Fishing Reports

Good reports from the Caldera.  Three weights are best and tiny patch adams and ants.  Good time to work on your blind game, gauging your cast lengths, looking for subtleties to indicate strikes.  Terrestrials are still the ticket, though what fish up there won't sucker for a well-presented bug?

The water will be low, the sun bright all day, and the fish might get punky, especially through the unrelenting afternoon.  Best to start early and see what happens.  That's when bugs will be hatching, small mayflies and caddis, and of course the ant and beetle program is still going strong.  As with all meadow streams, the Jemez creeks will have the prey image of drifting earthworms burned into their brains.  My experience on Tusas Creek last week confirmed that worms are real trout food and not just a blue tub next to the Power Bait at a gas station.  So when in doubt, remember that the brown worm rocks all summer on the upper meadows section of the Conejos.

If the gods will cut the rain (and we all kind of hope that they don't, at least all the way), there is plenty of fun fishing throughout the Jemez in waters small and less small.  Black dry patterns work really well, especially those that resemble ants and small beetles.  Parachute hoppers are also drawing plenty of action and work well as indicators, off of which teeny nymphs and sparsely tied caddis pupa can be dropped to great effect.  Stop and smell the roses though.  This weather has given us about a million new shades of green, and plenty of stupendous wildflowers.

Water's getting low, so you should also.  Fish ants and small stuff on thin tippet, and cast well.  Consider a nap in mid day.

The Jemez will require your best game these days, which, along with possibly long casts (in the meadows), good stalking, and comfort with smaller flies and no indicators, should include the option of finding some shade beneath at tree and taking a nap.  When the sun is high over there, the fish might decide to take their own siestas, so why work so hard when it might not do any good.  Ants.

There will be slow times now that the sun is high and the effing forest is on fire.  But they'll eat ants or trico like things early in the day.  All the creeks should be fun at least at some point in every day.