By GEORGE MORSE
Sports and Outdoors
Los Alamos Daily Post
The warm winter weather has appears to have ended a brief ice-fishing season here in Northern New Mexico. Eagle Nest Lake was open for about a week, but deteriorating ice conditions led to its closure. Fenton Lake has yet to open for ice fishing, along with Lake Maloya and Lake Alice at Sugarite Canyon State Park have not opened for ice fishing.
There was very limited stocking activity in Northern New Mexico this past week. This week’s fishing report will be short.
Small streams at higher elevations are starting to ice up. The Rio Pueblo, Santa Cruz River and Rio Costilla are already reporting icy conditions that prevent the measurement of streamflow. The Pecos River north of Pecos just recently also reported icy conditions. Winter stockings on the Pecos are made at Villanueva.
The best fishing will be found below big dams. The San Juan River below Navajo Dam is a good winter trout fishery. The Chama River below El Vado Lake and Abiquiu Lake are other locations.
Santa Cruz Lake does not allow any ice-fishing. It reopened on Feb. 15. If the lake freezes, it will be closed. Remember, if the access road to Santa Cruz is icy and snow-packed, it will be closed. The fishing here should be good if there is open water.
Monastery Lake is now closed due to unsafe ice conditions
Streamflow in the Rio Grande remained above average near the Colorado border and stayed normal further downstream over the past week. At Taos Junction Bridge streamflow Sunday was 550 cubic-feet-per-second at Taos Junction Bridge. The streamflow at Cerro near the Colorado border was 378 cubic-feet-per-second, which is normal. The streamflow at Embudo was 519 cubic-feet-per-second.
The Rio Grande seldom freezes completely and is one of the more reliable fishing locations during the winter season. It is. well-stocked with rainbow trout, especially in the Pilar area. There are also wild brown trout. Fishing for northern pike picks up in the winter.
The streamflow on the Red River below Questa is 36.3 cubic-feet-per-second below Questa. This is a little higher than last week. It was stocked Feb. 3 with 700 rainbow trout and has wild brown trout.
Eagle Rock Lake near Questa is frozen and ice-fishing has been good for stocked rainbow trout. Use caution.
Abiquiu Lake is managed by the Corps of Engineers. The fishing is for walleye, smallmouth bass and largemouth bass. There are some good-sized trout in Abiquiu. Camping by reservation. Call 505.685.4371 for more information.
The streamflow in the Chama River below Abiquiu Dam was 42.2 cubic-feet-per-second. This is the same as last week. It was stocked Feb. 2 with 516 rainbow trout. There are some big, wild brown trout here. The limit here is two trout per day.
Heron Lake State Park is open. Fishing for rainbow trout has been fair. El Vado Lake State Park is now open for fishing. Call 575.588.7470 for more information.
The streamflow in the Chama River below El Vado Dam was 93.0 cubic-feet-per-second. It has wild brown trout. The state-record brown trout was caught here.
The Chama River above El Vado Lake streamflow was 61.9 cubic-feet-per-second at La Puente. This is higher than last week.
Over at the Four Corners, the fishing has been fair at Navajo Lake State Park. Trolling minnow imitating lures like Rapalas could produce a trophy brown trout. Camping by reservation only. Boating conditions are good. Call 505.632.2278 for more information. Navajo Lake does not freeze.
The San Juan River below Navajo Dam is the best river in New Mexico and well-known in the angling world. The streamflow was 324 cubic-feet-per-second. This is lower than last week and below normal. It has world-class fly-fishing for big trout. Conditions for wading anglers have improved.
The first four miles of the river below the dam is known as the Quality Water. Angling is strictly Catch-and-Release using artificial flies and lures with a single barbless hook. The Quality Water is stocked with small rainbow trout that grow quickly. It was stocked twice last week with a total of 35,773 sub-catchable rainbow trout.
There are also big, wild brown trout. Some of these brown trout would shatter the state record if they could be kept and weighed.
The Bait Water below the Quality Water has good fishing, and a five-fish limit may be kept here. There are big brown trout here, too. It was stocked Feb. 5 with 2,322 catchable-size rainbow trout.
Lakes in the Aztec area are now being stocked. Aztec Pond #1 was stocked with 121 rainbow trout. Tiger Park Pond was stocked Feb. 3 with 1,400 catchable-size rainbow trout.
Lake Farmington was stocked twice last week with a total of 2,239 rainbow trout.
Hopewell Lake is a small, high elevation lake between Tierra Amarilla and Tres Piedras. It has stocked rainbow trout and wild brook trout. Ice fishing has been good.
Eagle Nest Lake State Park is closed to ice fishing. If you catch a pike at Eagle Nest you must kill it. You cannot release it back into the lake. Call 575.377.1594 for more information. The Pecos River near Villanueva was stocked Feb. 4 with 500 rainbow trout.
The drainage canals in the Albuquerque area are now being stocked with catchable-size rainbow trout. The Albuquerque, Albuquerque South, Belen Riverside, Bernalillo, Corrales Riverside and Peralta drains were stocked last week.
Tingley Beach in Albuquerque is stocked with rainbow trout. It was stocked twice Feb. 10 with a total of 2,284 rainbow trout.