Trying to make a living on the river, during the worst drought on record, conspired to keep Kathy and me out of the mountains all summer. But September finally arrived, and we closed up shop after the conclusion of the Labor Day weekend.
From where we live, in Embudo (NM), the closest access to the Sangre de Cristo Mountains is the Rio Santa Barbara, which drains to the north off the slopes of North Truchas and Chimayosos Peaks, in the Pecos Wilderness. A short hike (3 miles round-trip) goes to a bridge. On this particular walk, we carried binocs and camera, but no fishing rods.
Plank bridge over a very small creek
Geranium
Harebell
?
One comes to a good-sized pool, at the point where the trail begins to closely follow the creek. In the pool were some brown trout:
Brown trout holds in a slow current, looking up for passing food items
Brown trout rises to intercept food
Got it!
The so-called “ring of the rise”. In this case, it looks like the trout rose to investigate a floating item, and then turned away, in what fly fishers call a “refusal”.
The brown trout was holding in the small pool seen left of center
The head of the larger pool
One has to hike a considerable distance upstream from this sign to find Rio Grande Cutthroats
Kathy, at the bridge
A gorgeous Rio Grande Cutthroat, caught and released by Kathy on a prior visit to the upper reaches of the Rio Santa Barbara
