Photos from my New Mexico trip

[Jeffrey Rasband]

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Although I didn't get much fishing in on this family vacation I was able to catch a few fish and see some great scenery. I have family in Albuquerque so the first stop was a popular spring fed catch and release trout pond on the Rio Grande. The water is always very clear and the pond is loaded with nice trout, so it is a blast to sight fish to these wary fish.

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Looks straight out of the san juan! I caught this fish on a black woolly bugger on my last day. He almost yanked the rod out of my hand.

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Pagosa Springs, CO. This is the San Juan river above the famous tailwater stretch in NM. The hot springs are right on the river. You could fish while soaking in the springs!

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storm closing in on the infamous wolf creek pass.

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Another shot of the hot springs

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Sunset over the San Juan in Pagosa Springs, CO.

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Unfortunately we hit some nasty cold weather on this trip. The Animas river in Durango, CO is normally an excellent December option for the fisherman but not this time. Nonetheless with the help of a very kind gentleman at the local fly shop I was able to find warm, slush-free water at the discharge from a sewage treatment plant.

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This pic shows the foamy discharge which they discreetly release back into the animas. This is gold medal water harboring scary big browns. I believe the state record came from here at thirty pounds!

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Nothing like catching a trout in 15 degree weather. My reel was freezing up constantly but the fish couldn't care less about the cold in the warm discharge water. Unfortunately I only lasted an hour or so but the fish were there.

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The world famous san juan tailwater with 20,000 (big) trout per mile. The only downside is there isn't much to do for the family so I only got a few hours on the water (as opposed to a few days which this river deserves). Right from the beginning my new waders were leaking and I was dissapointed to find less than a foot of visibility in the normally gin clear tailwater. The cloudy water was due to the reservoir turning over. Needless to say there was no sight fishing this time. The fishing was slow for the san juan and I only caught one fish; a sixteen inch brown.

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Looking upstream at the dam. This is only one of the many channels of water on the huge trout stream.

- Jeff

[chesapeakeblend]

man that is one awesome vacation!

[spilunkr]

Jeff,

Nice pictures! Sounds like a nice vaction. Too bad you did not have more time at the San Juan. The lowered water clarity does affect the sight fishing but actually makes it easier in the deeper water. I had similar conditions there last winter and moved from the skinny water flats to deeper channels where I had better luck deep drifting San Juan Worms.

Guy

[Jeffrey Rasband]

Guy,

I fished mostly above kiddie hole in the upper flats and quickly realized its just not the same when you can't see the fish, especially considering theres so much uniform water. The one fish I did catch came on a worm in a deeper run. I had a lot of fun exploring but looking back I should have just stayed put in one of the deeper runs. Its really torture to only be able to fish the san juan for one afternoon!

[mike cozzens]

Very cool pictures! Thank you for a quick mental trip out West!

The picture of the hot springs, with the person in the robe, really confused until I read the caption! "What in the hel@ is that person wearing a bathrobe for down by the river???! There must be some serious weirdos in NM?? Maybe it's a full length gortex fishing vest dyed white to better camouflage the cold water angler?"

And the fish pics are great as well. Now I want a full length gortex fishing robe!

Mike

[Jeffrey Rasband]

Mike,

Apparently its all the rage to jump in the 32 degree river then jump back in the 110 degree spring water. I saw some people doing this and it was painful to watch! I guess ill never understand the polar bear club mentality.

[Salmo trutta]

Hardcore Jeff. Your steelhead tactics worked wonders out west. Sorry you didn't get to fish THE river a little longer. That place is def. on my to do list. I thought I could get there while on a trip to the Fiesta Bowl to watch WVU woop up on some Sooners but it was a little far like 1000 plus miles. Out west I realize that's just around the corner but maybe next year for the National Championship game. Heck this year I had a trip planned for back country reds near New Orleans for the National Championship game but that plan fell through.

I went to Ocean City, MD and caught some decent fish in Ocean City Inlet. Plus a quick trip to CBBT with DPost. But it wasn't out west, I wasn't nymphing and they weren't trout I was catching.

Cool report, awesome pictures.

[Jeffrey Rasband]

hahahah you noticed the egg pattern I see. I had my egg box with me from steelheading and decided what the hell. This sunday I wan't to get out to a nearby spring creek. Let me know if you want to go.