Rio Grande & Tributaries - Northern New Mexico & Southern Colorado

I've made a few trips out to Northern New Mexico and Southern Colorado to fish the Rio Grande and it Tributaries.

Hand drawn map of  Rio Grande & Rio Chama

I love fishing this area because it reminds me so much of Arizona where I first began fly fishing in the White Mountains.

My TroutRoutes Map of the Rio Grande Region to ABQ

Here is some information, pictures and impressions of some of the different trout water in the region of the Rio Grande, it's trout waters flowing in both Colorado and northern New Mexico. This list is not organized by any geographic metric, the tributaries are listed in the order I thought of them:

An arid valley harbors a small trout creek, at points the creek disappears, but the waters flow

The Rio Grande:

The Grande is a long River. It first takes shapes at around 13,00ft along the slopes of Canby and Sheep mountains in south western Colorado. The river cuts a long and monumental path on its way to the gulf of Mexico. it reaches a good size before it ever leaves Colorado and provides hundreds of mile of trout water, when conditions are right. It is fed by cool clean tributaries which are good creaks and rivers in their own right.

Rio Grande near South Fork, Co

Rio Grande near South Fork , Co.

Near Del Norte, Colorado

Photo From Bridge near Taos, New Mexico

No-tell-um Creek:

Heading down stream the first tributary I have fished of the Rio Grand is No-tell-um Creek. it is far from the traditional tributary, but it is archetypical of the rios and creeks of the Sothern Rocky Mountains.

My Cousin lives on this little tributary to the Rio. Real hard to find, very difficult to access, but there are a few small trout in this virtually untouched (in spot) wilderness. A rough road takes you through a lot of private property until you pop out on a really rough road that will take you up into moose and lion country and up to the headwaters of No-tell-um Creek. Stream bank, Brush is heavy and the fishing is Okay. Not a destination, even from one town over, but a fun place to explore. Its a sanctuary among many more famous and easier to fish water, which in all likelihood have much bigger fish.

Rio de los Pinos:

A tributary to Rio San Antonio (but not the same a San Antonio Creek in Valle Caldera), which also collects the Conejos before flowing into the Rio Grande.

Spent a really pleasant August morning here catching Brown on Elk Hair Caddis in the Rio de los Pinos Wildlife Management Area. Fishing cooled down as day warmed up. I wanted to go farther up the creek but a rough road was the limiting factor having an all terrain vehicle is definitely an advantage in this country.

Chapel of Michael the Archangel in the valley of  Rio de los Pinos.

Costilla Creek:

Flowing south through the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, this is a gem of a trout creek. Draining the runoff from State line, Big Costilla, and Vermejo peaks before entering Costilla Reservoir. from here the water flow cool and clear down towards the towns of Amalia and Costilla. there is a good amount of fishable water on public lands up here, and the road that brings you in is good, or was at the time. A fair number of other people were around (at the time I was unpleased by this,) but not too many and the water was cold and fast. 

I underestimated this place, and now think a lot about going back.

Being a tailwater lets the Castillo fish well into summer

Pecos River:

The road is was a narrow curvy nightmare, with lots of traffic. The fishing was really fun but the mountain, catching browns on elk-hair caddis, but it was worth facing another round of traffic and safety risk for come up again, which is a real shame.

The beginning of a fun evening of small to medium trout on dry flies

Chama River:

I caught a couple fish, near Chama, but over all this was a thumbs down and the waste of a day, Too commercialized. lower public access is barricaded, and the public access just south of Chama is more cruel joke (putting you down a very crappy two track with fencing so tight on each side that you can not turn around, while there are paved areas merely feet away on the other side of the chain linked fence separating the public angler from the paying hoards who guzzle hatchery fish straight from the truck and then dispense fishing advice to anglers who are too foolish to fish near the truck dump spot). Anyway, the Chama was a disappointment and a Black-Eye to the State and specifically the DNR of New Mexico, it's the peoples water, but it looks to have been sold down the river.

Lower river was muddy.

The Valle Caldera:

This is a really large valley, called a Caldera, which more like a crater or Big Bowl. when I was first told of the Caldera several years ago it wasn't clear if it had been created by a large meteor impact or if it was a volcanic crater. Either way it is what it is and the fishing up there is alright. I fished there for two days about 20 years. I remember we all met at the start of the day and were then taken out by bus to where we would fish. Each group of Anglers was assigned a section. We fish the San Antonio in open meadows both days. On the second day it rained but we had a nice cabin on that section and waiting it out in the cabin was a memorable part of the day. We caught a few small trout but they were tough to fool, and the organized natural for the access left the best parts of the day (morning and evening) out of reach.

Art Lee - Tying & Fishing The Riffling Hitch

The below post is one I put together using Tying and Fishing the Riffling Hitch by Art Lee. I also used some images from a few of Art's articles in Wild Steelhead & Atlantic Salmon. 

Fishing a Riffle Hitched fly can be the difference between striking out and hitting a home run. Amazingly, I've seen a lot of fishless days go by and never is the hitch used. This is especially true on the Atlantic Salmon Rivers of Quebec & New Brunswick.

Art Lee wrote a great book on fishing the riffling hitch. He also provides a pretty good history of the riffling hitch and gives some great examples of when and how to use the technique.

  

Lee Wulf was a pioneer of Atlantic Salmon in Eastern Canada. He traversed Newfoundland, Labrador, and Quebec (even into BC) by Float plane and was the first western angler to ever fish on many rivers he fished. On one remote trip to Portland Creek in Newfoundland, Wulff met ;ocals who introduced him to a style of attaching the fly which creates drag and lift, and seems to entice salmon from the local waters. Wulf will go on to develop this "hitch" and calling both the Portland Hitch and the Riffling 

Below: Tying the Riffling Hitch 

Illustrations by Galen Mercer

Figure 1: 

Figure 2:

Figure 3:

Note: Figure 4: Missing 

Figure 5:

Figure 6

Figure 7:

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Fishing Bamboo

1st day fishing bamboo. Rat King in hand.

I just started fishing Bamboo flyrods in the last few years. I have been fly fishing for nearly 40 years at this point, but I am still new to Bamboo, and its great getting into it now, after what seems like a pretty complete fly fishing career using graphite. Now I feel that I get to retrace steps and take new journeys with these new, and somehow more soulful fly rods.

I feel like the fibers of a bamboo fly rods can absorb an essence from a river or experience and then carry that memory energy forward, to the next outing to the next year, to the next angler. Stories exist beneath the hardware, wraps, and vanish; Within the glues and fibers even. Some tails are obvious, like a shortened rod tip, or dirty cork, or maybe its an extra sett of wraps that remind me why you should never yank on a snagged fly. I think the grains recall more than that though. They remember being grown and then made, heated, and glued. And fish too, not all fish, but the big ones that strain and work the fiber. for them a memory a record is made. 

I like fishing bamboo rods. The way Bamboo casts is alittle different and that helps make it fun to fish, but do I catch more and bigger fish on Bamboo rods?...

Yes. 

No good explanation, maybe they are better at protecting light tippets, maybe they are better for throwing a fly under a try. I don't know why, but I do.

I hadn't really considered fishing bamboo until the day I first visited Nelson's Spring Creek near Livingston, Montana. They had a Sweetgrass fly rod available in the shop. I didn't buy it that day as it was way out of my perceived price range at the time. however in the following days and weeks I learned something, and that is that perceptions can change.

after some thinking and soul searching I decided I could bite the bullet, so I called to buy it, but never was able to get it. so a few days later I called sweetgrass direct and found that they had a less stomach churning option for bamboo rods with their Mantra (single tip) collection. I bought the 7' 3 wt for around $1500.00 and have been thrilled with it, The Rat King, ever since.

I now bought a few more and getting more familiar with them. so here is a quick run down of some thoughts on gear so far...

My Bamboo Fly Rods (Summer 2025):

Sweetgrass - Mantra - 7' 3wt 2/1 pent - "The Rat King"

Sweetgrass - 7'9" 5wt 2/2 quad - "Polaris Lance"

Sweetgrass - 6'6" 3/4wt 2/2 pent - "Hawkmoon"

Orvis - Nymph - 8'0" 4wt 2/2 hex

Fly Lines for Bamboo Fly Rods:

Cortland Lines: The Sylk & Peach are way cheaper than most lines and fish really well. these are my first choice for lines. You can find them at the Redshed fly shop.

Cortland Sylk: Glenn Brackett likes the Sylk DTs

Cortland Peach: My friends all use these and like them

406 Flyline: I have the WF5F and really like it on my Quad (which is pretty stiff) 7'9" 5wt 2pc

other lines also work fine too just match the line weight to the rod and you'll be fine.

Note: I love the SA WF3f Infinity (w/ bamboo/buckskin coloration) on both the Hawkmoon and R.K. it is 10grains heavier than the standard WF3F.

Reels for Bamboo Fly Rods:

anything works, but you may want a little extra weight to offset the extra weight of the bamboo. its all about balance.

Right now I am using a Hardy Sovereign 2000 2/3/4 reel and a Ross Gunnison G1 on both the Rat King and the Hawkmoon. neither reel is made any longer but still available on the used market. Really just pick a reel that suites you. I've really been liking the basic Battenkill reel on the Hawkmoon. The reel is the cheapy from Orvis, but its a good reel and sits great on such a petit fly rod.

I use a Ross San Miguel 4/5 on the Polaris lance. Rod and reel match perfectly. Both are magnificent.

I also occasionally fish a heavier Battenkill on the Polaris lance as well.

1st fish on the Polaris Lance

Pointless - Fly Fishing Zen

A solitary tune by a fisherman, though, can be an invaluable treasure.

Dusk rain on the river, the moon peeking in and out of the clouds;

Elegant beyond words, he chants his songs night after night.

Ikkyu Sojun

A near solstice sunset on Henry's Fork (lots of bugs, not a single rise)

What is the point of fishing with hand tied dry flies cast with bamboo fly rods. I like doing it but, all around us is proof that there are simpler more effective ways to fish for trout, and not just ways to fish, but more effective ways to fly-fish. This is accepting that Euro-nympher's are fly fishers, which people do and that is cool with me. These nympher's often head to the river with expectations that they will hook and land numbers that astound me, 50 or more fish in a day. They have seemed to require far less effort to catch these fish, than I seem to use to catch far less, but they use equipment and techniques that are more closely related to a tournament walleye fisherman's set-up than to the rig I am using to cast a size 14 caddis to a rising trout. 

The nympher's flies are/have become essentially jigs, with heavy weighted heads, and often using multiple flies at a time. The fly line has been removed from the equation all together in favor of some straight heavy mono. I wont go into the cast and presentation, both take skill, but lack in art. With this approach the trout seems reduced to dumb feeding machine mindlessly chowing along the river's bottom. That approach isn't my approach, but why not? How am I different? What am I looking for out here?

Well, a few weeks back I was in Montana. I was traveling for work, visiting companies that are make concrete products and talking with them about other methods and equipment to use in making such concrete. This work takes me all over the country, and I mostly love it. Some trips take me to cities like Chicago and Detroit, but also others to places such Portland, Bozeman, Missoula, Escanaba, and until recently Montreal and Quebec.

Anyway, since I was already in Montana for work, I figured it only made sense to pack a rod or two and a bring a few flies along... and as luck would have it, I got to do a little fishing. Here and there. At the end of the day... if i could find time... and to be honest, to start with it was hard to actually even get a couple hours in.

On this trip I fished after working each day and the my travels had brought me to such rivers as Idaho's Henry's Fork and the North Fork of the Coeur D'Alene, along with several famous Montana rivers including the Madison, the Gallatin, Clarks Fork, the Flat Head, and to the Big Hole, but as with most sales/fishing trips, I was always on the move from plant to plant and town to town. an this trip started with meetings and evening plans for the first few days. Though the trip covered over 4 thousand miles and states, it seemed to center itself around the town of Butte, Montana

Butte is the location of the Sweetgrass Bamboo Flyrod Shop. Right downtown too, which is a bit unexpected after seeing where Glenn used to keep shop in Twin Bridges. Glenn has been building fly rods out of Tonkin Cane since the 1950s. Working at and eventually running the Winston Bamboo rod shop. Eventually leaving Winston to start his own shop, Sweetgrass, with a crew of great partners (including Jerry Kustich).

Today, Butte is where Glenn Brackett and crew build both classic and inventive bamboo fly rods.  I made two stops at Sweetgrass on my trip out west. The first was to drop off a tip section that needed some repair, and meet Glenn Brackett face to face. I've known his name for 30 years, since I was a teenager. 

In my twenties I met Jerry Kustich while I was working at a fly shop in Green Bay. He came through on a book tour about he and his brother's, Rick, new book (at the time) on Great Lakes Steelhead Fly Fishing.  Jerry is a major part of Sweet Grass along with Glenn. Which really doesn't playout as Jerry was not there nor expected to be. Anyway, for those reasons I stopped in to see Glenn on my second day in Montana.

Glenn Bracket - Butte, MT

It was great to meet Glenn and see his shop. He kept up the work of building rods while I poked about the place. I brought in a rod that I wanted some minor repairs on, and after looking it over glen gave me a tour and an education on working with bamboo (Tonkin Cane). we also talked a little fishing and of dry fly prospects. Glenn offer some key advice on technique, specifically always trying to get directly below (in the same current seem), he also spoke about how the water temperatures in the mid-fifties which we were experiencing at the moment, is the key to good fishing and would last for maybe only a little more than a week. Simple and clear observations but also thought worthy, while still pretty self explanatory.

On my next stop at the shop nearly a week later Glenn hit me with a real mind blower. I was in to pick up my new fly rod, a 6'6" pent 3/4 wt 2 pc 2 tips with the name "Hawkmoon" on it. I think Glenn liked the name, and he was curious about its origins. so was I... but histories are hard to come by. he showed me the rod and it was just a beautiful as I could have hoped. A honey Blonde Blank and ruby red wraps the color of a cherry. The hardware is bright and silver. The reel seat...Alder. It is a finely made fly rod and it functions very well.

Glenn and I stepped out to cast to rod on the street in front of the shop. we were testing whether a Cortland Sylk DT4 or DT3 was the better line for this rod. we went with the DT4 but now I'm looking to get the DT3 Peach for it too. Any way, it was while we we throwing the lines that Glenn mentioned that he really didn't like using hooks that much any more, so he was cutting the points off of his flies so that the fish could eat the fly and maybe feel a poke and a tug, but would in all likelihood never have to endure a long fight or being landed, all you need to give up is the epic fight and proof of your fine accomplishment.

The Hawkmoon with a Southern Colorado Brown

I now remember that I had been telling him about a big rainbow I had hooked on the Big hole a few days earlier. One of many fish I had hooked, but truly memorable all the same. when the fish rose just off the bank to an Elk Hair Caddis it was a sizable eat, a subtle boil that moved a lot of water. On the first jump I saw the red flash of a rainbow, and rainbows love to jump. My brain thought this might be a 20" fish, so maybe it was 18". this the fish took off down stream and we were into a long hard fight. I had the fish to my feet a few times but could get it in the net before the hook came loose and the fish swam free.

Glenn Brackett fishing some water he likes.

I told Glenn this story and he said "That's the perfect release, that the way to do it", which is what a lot of people say but he then began to explain that this was where he was at in his fishing. Just clipping off the points and enjoying the experience without needing the endgame. I was and am really impressed.

1st night Fishing the Hawkmoon

Maybe Lee Wulff made a statement about allowing the fish the sanctuary of the water beneath the surface by fishing a dry fly, or something like that. I'm not sure it was actually Lee Wulff who said that but you get the jist. I have been moving in that direction more and more over the last few years. I prefer fishing dry flies to streamers, or nymphs. I don't love nymphs, and I despise hopper-dropper rigs. 

No... I am a one fly guy and that fly should float.

Sure, I will sometime salvage an otherwise busted day by swinging a wet-fly or stripping a streamer, but it leaves something left to be desired in the aesthetics and in the playing of the game. Fishing a dry fly is often a one-on-one or mano a pescar game. you are presenting your fly to a fish, it is not a chuck-it and chance-it situation. This is dialing in on an individual, not a situation, often you will be watching the individual fish and you will have to adapt to its individual idiosyncrasies (personality). I love this, and to give it up in the name of more or bigger fish is not that appealing. If dry fly fishing is not happening, why bother going fishing. Or maybe Go fishing and fish dryflies whether they work or not. I have done alot of this. However, Fishermen are also famous for our patience, and I can spend a day or two tying stimulator, or Sparkle duns until things are looking good again.

To be honest, part of the joy of the whole game is timing. You gotta get there at the right time.

Don't be late. Don't leave too early. What's the moon phase? When is a green drake spinner fall actually supposed happen? Do Tricos seriously exist? What about Salmon flies? I haven't really slept in days. Does the sun ever actually set around here? Timing really is everything. 

On a big western trip, time is usually slipping by so fast and there is never enough, but mining out the precious moments is a fun and crazy dance that is preserved in a collage of your memory of the trip.

Nice Brown from small creek with a 7'9" Sweetgrass 5wt quad

But back to the point I was angling at, if I can fore go the pleasure of catching fish in favor of waiting until I can catch them on my terms, I wonder if I could give up the actual catching in favor of a more harmonious experience. But, I wonder how important is the end game to me? How critical is it to fight, land and photograph a fish. 

Maybe I, like Glenn, can learn to cherish the things I love most about the sport, like a trout noses sticking up out of the water, and casting away those things that limit my enjoyment, such as hurting fish. However even as I right this, I know I haven't reached the point of pointless fishing, but I think I will be very happy when I reach that day.

Into the Driftless

I caught my last Steelhead before covid. I've had some great adventures steelheading since, but I haven't landed another steelhead. After that trip I had been burned out and had a lot going on in life so I took a year off from any steelhead trips, and then covid came and went and I didn't quite have the same steelhead bug. I went on a bunch of trips out to the the Clearwater, the lake Superior Tribs, a bit around home. I helped my son land his first steelhead on the Brule (swinging a fly on a two hander). I was with a really good friend as he landed his first steelhead on the Clearwater. I hooked and lost some epic fish on long casts, but I wasn't the same fisherman that I had been.

Also, I was having a difficult time getting friends and relatives to fish with me, because I am so demanding on fishing trips. This means waking up predawn, fishing all day and grabbing something convenient once it is too dark to fish. I think I was burning myself out too, but was too driven to hook another steelhead, I couldn't see when it stopped being fun. 

Anyway, through the usual seasonal course of events, in 2023 I got back into trout fishing in a big way (which is how I generally do anything). It started small and innocently enough; I was visit some customers near Minneapolis and I realized I was close to pretty decent trout stream. 

It was early April and the Mississippi was way over its banks. I remember crossing the river at Redwing and seeing a tavern along the river bank that was flooded nearly up to its windows. It was an old Victorian building, I was sure that it was seeing its last flood, but I was wrong and it does a steady  business serving drinks to boaters all summer long. However, even with the Mississippi raging the trout streams of the driftless are known to run clear all year long. 

With this in mind I headed inland from the big river for several miles, to a spot where I hade had a good evening of fishing several years earlier, on one of the two previous times I had fished this stream. Really it was the only spot I knew. The water wasn't exactly clear but it was clear enough. I pieced my rod together, tied on a nymph. walk to the edge of the bank on my Khakis, and quickly hooked and landed a decent, 12' Brown. It was rainy and windy, so a bit of the joy was quickly diminished by the general foulness, and that was the only fish, but it was enough.

That night at the hotel I listened to a John Gierach audio book and  started planning a sales trip to Montana, and would be back on the same creek within several weeks, dialing in on caddis and Mayfly hatches, for several nights. If I had known a bit more that first day back in April, I probably could have had a pretty great day of fishing if I had gone a few more miles upstream, but given how the last few years have gone, it really was a great day of fishing even if it only lasted about 15 minutes.