Tigers in the Desert

  New Mexico has the distinction of being the Southernmost geography to be stocked with the Hybrid  Northern Pike/Muskellunge strain known as Tiger Muskies. These sterile fish were planted in Bluewater and Quemado lakes in 2003 to combat a coarse fish invasion, as Goldfish had been released in both bodies of water which, after a few years ended up looking like this:

  As you can guess this is bad, so NMDGF was faced with a few unsavory options which included poisoning the lakes or draining the impoundments to fix the issue of the Goldfish, thankfully some guy thought "Why not just throw in the biggest, scariest looking toothy fish we can find?". That decision was the one that made it through and as of this time last year approximately 290,000 have been released into Bluewater and Quemado making them both scary to take a dip in and a very exciting fishing opportunity for New Mexico. 

Matt Pelletier, Fishenchantment.com

  After bothering my boss for a year with stories of giant razor mouthed creatures with worse attitudes than his, Eric broke down;

"SHUT UP, I'll go ok?! JUST....SHHH!"

 Success, I am nothing if not persistent.

   Being the uncouth consumer of StarWars cannon that he is, he of course lacked a rod...and license... and literally any experience fishing. This was going to be a long day, after throwing extra gear in my bag for the charity case partner and picking him up to get a day license we made our way towards Bluewater. It's quite a distance from Albuquerque with a busted radio listening through an Iron Maiden CD about 6 times through, a few jokes about leaving the boss stranded at the lake and him pointedly reminding me of numbers like 1911, .45, 24 rounds, so on and so forth. We ended up in Bluewater Village, the GPS was insistent that we had arrived, the local Postman insisted there was no lake here, and I was sure I may soon have a mutiny on my hands upon my return to the car. GPS lies, go PAST Bluewater Village and take the Prewitt exit if traveling from ABQ. Once arrived there was a brief crash course in rigging a spinning rod, why it was important to use a wire leader and a unwelcome invitation to put a sensitive piece of anatomy near the fishes mouth when I commented on his liberal use of sunscreen.

Also, the name of the lake is truly misleading, the water was anything but blue 

 After getting the gear lined out Eric and I headed down towards the dam from the east boat ramp where we met a delightfully ancient man with a large stick bait on his way back in who said he had one hookup from shore at about 0730 and a few follows from then to 1130 when we had shown up, I should have correctly interpreted this as what it was; a low number day, instead I was relieved and excited that there were in fact fish here. From where we encountered this wise wizard archetype a rocky point extends from the campground above into the water near the dam on the east side of the lake with close parking available at the boat ramp. Now an unusual and fortuitous instance would often repeat itself; when a boat would come by at speed before approaching the buoys the wake would reach us at shore and about 30 feet out would cause largish fish to roll near the surface giving us targets to sight cast to. As this is normally the only indication of fish position and we being without any kind of watercraft this series of events could be considered a God-send, if you believe in that kind of thing. 

 At the onset of our little excursion I had repeatedly told Eric to start with short pitches to submerged structure and from there cast further and further out, because even skinny water can hold a decent fish. I promptly forgot my own advice when fish jumped further out. As such when I was walking along the shore I ended up spooking several fish taking residence among waterlogged tumbleweeds at a depth I could have reached out and grabbed by hand without getting wet. I am sometimes an idiot.

Follow the rod tip down, there was a fish here

 After a time it became imperative I contact my wife, else risk losing future privileges. This served the dual purpose of leaving Eric at the waterfront in order to let him stew over my prior abandonment comments on the way in. Also there is no cell coverage, the Rangers wont let you use the land line at the office, and the only place high enough to get some decent bars is the hill 5 miles away. At my return Eric insisted he was never concerned as I had left him with my custom rod, but the poor man did look rather put out all the same. 

 At the end of a fruitless expedition we packed out and mentally prepared ourselves for another couple of hours of subconsciously memorizing Two Minutes to Midnight. The monotony was broken up by a stop at Dairy Queen for unsupervised man food, DQ has fallen prey to the autumn mania of adding pumpkin to every God damned concoction known to man. Unfortunately their interpretation of a Pumpkin Spiced Blizzard is to scoop half a can of unsweetened pumpkin pie mix into vanilla ice cream with liberal addition of crushed graham crackers and mix almost evenly. This is a public service announcement; Please give it a miss, its horrific. 

Time flies

  Its hard to believe its August already, the lakes around New Mexico have become snarled with aquatic growth making most bank fishing intolerable with only the high mountain lakes escaping the plant bloom a bit. The NMDGF fishing reports all read fair or slow and the stream flows have trickled back to summer levels with the exception of the July/August rains that cause them to swell and run muddy. the doldrums of summer fishing  restricts most of my time to stream fishing, the Jemez and Pecos being closest and running slow or with bouts of runoff makes fishing erratic, the Jaroso and Tres Lagunas fires have left the water around the Santa Fe National Forest ashen especially with the rains but recently on August 8 there were some openings; 

"Some areas of the Santa Fe National Forest affected by the Jaroso and Tres Lagunas fires are now open to the public. The area of Forest Service land within the Pecos Wilderness that was affected by the Jaroso Fire is now open with the exception of some seasonal trail closures and one seasonal site closure due to the potential for flooding. Even though the burn area is now open, areas that experienced extreme fire conditions present the public with numerous post fire hazards. These hazards include the higher potential for falling trees, unstable hillsides with rolling boulders and debris, collapsing soils where roots have burned out, numerous fallen trees on the trail, and the difficulty of navigation where the trail path may no longer be visible. Because of these hazards, it is recommended that the public avoid travel within certain areas. As of Noon on Wednesday, August 7th New Mexico State Police lifted the closure on State Highway 63 north of Pecos, NM. Access is now available to most recreation sites on the Pecos Ranger District of the Santa Fe National Forest."

nmfireinfo.com

While it sounds as if you risk dying at every turn if you travel out there, that hasn't stopped area fisherman from being the first to check it out, and with the closure and lack of pressure had some decent findings;

Pecos River: Water flow near the town of Pecos on Monday was 37 cfs. The Mora and Jamie Koch fishing and recreation areas have reopened. The Bert Clancy and Terrero campgrounds remain closed. Trout fishing on the upper Pecos was very good for anglers using olive elk hair caddis, gold bead hares ears, copper John Barrs, worms and salmon eggs. The downstream area from Tres Lagunas remains in poor condition and is not expected to be stocked until next spring. Fishing on the Mora was good using copper John Barrs and night crawlers. 

NM fishing report

 As an aside this was Alex first week of school as she starts kindergarten and while she was excited the wife was markedly less so and there were a few tears from her and maybe a manly sniffle or two from me as I came to realize that most of my free days during the week were spent jaunting to one or another water source with Alex who can no longer join me. In my opinion recess, snack time and the tales of Pete the Cat are a poor substitute for hiking around  a lake or stream but so far she seems to like it. 

KVD is My Hero

Watch This

  After seeing a few of these jumps on some fishing videos around YouTube I was intrigued, and following a visit to MysteryTackleBox.com I found myself inspecting the previous boxes thinking with the GET499 code and the first month for only 5 bucks, I'll bite. When I received a shipping notification on the 10th I was pretty excited, but as the days passed I had gone from eager to anxious, then to sitting in the living room listening for the mail drop beside the door and finally upon hearing the mailman approach opening the door suddenly and staring uncomfortably at the poor man asking "Do you have something for me?". When the box arrived on the 15th the mailman had learned; sneaking up to the door carefully laying the box beside it before ringing the bell and retreating a safe distance away, putting the car between himself and I. After nearly bursting through the screen door and spying the mailman taking cover behind my sedan he was careful to avoid eye contact with the madman I had become and shakily pointed to that beautiful brown box beside me. Letting out a girlish scream of delight I scooped up the box and ran inside, the trail of ripped box parts and package stuffing indicating my direction of travel, leaving a much disturbed postman in my wake knowing he would now be harassed month after month. I am accomplished at making friends.

  June Mystery Tackle Box Offerings

  1. River2Sea Dahlberg Diver Frog in Leopard Frog
  2. Xcite Baits Baby Ubershad in  Green with Watermelon and Black Flake
  3. Stanly Sidewinder in Black with mild Red Flake
  4. Gambler Ugly Otter in Dark Green with Red and Black Flake
  5. 2 count Mustad 4/0 Ultra Lock EWG Hook

  Page over to the Mystery Tackle Box tab for pictures and later reviews.

A Fishy Thrift Shop

  On the first of June I heard those dreaded words "We don't spend any time together anymore...". I quickly recognized the severity of the situation and that I was now in dangerous waters, using my peripheral vision to gauge my surroundings before turning slowly to face the wife, carefully avoiding any sudden movements. It is essential in any potentially life threatening situation facing an unknown creature to not show fear or give an opportunity to attack, thankfully she couldn't yet sense my fear however; like any predator she knew she had me cornered with no chance of escape. Unfortunately I had not yet understood this and quickly made for shore.

  "Honey we just went to the movies..."
  "That was TWO weeks ago! Do I only deserve your attention twice a month!?"
  Now knowing my only escape had been cut off, it was time to batten the hatches, throw on a life preserver and wait out the storm.
  "No, of course not, you know I love you; what would you like to do today?"
  Sensing she had won she ruthlessly pursued the opening with a full broadside;
  "Well I've really wanted to visit the indoor flea market for awhile now... could we do that?"
  A smart man would have capitulated, I instead thought there was an opportunity to be had.
  "Ok, we can do that. There is a Military Surplus not too far from there I wanted to check out."
  Her eyes flashed with lightning and drew a breath, in a desperate attempt to escape the coming gale I fell to my knees begging Poseidon to spare my life by offering my only available sacrifice; figuratively of course.
  "Well I can always do that another time, how about a late lunch afterwards?"
  "Hmm..."
  Apparently my fate was yet to be decided as I could see the eye of the storm gather around me.

  As we exited the car and got a first look at the Albuquerque Indoor Flea Market I was gripped by a sudden strangling anxiety of facing the next two hours being dragged through wave after wave of homely castoffs and nick knacks from the elderly and/or insane; truly I had been forsaken. Not being one to disappoint, my wife did indeed head straight for the porcelain figurines. After a time of polite disinterest in her findings I was permitted to wander on my own. Much to my surprise I was able to spy a section in the corner where rod tips and tiny guides were just peeking over some china display cabinet large enough to anchor a freighter and immediately set course.

  To my delight I was able to find these;

Yes that is a coffee mug, and my brew has never been saltier

  After a time I wandered back to my wife with my plunder and expertly attempted to disguise it beneath and between the items in her cart. Being the parent of a precocious 5 year old she spotted them immediately even as I was nonchalantly inspecting nearby tables. 

  "What are these?"

  "ARRGH....?"

  "No"

  "The mug is five bucks and the book is two, sweetie"

  "'Two' the number, or 'too as well'"

  How well she knows my games, 

  "Two dollars, dear."

  "Hmm..." -translation 'Your fate will be decided at checkout'

  Shortly thereafter we had gone around the place and were on the way to the register when something caught my eye

After briefly opening either side to assure myself of the legitimacy of my catch I checked the price tag and knew this would have to be played very carefully indeed. 

  "Ok, I know you're not going to like it but I found a tackle box and would really like to keep it, and I'll even put my other stuff back and not ask for anything else, guaranteed. Its 20 bucks."

  I flinched even as I said it knowing she just saw all the cards in my hand and even Alex looked at me in disbelief; she's scary perceptive sometimes. My wife had narrowed her eyes and opened her mouth to respond when Alex reached out putting a hand on her mother's arm and said 

  "Its ok mom, he's been a good daddy and I can play with it too."

  Have I mentioned how awesome my daughter is? That was all it took for her mom to reconsider and allow the extra item before purchasing everything and exiting the store. It seems the storm was only a front and I told myself that I had weathered it bravely as a sailor worth his salt, politely ignoring the fact that I had to be rescued by a child. We headed over to IHOP to get Alex strawberry pancakes, after that performance I was about ready to get her anything.

  Later at home going through the bags Alex had this to say;

Alex named the lizards Salty Monster 'Reptics' after asking what that was she calmly explained it was a combination of 'Reptile' and 'Plastics'

"I like touching the slimy ones...Sparkles! AND SLIMY! *SQUEEL*

"This one doesn't have any letters in it. I'll name it "Wild Mexican Eater Lizard"

  -Me "Why name it that?"

  -Alex "Because it's wild and eats everything daddy."

  Later playing with some of them I hear "Tail High Five! *WAPISH* Yeah!"

"Dad they want to go to China on a trip, how do they use their tails to eat with chopsticks?"

  -Me "Uhh..."

  Tab over to Rods, Reels and Rigs to view pictures of the loot!

Mother's Day... Without the women.

   I took Mother's day off and after getting off the night shift at 0500 I realized several things;
1 This is a Sunday
2 The wife takes the kid and goes to church on Sunday
3 I do not
4 ?
5 I'm going fishing, sleep be damned!

  So I came home to find my brother had crashed out on my couch who also works night shift but had been asleep for about an hour, good enough for an instant fishing buddy! "Get the hell up, we're going fishing!" and the response I received was to the best of my knowledge "HNgwuj..no mom..." this was unacceptable. I put some coffee on, stole his keys and started loading his Jeep with all my gear. He was out of the house as soon as he heard  it go from a cold start to red line and I was treated to a half naked Taylor with a S&W .40 Shield in one hand and a flashlight in the other blinding me from the drivers window before I heard the house door open, the inexplicable shrieking from the engine bay might have something to do with that. Calmly rolling down the driver's window "...Get your other shoe and some coffee, we have someplace to be" he came back out in 17 seconds and flew into the passenger seat, this signaled the time to let back the throttle to an acceptable level before going into gear and down the road. Least the kid knows fishing is serious business, even had the presence of mind to grab a holster and a second travel mug for me; that's good people right there.

  Google suggests driving time from Albuquerque to the Route 4 turnoff will take 82 minutes, Challenge Accepted. After trip to fill up and get ice we get there just at 67 minutes, the Wrangler Sport/Unlimited engine redesign in 2012 is nice. However when we arrived at the park pull in the water was stained from some previous rain and the biggest fish was a 12 inch stocked rainbow taken on the lower of a double Trout Magnet setup in chartreuse and Light Brown at around 0800 with no interest in anything else. When the Day Trip city folk showed up, and before the babied Mustang even came to a full stop a blonde kid of about 14 was out of the car and flying through the air and into the biggest pool about 5 feet in front of me. To my chagrin the kid managed to escape my hook, while managing a direct hit with his splash directly onto my DLSR.

  Let that sink in for a moment,

  I certainly did while we packed up as out came the multi tool and off came the Jeeps licence plate.
The sun was just coming over Battleship Rock and shining on the water as we drifted through the gravel spraying that special edition pony car and cracking the rear glass, it was a beautiful picture worthy moment...

Stocking Season in Full Swing

  While reading through the NMGDF Weekly Stocking Report something jumped out. Four different entries for Navajo Reservoir for Triploid Rainbow Trout; 67331 fish between 6.9 and 7.2 inches totaling 9655 lbs in the span of 3 days.
Those are several healthy numbers as some stocked fish will reach decent size in the next year or two, but what I am excited about is the life span of Rainbow Trout, a contested 11 years. Understanding that wild Rainbows have a 90% predation rate, and hatchery reared fish even higher its still exciting to see the possibility of about 6000 fish reaching sizable weights at the 5/7/9 year marks.

Personal Goals

  This year in the midst on the annual corporate executive fulfillment of self importance for my workplace I was asked "Name One Professional Goal For 2013" which I immediately pencil whipped with a cheeky 'I plan to reduce the overall number of complaints I receive in 2013' scarily enough that answer was approved by both my shift supervisor and department director. I had no idea that so few people in 2012 disliked me. I am honored.

  Then the next question "Do you have a personal goal this year?" for some damn reason I stopped and actually processed this question, was it because it was phrased so differently from the vulgar easy-to-import-to-spreadsheet outcome columns questions? Decidedly not, it was because I had to be repulsively honest and say 'No I do not' and see at how painfully empty that looked.

  I knew I could do better, certainly owed it to myself to attempt it. In my reflection of how I spend my time out of work I looked to my hobbies, video games, fishing and tacklecraft. Despite the format of the newly profound question I approached it just the same as the rest of my performance review with
"I want to be the very best, like no one ever was" or " I will conquer the World...of Warcraft" and it sounded just... sad.

 With humor abandoning me I was left with that same crushing honesty and decided that I would have a personal goal;

 "In 2013 I will document the catch of all the Game Fish of New Mexico, attempting this on homemade tackle.  In keeping with the subject, my year starts April 1st and ends March 31."

  I'm happy to say I have a personal goal, and love to see the reaction it generates at work.

What Carp!

  Elephant Butte Lake:  March 31, Ed Stahl caught a 4.75-pound carp. He was using a nightcrawler

  And this was on the Catch of the Week.
  A Non-Game Species.

  I could see the justification of a Carp nod if say... It was a specimen fish, taken on a fly, caught by a child, ate a hooked fish being brought in, noodled with a pinkie toe (The Minimus, how fun) or an accidental catch while targeting sunfish on UL tackle, but this catch was none of these things. It is not my intent to verbally eviscerate Mr. Stahl, in fact good on you sir for taking the time to get out and cast, doubly so for cataloging your catch and submitting it.
  I am attempting to call attention to the both the lack of submissions by residents and the concerning decision making process of NMDGF and Bill Dunn who....

 Whom I realized just pranked the readership of the Catch of the Week.
 I admit to taking that hook, line and sinker up until this very moment,
 Well played Mr. Dunn, well played indeed.

Renew you licenses people, and give Mr. Dunn Game Fish submissions!

NMMI vs. NMMI

I receive a ton of e-mail spam, I hope it enrages you just as much; the world is sometimes too happy a place. One of the worst examples is the shameless solicitation of my Alma Matter the New Mexico Military Institute. Granted being on the mailing list is entirely my choice, but how else would I get the notifications of the Annual Valentines Sweetheart Dinner or the Spring Support the Cadets function to share and laugh over with my fellows from RAT year?

 After recently joining New Mexico Muskie Inc. I got a piece of mail that just happened to come in right on top of something from the Institute, instead of clicking something interesting I was instead rewarded with a rather somber 'Abq Chapter Member Facing Medical Issues', that was just depressing.

 Recovering from that mishap, and being the responsible person I am, there was no choice but to immediately blame NMMI for changing their acronym to so closely resemble NMMI's. As an aside I'm also rather surprised that NMMI hasn't yet discovered the acronymic synonym faux pas and become indignantly litigious with NMMI about it. Overall I can call it a win as my RAT and PT gear now has new use, and I am proud to be a member of both NMMI and NMMI.

NMMI^

 Also NMMI^

End Of Season Approaches...

 The month of March is possibly my favorite time of year in New Mexico, not because the weather is warming, or the shrubberies are finally becoming, well, as green as things can get in NM but because my fishing license will soon expire. Yes I know that sounds odd, but assuming my reality of procrastination motivation applies to others; the cutoff of March 31 quickly looming propels me out of the house and into the garage to gather the necessary supplies and take note of what is old and how those things can best be supplemented but new and shiny things, my wife hates this. In a rush I notice that reels need maintenance, the melting pot should be cleaned and how in the world have I managed to get by with such a bare plastics box?

  These things require immediate remedy! I begin to clean out the opened jars of salmon eggs, scrub the melting pot and inspect all the jigs replacing skirt collars, clipping line ties off eyelets and reorganizing bait boxes, my wife hates this more as my favorite place to conduct these activities is the kitchen table. I attempt to point out how the garage workbench has collected random house items not placed by myself; this ends in failure. I continue on.

 Following my spring cleaning of my gear my attention is redirected to the newly empty spaces in the Plano boxes, the situation is intolerable, and so I am off to collect the new and shiny things mentioned earlier; the wife hates this most. In Albuquerque there are some choices to shop for varying fish paraphernalia namely
 Charlies Sporting Goods,  Los Pinos Fly and Tackle, the secondary options being Sportsman's Warehouse,  Big 5, and Walmart. I shop at these locations because they rank in order lesser to greater evils in my mind. However Sportsman's is frequented because I developed a habit of calling it 'The Zoo' when my daughter was about 2 years old and she would finally get excited to do anything 'Fishying' with me thereby allowing me to collect new and shinys in relative peace, my wife has not discovered this; do not inform her.

 My questionable parenting tactics have paid off; I  have netted a fishing buddy who has traveled with me throughout New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona and Texas by her request. She has beaten my personal best Rainbow weight by a 1/2 pound and wont let me forget about it "Daddy, my fishes was bigger. Can I tell Mommy?" a small amount of leeway is given in this matter. She is only 5 after all.
 

                                             The day of the event in question ^