Wednesday, August 6, 2008

The Fishing Angle

The premier purpose of the trip to Northern New Mexico for Kevin was, of course, finding some fishing opportunities. Having never fished in streams and rivers, he was excited to to try his rod.

As I told you, he and I headed to the Jemez Mountains to fish in the river waters.

Here is Kevin scouting the first location.




While I was tying on my hook, Kevin set out his first cast. What's this!? A bite! The first cast! I jumped up and grabbed my camera.









Needless to say, we let the little guy go back. We were excited, though, that the waters seemed so ripe with young trout. We kept up casting, Kevin using his spinner, and I used the minnows we snagged from Ashley Pond.

Soon, I felt a tug on my line. It surprised me, and I was too late to set the hook before Mr. Trout took off with my minnow. Darn!

Undaunted, we kept casting. And casting. Annnnddd ccccasssssting.

We moved to several pretty spots on the same stream.










We did some fossil hunting before heading to Fenton Lake, where we casted some more. And waited. And cast. And waited.

We headed to one last spot at the Las Conchas trailhead. The fish were really jumping there! A man came by to tell us he had caught three in that pond. So we kept trying.

But the fish. wouldn't. bite.

Trying again at Las Conchas.

As Kevin described it, he caught one on the first cast, and then we spent the rest of the day trying to catch another fish.

Even though we weren't able to bring home dinner, we had a fantastic time together! I was very happy to have the opportunity to fish with him. It is the first time fishing since I was about 12 (excepting, of course, our Alaskan salmon fishing trip).




Proof that Moms can fish (Fenton Lake)


On Saturday, we dropped Kevin off at Embudo for another try, this time on the Rio Grande.


When we returned from Taos to pick him up, we learned that Kevin had caught and released two small bass. No keepers. Darn.

We missed Kevin at the pancake breakfast on Sunday. He had headed from BobBIE's down to the Rio Grande to try again. It was a beautiful hike, but he had no luck again.

So, now he has some experience, and next time he has an opportunity to fish in a freshwater stream, or a big river like the Rio Grande, he'll be ready to catch the Big One!

3 comments:

RetroMag said...

Maybe the California fish will be more cooperative!

Poss said...

Didn't we use worms for all the stream fishing? or was it the bright orange salmon eggs that tempted the fish. My guide in MT swears by spraying WD-40 on the bait.

BobbieS53 said...

Fun in the sun...has Kevin quit peeling from the sunburn? At least you guys got a lot of exercise, Kevin got to float in the mighty Rio and you saw beautiful places! Has Kevin caught more ocean fish since you've been back?