I have heard a lot about the strike of a pike on your fly and carp are just enormous fish. When Nick offered to take me Pike and Carp hunting, I jumped on it. (Remember, I have said numerous times, that I’m not interested in large fish.) The sun warmed us as made our way over boulders and through the highly vegetated trail. From up high, we could spot several carp. The pike were nowhere to be seen, but that wasn’t a surprise – they normally hang out in the deep sections of the river, especially near large-bouldered banks.
And so, another streamer opportunity presented itself. And the same result as always – I came up empty handed. I never even saw a pike and I didn’t miss a carp – we just couldn’t fool any that day even though we saw several following the fly to check it out. I enjoyed the distraction, as we headed off to Rio Hondo, just up from the John Dunn bridge.
The Rio Hondo in northern New Mexico is a tributary of the Rio Grande. It’s a rather short river at only 20 miles and originates up in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains near Taos Ski Resort. It reminded me of a small mountain stream with lots of casting challenges although access was quite facile.
We had a great afternoon on the river, but we had to be very careful because every 10 yards or so, we had to watch out for the redds. Nick hadn’t seen that many redds in this river for a long time, and the fish were abundant in these spots making babies. In fact it was difficult to find a good hole to fish without thinking that we would be interfering with the future growth and development of the stream.
One of the most interesting sites we saw was when we spotted a trout with its dorsal fin above water while it waited for an insect to come its way. I couldn’t get close enough for a good shot, but look for the white at the surface of the water. Very unusual.
