Weekly Fishing Report Feb. 27

By GEORGE MORSE
Sports & Outdoors
Los Alamos Daily Post

The weather turned sharply colder Monday night with a strong wind contributing to the chill.

The temperatures and wind chills dropped to below zero in Northeastern New Mexico. Walking from my truck to the gym for a basketball game was the coldest I’ve felt all winter long.

That said, the pattern lately is for temperatures to warm up quickly and be back in the 50’s in a couple of days. The weekend looks nice.

The lakes that had ice fishing last week are still holding up well. The good news is that Sunday (March 1) several lakes in Northeastern New Mexico that were closed for the winter will open for fishing again.

Clayton Lake will open Sunday. In preparation for Opening Day, the State Game and Fish Department stocked 4,001 rainbow trout Feb. 17 at Clayton. This lake also has some enormous walleyes. The state-record walleye of 16 pounds, 9 ounces was caught here. While there, check out the dinosaur tracks.

Maxwell Lake 13 at the Maxwell National Wildlife Refuge near Maxwell will open Sunday. This is a very fertile lake and trout grow very well here. You may not catch a lot of fish here but those you do catch should be good-sized, holdover rainbow trout. Watch for migrating waterfowl here. Snow geese and sandhill cranes should start migrating north to their summer breeding grounds soon.

The Charette Lakes between Springer and Wagon Mound open Sunday. They are also a good spot to see migrating waterfowl. You might catch some good-sized rainbow trout here too. The fishing is at Lower Charette Lake, which is well-stocked. It has not been stocked since last year, so any fish you catch will be holdovers from last year. There are also some yellow perch in this lake.

The ice fishing remains good for rainbow trout and yellow perch at Eagle Nest Lake. No reports on northern pike, but they can be caught here too. The ice is still plenty thick as temperatures are still falling below zero in the Moreno Valley. Call (575).377.1594 for conditions.

The ice fishing for rainbow trout at Lake Maloya in Sugarite Canyon State Park near Raton has been good. The ice here is 17 inches thick. No reports from Lake Alice, which is also in Sugarite Canyon but a much-smaller lake. This is a good area to spot mule deer and wild turkeys. Call (575).445.5607 for conditions.

Ice fishing for rainbow trout remains good at Fenton Lake in the Jemez Mountains. No recent reports of Rio Grande cutthroats being caught. Only two cutthroat trout may be kept as part of a five fish-per-day limit. The ice thickness here is 13 inches. Fenton Lake is stocked throughout the winter. It was stocked Feb. 18 with 549 rainbow trout. Call (575).829.3630 for conditions.

Because of varying ice conditions, it is best to call ahead and check on conditions at Heron Lake near Tierra Amarilla. They can also tell you about conditions at El Vado Lake. Call (575).588.7470 for conditions.

Some lakes are offering some good open water fishing. Santa Cruz Lake near Chimayo has been yielding some big trout over 20 inches using Power Bait. These are likely holdover trout from a fall stocking of 20-inchers at Santa Cruz. Thin ice may form here overnight but should melt off during the day.

Monastery Lake near Pecos was stocked Feb. 18 with 251 rainbow trout. Ice fishing is not allowed here, but there should be some open water. Thin ice may form overnight but should be melted off later in the day. No reports from here. It could be worth a try.

They have been catching some nice trout at the Ohkay Owingeh Fishing lakes in Espanola. This is a fee-fishing area located on Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo land.

Manzano Lake at Manzano Mountains State Park near Mountainair has been fair-to-good for trout.

The smaller streams around Northern New Mexico are mostly still hard to fish due to snow and ice. Fishing in the larger rivers has been pretty good.

The fishing in the Chama River below El Vado Dam has been fair-to-good for brown and rainbow trout. The streamflow here was 99.5 cubic-feet-per-second.

The Chama River below Abiquiu Dam was stocked Feb. 18 with 518 rainbow trout. The flow here is very low at 49.1 cubic-feet-per-second. Fishing pressure here has been light here due to limited access because the State Game and Fish Department is conducting a stream habitat improvement project. Anglers who make the effort to access this area could be rewarded with some good fishing. Call (505) 685-4371 for information on access.

The streamflow in the Rio Grande was 605 cubic-feet-per-second at Taos Junction Bridge. The flow is a little high for this time of year. The fishing has been good, likely in areas that have been recently stocked, for fly anglers drifting nymphs.

The fishing in the Red River below Questa holds up well in the winter and is well-stocked. The fishing has been good. It was stocked Feb. 18 with 701 rainbow trout.

The Jemez River below Battleship Rock has been fishing well all winter. It was stocked Feb. 18 with 1,004 rainbow trout.

The Pecos River above the town of Pecos is tough to fish due to snow and ice. The Pecos River at Villanueva State Park is being stocked. It was stocked Feb. 18 with 499 rainbow trout. No reports from this area, but the fishing should be pretty good. In that same area, Santa Rosa Lake on the Pecos River reports good fishing for crappie and fair fishing for walleye. This is the first report from here in many weeks.

Over in the Four Corners area, the streamflow in the San Juan River below Navajo Dam was 403cubic-feet-per-second. The fishing in the Quality Water has been fair-to-good using a variety of fly patterns. The fly fishing has also been fair-to-good in the Bait Water.

Still no reports from Lake Farmington. This lake has been heavily-stocked and the fishing should be worth trying.

Tiger Park Pond in Aztec was stocked Feb. 17 with 1,302 rainbow trout. No reports from here but it too has been heavily- stocked and the fishing should be pretty good.

Heading south, the fishing for catfish has been good at Cochiti Lake.

Tingley Beach in Albuquerque is being stocked on a weekly basis. It was stocked twice last week with a totalof 2,511 rainbow trout, including 240 trout averaging almost 14 inches in size. The fishing has been good.

The drainage canals in the Albuquerque area are being stocked with rainbow trout on a weekly basis. The fishing has been fair-to-good.

Little Escondida Lake just north of Socorro was stocked Feb. 21 with 800 rainbow trout. The fishing here is good following recent stockings.

The fishing for white bass has been slow-to-fair trolling crank baits at Elephant Butte Lake. The fishing for largemouth bass has been slow. The water temperature was 45 degrees. This is still a little cold. The catfishing should be good if you know where to go. It might be best to hire a guide on this big body of water.

The Rio Grande below Elephant Butte Dam was stocked Feb.19 with 650 rainbow trout. Still practically no streamflow here and the fish are likely confined to deep pools.

The fishing has been good in the Ruidoso area. Alto Lake has been good for trout. It was stocked Feb. 18 with 1,001 rainbow trout.

Grindstone Reservoir near Ruidoso was stocked Feb. 18 with 1,501 rainbow trout. The fishing has been good.

The Ruidoso River was stocked Feb. 18 with 498 rainbow trout. No reports on the fishing. It should be good near where these trout were stocked.

In the Silver City area, the fishing for rainbow trout and some Gila trout has been good at Lake Roberts. It was stocked Feb. 17 with 1,248 rainbow trout. No reports yet on largemouth bass.

Bill Evans Lake was stocked Feb. 18 with 1,632 rainbow trout. The fishing has been good for the stocked trout. No reports on largemouth bass yet. Bill Evans Lake was where the state-record largemouth bass was caught. Lake Roberts and Bill Evans Lake are designated trophy bass waters where the limit is two-bass-per-day with a minimum length of 18 inches.

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