream. Today will be no different.

My wife and I got up early for a trip to the mountains and were at the Conchas Trail head by 7:00 am. It is a good thing we got there when we did because we got the last parking spot. Fortunately most of the people on the trail are hikers not anglers. It took us a little while to get into our fishing costumes and set up our gear for a day of fishing.

Ella intended to bait fish and I needed to cast my new rod I have only fished with twice since I bought it last year. A Sage 7’-10” 3 weight TXL model weighing in at 2 ¼ oz, the smoothest casting rod I have ever owned, complimenting it with my Ross reel. My wife and I started our hike into the woods.

We hiked in a short distance and started fishing. Ella fishing the holes while tried my luck in the long narrow stretches. My first fly was a light tan Elk hair caddis pattern. The fish were feeding from the top of the water. Very gingerly, I might add. I quickly felt like it might be challenging day because the fish were spitting the fly out of their mouths quicker than I could set the hook. Some fish were popping heads under the fly and diving down to the bottom post haste. I realized my cast will need to be longer, stealthier at a low profile position if I were to catch any fish.

My assessment was accurate. As soon as I assumede the position I got another quick hit and set the hook into a small German brown trout. Most of the morning I was on my knees making long casts to the rising trout. My wife was getting nibbles but not much more. She stared to hunker down and started getting better results.

We hiked in the canyon fishing every hole and run we could with good results. The fish were small, some even fingerling sized but no matter…a fish is a fish. The more fish the more fun, as they say. As we were hiking into the woods farther the temperature began to soar. By 11:30 am it was getting very hot even at 8000 feet elevation. We started hiking back fishing most of the runs we passed up on our way in and catching a few along the way. We arrived at the truck about 12:45 pm and removed our costumes to find a place to eat lunch.

We drove down the hill to the La Cueva picnic area and actually found an empty picnic table to have our lunch together. And after a good lunch Ella headed downstream fishing the Rio San Antonio, which was like chocolate milk. Only bait for this run. Ella found a few nice holes but, no luck. I guess the fish couldn’t see or smell.

By now it was about 2:00 pm and we decided to head for home. ..Just too hot to fish any longer and we were getting pretty tired. Not as young as we used to be I guess. It was a good day together. And the fishing was good today. We have always enjoyed being in the mountains together alongside a stream. A fella could not get any luckier.

We were passing through Jemez Pueblo and saw a house with a sign that said “Tamales.” We just had to stop and a good thing we did. My wife talked for the next 20 minutes about how good the tamale was, over and over. She kept saying, “This is the best tamale I have eaten in years, just like my Mom’s.” And finally she told me that she thought this was the best $3 bucks I had ever spent on her. We finally arrived in San Ysidro intending to stop at the T-Freeze for a much need ice cream and “They were closed!!!” when we needed it the most, hot sun, tamale and all.

Next trip is to the Pecos River this weekend, me and Ella again, alone.

…tight lines…Phil