Saturday, July 01, 2006

 

“The High Desert Angler, Santa Fe’s oldest and most respected fly shop has moved! Our new location is two blocks east of the former store at 451 Cerrillos Road. We’re still in downtown Santa Fe across from the Design Center.  

 

 

Stream Report for Saturday July 1, 2006

 

San Juan River   flows are 756 cfs below Navajo Dam

Good fishing continues on the San Juan.  I’ve had good reports that the fishing is still “on fire” with the decreased flows. Flies for the Juan include griffith’s gnats, parachute adams, BWO’s, small pheasant tails, red and black midge larvae, baetis emergers, and johnny flash and red San Juan worms.

 

Rio Grande     flows are 169 cfs in the Wild and Scenic section and 411 cfs at Pilar

The Rio is murky but, fishable. The water is a little warm for trout but have had a few good reports for smallmouth fishing. Woolly buggers are picking up most of the fish.

 

Cimarron River     flows are 22 cfs below Eagle Nest Dam

The water is a lot more fishable as the flows have come down. Small non-beadheaded flies are the key here like black midge larva, pheasant tails, as well as scuds, parachute adams, and Griffiths gnats.

 

Pecos River     flows are 33 cfs below Terrero

In spite of the lack of snowpack, the Pecos is still fishing well. Fishing is generally better in the mornings than it is in the afternoon except the dry fly action after 6 o’clock or so. Stonefly nymphs are crawling around and midges and caddis, and stoneflies are coming off most days. Small dark bodied flies like pheasant tails, prince nymphs, WD40’s, copper johns, stonefly nymphs, and parachute adams are what’s working.

 

Jemez Mountain streams

The summer slowdown is already upon the Jemez. The higher elevation streams like San Antonio and Cebolla are fishing better because of more favorable water temps but harder not to spook fish with the lower flows. The best reports are from the East Fork draining the Caldera, upper San Antonio.  Dry fly dropper rigs using stimulators or caddis dry flies and small beadhead nymphs are picking up most of the fish.

 

Chama River     flows are 606 cfs below El Vado dam and 754 cfs below Abiquiu dam

Releases on the Chama go up as the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District fills up the irrigation canals or as the Rio Grande starts to run dry near Socorro. This has slowed the fishing dramatically below Abiquiu dam and the water is very murky. There is a little better fishing below El Vado especially if the flows drop below 500. Big heavy beadhead nymphs and sreamers are the flies for the Chama. The river upstream of El Vado dam is fishing well right now. It may get tougher as water levels drop.

 

MacAllister Lake

Damsel nymphs are out in force. Good fishing using damsel nymphs, double hackle peacocks and stonefly nymphs fished just above the weeds. Probably the best fishing so far and expect it to slow as the water warms up.

 

Rio Costilla

The Valle Vidal unit will open July 1st. The Game and Fish lease outside the Valle Vidal boundary is fishing well. Being a dam controlled stream it may not suffer as bad during this summer’s drought.