+ Brazos Cliffs in New Mexico
Δ Winter Fishing is here!
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I have heard a lot about the strike of a pike on your fly and carp are just enormous fish. When Nick offered to take me Pike and Carp hunting, I jumped on it. (Remember, I have said numerous times, that I’m not interested in large fish.) The sun warmed us as made our way over boulders and through the highly vegetated trail. From up high, we could spot several carp. The pike were nowhere to be seen, but that wasn’t a surprise – they normally hang out in the deep sections of the river, especially near large-bouldered banks.
And so, another streamer opportunity presented itself. And the same result as always – I came up empty handed. I never even saw a pike and I didn’t miss a carp – we just couldn’t fool any that day even though we saw several following the fly to check it out. I enjoyed the distraction, as we headed off to Rio Hondo, just up from the John Dunn bridge.
The Rio Hondo in northern New Mexico is a tributary of the Rio Grande. It’s a rather short river at only 20 miles and originates up in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains near Taos Ski Resort. It reminded me of a small mountain stream with lots of casting challenges although access was quite facile.
We had a great afternoon on the river, but we had to be very careful because every 10 yards or so, we had to watch out for the redds. Nick hadn’t seen that many redds in this river for a long time, and the fish were abundant in these spots making babies. In fact it was difficult to find a good hole to fish without thinking that we would be interfering with the future growth and development of the stream.
One of the most interesting sites we saw was when we spotted a trout with its dorsal fin above water while it waited for an insect to come its way. I couldn’t get close enough for a good shot, but look for the white at the surface of the water. Very unusual.
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I just learned this morning that my long time friend, Carol Dorfman passed away yesterday. This comes as a shock and great sadness. She leaves behind her two sons, Noah and Jordan, both of whom I have known well as adolescents.
Carol and I spent a lot of time together over the years vacationing, laughing and working through life’s issues. Carol had a wicked sense of humor and helped many people through her coaching business.
What has happened to Carol is precisely why I took this year to follow my dreams. I lost my mother at 62, the same age as Carol. We all know to live in the moment and never take the future for granted, but most of us just can’t wrap our brains and actions around that. Do it my friends…
I will miss you very much, Carol…
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+ Looking for Carp and Pike
Δ Saw only the Carp
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You will hear a lot about Nick Streit from the Taos Fly Shop in this column because I have the pleasure of fishing five rivers with him in the Taos area. I learned a lot from Nick – not just about fishing – but also about photography.
We are kindred souls when it comes to our photography passion. Nick just purchased a new Canon, and I like my Nikon, but we had a blast setting up shots and comparing notes on the best aperture setting, etc.
A few of the other guides I hung out with this year – Angus Drummond and Jeremy Allan – are also accomplished photographers. It’s a natural marriage – hanging out by rivers and photographing the scene. Marriages don’t get any better than that.
and feeling a little sleepy from our high-caloric lunch, we lazily made our way to a nice hole that fell under a tree branch that extended into the middle of the river.
I found it a bit challenging to get the cast right with very little opportunity for a back cast and the need for more of a sidearm cast to get into the hole. I found my fly short, several feet to the side of where I wanted it to land and finally stuck up in the branch of the tree. We (well I should say Nick) retrieved it without having to walk through the hole and he decided it was time for a short casting lesson, and I readily 
agreed.
We must have been in the middle of the river for 10 minutes or so before Nick looked back up stream and said, “Holy shit! There’s a huge fish in the middle of the river!”
He quickly grabbed my rod and changed the fly to a single salmon-colored egg and nothing else. I asked him if he wanted to make the cast, and he refused. His casting lesson had been well worth my time because although my first cast landed about a foot to the right of the fish, my second cast landed about 8 inches right in front of the fish and he took the egg! Without a net, it was critical for me to manage this fish properly so he didn’t get away, and that I did well.
The brown trout that I caught was the biggest Nick has seen on the Cimarron in ten years. The fish even received the dubious honor of Fish Friday on Taos Fly Shop’s Facebook page. I’m sure it didn’t care about having its photo up on the Internet!
I met Kiran Levy in downtown Santa Fe after I fished the Pecos River. As always, I am attracted to anyone who has east coast roots as I do, and Kiran grew up near to New York City. Her subsequent life has been so interesting and inspiring.
Much of her formal education took place in New Delhi, India. She continued to explore Asian culture and then proceeded to live in Spain, Greece, Nigeria, Morocco and Sweden. As she states, “The portrait photos and pencil sketches of the people she encountered while traveling reflect a passion for capturing in a moment the essence of their spirit.”
Kiran earned a vendor license on the Santa Fe Plaza in 2001 where you can now find her with her full array of watercolors, acrylic paintings, and etchings where she focuses on downtown storefronts, churches and portraits of people and animals.
I couldn’t resist picking up a couple of pieces of hers. Visit her when you go to Santa Fe. She’s directly across from the Palace of the Governors on Palace Avenue.
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+ Another Beautiful Day in New Mexico
Δ Few Camper Days Left
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First of all, the sunrise was absolutely stunning. We only had about a 30 minute drive from Taos before we arrived at our first pullout. The river cuts through a picturesque gorge, but I was initially unimpressed because, as expected, the water was very low and the accessibility hugs the road through the gorge. I had read a lot about this river being a fabulous trout stream so I guess my expectations might have been out of whack. In fact, they weren’t.
The first hole we visited brought up several small but beautifully colored brown trout. We had to be careful not to spook the fish because the water was so clear, so making a perfect cast was important (and not my forte.) We meandered along the stream and in every hole we saw, we found fish hanging out. We never ran into another body the entire day although during the peak season, there are evidently quite a number of anglers.
The morning passed swiftly and then Nick surprised me with another amazing lunch – homemade elk sausage, cooked like a brat. Oh my, I’m getting spoiled. As someone who loves wild meat, this was a real treat for me.
Lazily we cleaned up and headed upstream to another spot for the afternoon. And this was when it got really interesting… I’ll tell you all about it on my next post!
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+ Clark’s Nutcracker seeds forests
Δ Whitebark Pines dying off
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