Fly Fishing on the Pecos River in New Mexico

Sandie and I are up in the Pecos River Valley in New Mexico for the month of September. We've been here since fleeing Houston after Hurricane Ike crashed through town. We were fortunate enough to have no damage and only minor branch clean up. We left our son, Jacob behind to mind the house and weather Houston heat without power and a week's supply of nutrition bars. His work got power in about a week and he's at work again.


We've been living in a very nice cabin on the Pecos River about 14 miles north of the village of Pecos balancing our days with hiking and fishing. I've posted a sample of the scenery, the river and the fishermen. We spent a great day with Jarrett Sasser, owner of the High Desert Angler, fishing a mile long private section of the Pecos River. While the river is generally pretty private in the public sections during the week at this time of year, the private waters was a great joy. Not only was the scenery and the river wonderful the fishing was superior to the public waters.




I continue to hone my nymphing skills. Our nymphing is primarily limited to dry/dropper combinations, there were some pretty deep holes that required adding a little tungsten putty to our leaders to get down the big ones.
















A view of the Pecos Wilderness, looking up at Round Mountain.
















Sandie fishing on the Pecos near the old Pecos Mine reclamation site. This is entering the area know as the Terrero Box from the north side. After we left the parking area and walked in about two hundred yards, we didn't run into another person for about 3 hours.















David catching fish with Jarrett on the private waters on the Pecos about 5 miles north of the village of Pecos.















Sandie with Jarrett, trying to coax another fish to the fly that she was drifting along a seam near the opposite bank.

Some beautiful fall scenery along the river. I caught about half a dozen typical Pecos sized browns (9-12 inches) between the place I took the picture and the bridge.

























Jarrett caught the picture fish! He had been standing next to Sandie trying to catch this fish and it wouldn't take her fly. Frustrated, she told Jarrett to catch it. He offered to let her reel it in, but she said "Your fish, reel it in yourself!"

I have a movie of this that I'll try to upload after this postwhen I have more time, it's pretty big.

We caught a few more large ones, but this was the day's whopper.

If you want to find out more about fishing with Jarrett or one of the many excellent guides at High Desert Anglerwhen your in New Mexico, he can be reached at http://www.highdesertangler.com/. You will not be disappointed.