I've made a few trips out to Northern New Mexico and Southern Colorado to fish the Rio Grande and it Tributaries.
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| 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.
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| 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:
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| 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.
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| Rio Grande near South Fork, Co |
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| Rio Grande near South Fork , Co. |
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| Near Del Norte, Colorado |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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.
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.
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