Late one Sunday evening, as the sun was about to slip behind the Jemez Mountains and the weekend would be over without my wetting a line, I felt compelled to go fishing. My favorite holes on the Chama River were too far away, so I decided to try the Rio Grande.
The Rio Grande is a spot that I often overlook, perhaps because it is so close by. It’s funny how the grass seems greener and the fishing better farther away. But the Rio Grande can offer great fishing 15 to 20 minutes from home.
For a river so close to the well-traveled State Road 68, the Rio Grande is surprisingly lightly fished. Just a couple of miles north of Velarde is a big pool where I’d caught fish in the past. I had to park a couple of hundred yards away from my destination and walk.
As I approached the hole, I realized why the Rio Grande might be lightly fished — its banks are thickly overgrown and strewn with rocks, some very large. Poison ivy also grows profusely along the banks.
The sun had already slipped behind the walls of the canyon when I started fishing. After many casts with a night crawler and two split shot, I finally hooked a fish. There are rainbow trout, brown trout, smallmouth bass, carp, suckers and chubs in this part of the Rio Grande. This fish turned out to be a nice rainbow trout, likely a holdover from an earlier stocking.
Surprisingly, the fish had faint orange slashes beneath its jaw, indicating it carried some cutthroat trout genes.
Trying to duplicate the drift of the bait on my next cast, I hooked another rainbow a little bit bigger than the first.
Night crawlers are always a good bait in the Rio. Cast them upstream with just enough split shot to take them to the bottom and drift down with the current. Panther Martin spinners are excellent for both trout and bass and I have caught some big brown trout on Rapalas. Fly fisherman favor large streamers like wooly buggers and clouser minnows.
From Velarde to Pilar, the river is accessible from State Road 68. At Pilar, you turn onto State Road 570 and enter the Orilla Verde Recreation Area. The road continues to the Taos Junction Bridge and then leaves the river. From the bridge to the Colorado border, the river flows through the Rio Grande Wild and Scenic River area, known locally as the Gorge.
It’s important to be patient when fishing the river. The currents swirl around and it may take a while to get just the right drift.
Rainbow trout are well-stocked by the state Game and Fish Department, while brown trout and bass reproduce naturally.
The trout I caught weren’t the biggest, but catching a couple of nice ones so close to home was rewarding. I fried one for dinner the following night and was struck by how firm the meat was. Fighting the swift currents of the Rio had made that fish strong.