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."
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.
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.
