FINALLY!!!

Pecos River

July 7, 2010

I have not been fishing since September…last. Why you ask? Well sometime life gets in the way of fun and much needed therapy.

Now is the beginning of our monsoon season until mid-August and usually this is the hottest month of the year to go fishing in New Mexico. Mother Nature usually does a good job of preparing our mountains and streams for great fall fishing and hunting.

Our great-grandchildren Brandon, Kyra and Conrad have been with us for a few days and we chose Wednesday as the day for fishing. I knew we would get some rain and I also knew it would probably not be until the afternoon. I have not taken the kids to fish the Pecos River yet so Great-Grandpa,Great-Grandma, Grandma and the kids were up at first light to hit the road for the Sangre de Christo Mountains to go fishing.

History Lesson: Spaniards arriving in the region in the late 1500s were impressed with the southern Rockies as reflected in their place names. The Sangre de Cristo Mountains, Spanish for "Blood of Christ," are an awe-inspiring backdrop to fishing in the Pecos River and its tributaries. The Sangre de Christo mountain range is one of the most beautiful areas of New Mexico with cool clear freestone creeks and streams and deep canyons spattered with green flora at every turn.

I spent many days with the kids’ mother Valene and her brother James, our first grandchildren, fishing the Pecos when they were young.

We arrived at one of the first turnouts and set up Great-Grandma and the kids’ with their fishing gear and got them on the water in first order. Grandma and the kids were fishing while I set up my fly rod. I tied on an elk hair caddis pattern and quickly hiked down to the water. The water was very clear with perfect flow. I walked upstream from the rest of the gang and found a long run with a slight riffle to it and hauled my first cast.

Great-Grandma and the kids were not doing very well in the catching department. There were fish in the water but mostly jumping out of the water but ignoring the bait on their hooks. During my second cast there was a sign of life at the end of my line so I set the hook into a nice sized brown trout. I called for Conrad, age 2 to help me bring his first fish to hand.

We fished the spot for awhile longer and started driving on to Cowles. We made a brief stop at Terrero for a glance at the water conditions. We had to stop just past the Terrero Store for a few minutes to wait for a beautiful young mule deer get off the road so we could pass. After about a 800 foot elevation climb over the next 12 miles we arrived at Cowles. The Grandmas and the kids took a short walk downstream to the Cowles pond and the Pecos River and I hiked upstream on the river. I tied on a Prince nymph and started casting were ever there was a run or pocket of water, upstream, downstream and across. Over the nexct 45 minutes I fished several runs catching several small browns.

By noon the kids and the adults were hungry. We all gathered at the truck to have a nice lunch. While eating our lunch we saw the clouds starting to gather for the anticipated afternoon rain storm. It took us about a half-hour to eat our lunch and shortly after we were finished it started to sprinkle down rain a little and we started our tek back down. The further we went downhill the further behind us was the upcoming storm moving very slowly. We found a nice turnout and pulled over to fish a large wide hole I used to fish with James and Valene when they were young. We were able to fish for about forty-five minutes and the rain started to catch up with us. So we jumped back into the truck and drove down to a small parking lot at an area named Dalton. Great-Grandma and I both fished as long as we could in the rain and finally decided it was time to head for home.

On the way back to the town of Pecos we got bombarded with hail and traveled carefully on the road which looked as if it was snowing. By the time we reached town we were encountering some flash flooding.

The fishing was not great, as I expected after a holiday weekend and with the rain storm. However, I received some much needed therapy and had a great time with the Grandmas and the kids.

For more information about my experiences on the Pecos River, read the information on the "About" page and read "A New Old Picture and the Pecos" on the lower half of the Pecos Watershed page. My web site is http://www.flyfishnm.com/. Hope you enjoy it as I have over the years.

My wife Ella and I are planning a trip to the Jemez Watershed next weekend to fish the East Fork and the Rio San Antonio.

…tight lines…Phil