Home Forums Fishing Flyfishing Rio Grande cutts

A report from last weekend. Hope everyone is wetting some line....

June is the cruelest month in New Mexico. Some may say that April is awful with juniper pollen and May is miserable with the dirt laden winds that blow day and night, but for me it's June. Searingly hot and dry with an intensity that builds before breaking during the July monsoons that come like clockwork in time for the 4th of July. For me and about 1.5 million others, the Sangre de Cristo mountains and the Pecos River is the nearest respite from the desert heat in the low country and the place the missus and I retreated to last weekend.

The Pecos River flows south out of the mountains eventually reaching in the Rio Grande near Langtry, TX, but in it's northern reaches, it's a trout stream. A good paved road follows the river through the mountainous section of the river and on weekends and holidays the area sees an orgy of recreation. Any and every pullout will host a car or three and a half dozen tents. The river sees equal pressure. Every fishable hole next to road is covered by folks drowning worms or finding new uses for last nights cream corn hoping for a hatchery rainbow or the more elusive stream born German browns.



We pushed further up the canyon to the edge of the wilderness where the tiny feeder streams still hold fishable populations of the the native trout: Rio Grande Cutthroats.

I'm a small stream guy. I like the wildness of the water and the trout that live there. Being overlooked and underfished doesn't hurt either. After setting up camp, I rigged up a 7', 3wt and hiked into a nearby small creek. The creek wasn't every wider than my flyrod was long. With the snow long gone and the water low, it was easy to spot the fish from a distance, but just as easy for them to see me. It was true spot-and-stalk fishing. Find a fish, move slowly into place and try to land the fly in a tiny feeding lane without spooking the fish. Bow and arrow casts, short roll casts and dapping all brought fish up to smash any fly that floated naturally through the water. Parachute adams and Stimulators were the winner of the day. The fish were beautiful-- olive and gold with large, heavy spots concentrated along the tail.










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Nice!
I haven't been to my favourite cut throat creeks yet this year. Way too much water still running off. Soon.........I hope.

Way jealous!!!

Beautiful fish!

Beautiful fish, they look quite a bit different than our coastal cutthtroats. Thanks for posting.

Lots of variation among cutthroat, and they are all beautiful. Thanks for sharing.

Lovely little fish! And I agree, there is nothing quite like catching native trout in the small streams. In my case, I tend to "catch" about 3 or 4 bushes for every trout I hook...


They look a lot like golden trout, which I have caught in a couple high mountain lakes in Alberta, and which are native to the high Sierras in California... do you know if there's any genetic linkage there?

I am sorry to say when I was growing up those were "easy to find along may places on the west slope of the mtns all the way to
Questa.

Many a Brookie (small but abundant) too.

Days long past I reckon in NM at least.

Doubt I would feel comfortable leaving a car along many of those streams either.

If you get a chance go to the end of the road (Iron Gate Campground??) and walk 3 miles in to Mora Flats. Will be pleasant or a wasted hike and i could not tell you which, again long ago times

I think the cuts got established and widely dispersed via the huge post glacial lake and river systems. The subsequent evaporation and isolation of the populations gave rise to a lot of genetic diversification and specialization for extremely varied environments.

Yeah, that's the theory of it, and it sounds plausible enough. I just wondered if anybody has actually done any genetic analysis, i.e., scale patterns, DNA analysis, etc. Just curious. They're lovely little fish regardless.

Here's a brief start on the subject. I've not investigated the technical literature though.

DNA Link

Thanks to all for the nice comments and interesting conversation regarding genetics. I have no clue on the evolution of the various trout species, but always thought that goldens were probably more closely related to the west coast rainbows than the cutthroats of the interior Rockies.

It can be remarkable the amount of variation even in one small stream. I fished Calf Creek in the Grand Staircase/Escalante monument (UT) many years back and was amazed at the different color pattern that had developed within the brown trout there. As a desert stream most of the bottom was light colored sand, but with dark pools under the willows. There were sand colored trout that never seemed to leave open water and dark colored trout in the pools. They both seemed perfectly matched for their chosen hangouts.

LouisB: Your dead right about the situation in New Mex now. Cutthroat streams aren't all that numerous and the big fires are starting to severely impact the remaining few. The Los Conchas fire in the Jemez mountains last year wiped out at least three of the Rio Grande cutthroat streams. As for brook trout--- haven't seen many of them at all. Pretty much have to hike into the high lakes to find those guys.

Trout fishing in New Mexico, and unfortunately the deer hunting too, falls into the "Not as good as it was. Better than it will be" category right now.

salsola

Rio Penasco used to be loaded with Brookies way up.

Costilla had a lot of cutthroats.

Unless it is better than I have heard, I would NEVER leave my car parked in any of that area.

I assume the fire took out Frijoles fishery.

Yes, deer is gone. I will not make you call me a liar y telling you how many Nice bucks I saw in one weekend where the road to Roy drops off into the Canadian.

Came back from the army and could not . . . NOT find a deer of any kind . . .

POACHERS is my guess.

My exs cousin told me how many they poached one weekend and I promptly tracked Ruben Gonzales ( LV F&G officer) and turned their a$$es in.