Jay
07-08-2009, 11:52 PM
Just got back from a family reunion.
We spent most all of the time in Angel Fire, New Mexico. I spent most of that time fishing a river, which I will make a post on in the moving water section at some point.
But I did fish Eagle Nest Lake for one afternoon and one morning from shore.
The first evening was pretty cool. The fish were up shallow picking off emerger BWO's with a vengeance. Most of the fish were only in a few feet of water, creating an awesome wake that you could track between sips from the film/surface.
I was fishing a BWO emerger with a poxy midge trailing behind. Within five minutes I hooked and briefly fought a nice 20ish inch bow before it laid waste to my much too dainty tippet that held the midge to the BWO. I thought I was in for an eventful evening. What I ended up with was utter frustration, after trying everything I could, with only a few upturned noses to show for it.
The next morning I was chest deep in COLD water with no waders, before the sun had peeked over the mountains. The fish were already up, and appeared to be eating midges, but again, hours went by with nothing, and as the activity disappeared, I decided that if my delicate presentation of spot on imitations wasnt working, I'd get in there face with something big and ugly :D.
After ten or fifteen minutes of shooting a purple bugger as far as I could, I was rewarded with this beautiful 17" New Mexico 'bow.
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h223/fourbizzle/EagleNest091.jpg
That was it for trout at Eagles Nest, but I might as well have caught 20 of them as rewarding as it was. If you are ever in the area check it out, the Yellow Perch LOVE a purple bugger, lol.
I fished 4 other lakes on my trip, all of which were within about an hour of the town I grew up in in southern Colorado. Last year I acquired some property from my mom in a gated subdivision. The property is not much, but it has great views, and I found out AFTER we had arrived to check it out, that there is a couple private lakes in there! Here is a view of the Great Sand Dunes National Monument from the site of our future cabin.
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h223/fourbizzle/0652.jpg
Problem being, the wind was blowing like a bat out of hell, like it always does in that valley. Now mind you, I am not a proficient flycaster in my opinion, but I was really getting tickled with how far into the wind I could double haul that streamer. After a couple misses, I hooked into what WOULD have been my biggest trout on the fly, easily 20ish but HEAVY, real heavy, and gorgeous. I was cowboying it a bit so my mom could get some pictures of it jumping with her DSLR and I eventually let it pull off! Bummer! After only about 20 minutes, we had to leave to be at dinner at my uncles. So I left my big fish pretty let down, knowing that I would not be able to try again there for at least a year.
The next morning, I went out and caught the carp that I posted in the warmwater section, and in the afternoon headed up to the mountains on the other side of the valley. After dinner with yet another aunt and uncle, I managed to squeeze in about an hour of fishing at one of the lakes near their place.
Oh my goodness. So this is how Rainbows became so renowned. I had been lulled into their California dumb planter lameness. I ended up with 5 fish, none smaller than 18 inches. They were all incredibly strong, chunky fish, and when they werent bulldogging me down to the backing on my 5 weight, they were doing some serious acrobatics.
The first:
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h223/fourbizzle/20098.jpg
Took me a half an hour of switching around till I once again landed on the purple bugger. It loud, and its ugly, but I sure like it!
Just at last light, I was rewarded with this beast that dropped me into my backing 3 times with 2x tippet!
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h223/fourbizzle/edited-1.jpg
The next morning I got up bright and early and headed back to the same lake. After a few hours and a few losses and misses, I managed this one
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h223/fourbizzle/20095.jpg
There is a lake just up from this one that I have done well at in the past, so since it was so slow and I only had one day to fish, I decided to head for that one.
As soon as I hopped out of the old Willy's of my uncles, I was immediately greeted by the sight of big bows cruising the shore picking off fatheads, scuds, and caddis adults. With the prospect of fish I could sight and the possibility of a big bow on a dry, I immediately switched over to a size 16 Elk Hair Caddis in tan. After a couple minutes of stalking and a well delivered cast, this fish came up and barely poked its head out to sip my fly.
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h223/fourbizzle/200911.jpg
After that, I entered into pure Nirvana. Its all a blur of cartwheeling, caddis sipping freight trains. I must have ended up with 25 fish in those 4 or 5 hours. Half on the caddis, which I eventually ran out of, the rest on streamers after the rain came and knocked the fish down from the surface. I'll spare any more narrative, hoping that these pics my mom took might be able to do it a little more succinctly.
http://i741.photobucket.com/albums/xx60/jocelynrussell/1862.jpg
http://i741.photobucket.com/albums/xx60/jocelynrussell/1942.jpg
http://i741.photobucket.com/albums/xx60/jocelynrussell/2192.jpg
http://i741.photobucket.com/albums/xx60/jocelynrussell/2082.jpg
Pure bliss guys. I've never felt so at peace as I did that day.
We spent most all of the time in Angel Fire, New Mexico. I spent most of that time fishing a river, which I will make a post on in the moving water section at some point.
But I did fish Eagle Nest Lake for one afternoon and one morning from shore.
The first evening was pretty cool. The fish were up shallow picking off emerger BWO's with a vengeance. Most of the fish were only in a few feet of water, creating an awesome wake that you could track between sips from the film/surface.
I was fishing a BWO emerger with a poxy midge trailing behind. Within five minutes I hooked and briefly fought a nice 20ish inch bow before it laid waste to my much too dainty tippet that held the midge to the BWO. I thought I was in for an eventful evening. What I ended up with was utter frustration, after trying everything I could, with only a few upturned noses to show for it.
The next morning I was chest deep in COLD water with no waders, before the sun had peeked over the mountains. The fish were already up, and appeared to be eating midges, but again, hours went by with nothing, and as the activity disappeared, I decided that if my delicate presentation of spot on imitations wasnt working, I'd get in there face with something big and ugly :D.
After ten or fifteen minutes of shooting a purple bugger as far as I could, I was rewarded with this beautiful 17" New Mexico 'bow.
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h223/fourbizzle/EagleNest091.jpg
That was it for trout at Eagles Nest, but I might as well have caught 20 of them as rewarding as it was. If you are ever in the area check it out, the Yellow Perch LOVE a purple bugger, lol.
I fished 4 other lakes on my trip, all of which were within about an hour of the town I grew up in in southern Colorado. Last year I acquired some property from my mom in a gated subdivision. The property is not much, but it has great views, and I found out AFTER we had arrived to check it out, that there is a couple private lakes in there! Here is a view of the Great Sand Dunes National Monument from the site of our future cabin.
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h223/fourbizzle/0652.jpg
Problem being, the wind was blowing like a bat out of hell, like it always does in that valley. Now mind you, I am not a proficient flycaster in my opinion, but I was really getting tickled with how far into the wind I could double haul that streamer. After a couple misses, I hooked into what WOULD have been my biggest trout on the fly, easily 20ish but HEAVY, real heavy, and gorgeous. I was cowboying it a bit so my mom could get some pictures of it jumping with her DSLR and I eventually let it pull off! Bummer! After only about 20 minutes, we had to leave to be at dinner at my uncles. So I left my big fish pretty let down, knowing that I would not be able to try again there for at least a year.
The next morning, I went out and caught the carp that I posted in the warmwater section, and in the afternoon headed up to the mountains on the other side of the valley. After dinner with yet another aunt and uncle, I managed to squeeze in about an hour of fishing at one of the lakes near their place.
Oh my goodness. So this is how Rainbows became so renowned. I had been lulled into their California dumb planter lameness. I ended up with 5 fish, none smaller than 18 inches. They were all incredibly strong, chunky fish, and when they werent bulldogging me down to the backing on my 5 weight, they were doing some serious acrobatics.
The first:
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h223/fourbizzle/20098.jpg
Took me a half an hour of switching around till I once again landed on the purple bugger. It loud, and its ugly, but I sure like it!
Just at last light, I was rewarded with this beast that dropped me into my backing 3 times with 2x tippet!
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h223/fourbizzle/edited-1.jpg
The next morning I got up bright and early and headed back to the same lake. After a few hours and a few losses and misses, I managed this one
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h223/fourbizzle/20095.jpg
There is a lake just up from this one that I have done well at in the past, so since it was so slow and I only had one day to fish, I decided to head for that one.
As soon as I hopped out of the old Willy's of my uncles, I was immediately greeted by the sight of big bows cruising the shore picking off fatheads, scuds, and caddis adults. With the prospect of fish I could sight and the possibility of a big bow on a dry, I immediately switched over to a size 16 Elk Hair Caddis in tan. After a couple minutes of stalking and a well delivered cast, this fish came up and barely poked its head out to sip my fly.
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h223/fourbizzle/200911.jpg
After that, I entered into pure Nirvana. Its all a blur of cartwheeling, caddis sipping freight trains. I must have ended up with 25 fish in those 4 or 5 hours. Half on the caddis, which I eventually ran out of, the rest on streamers after the rain came and knocked the fish down from the surface. I'll spare any more narrative, hoping that these pics my mom took might be able to do it a little more succinctly.
http://i741.photobucket.com/albums/xx60/jocelynrussell/1862.jpg
http://i741.photobucket.com/albums/xx60/jocelynrussell/1942.jpg
http://i741.photobucket.com/albums/xx60/jocelynrussell/2192.jpg
http://i741.photobucket.com/albums/xx60/jocelynrussell/2082.jpg
Pure bliss guys. I've never felt so at peace as I did that day.