Newsletter - January 2024 | |
President's Message
Rick Luitich
I would like to start my presidency by thanking both my supporters, lol, for getting me into this plight.
As your new President I promise nothing, but I will try to listen to everyone and keep our club moving
forward. Having said that, I have heard from several people that some of our members don’t have email or don’t get the Constant Contact messages so I have started an old-fashioned Phone Tree
messaging system.
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If you know someone who would like to be part of that messaging system, please
contact me via the phone, or attend a Monthly Meeting, and pass their contact info (phone Number) to me and I will let the individual heading up the phone tree project put them on this list.
We are lucky to be a group of like-minded people when it comes to the preservation of our cold-water fisheries because as Abe Lincoln once said “You Cannot escape the responsibilities of tomorrow by evading it today”. We were a very busy group taking care of our responsibilities to preserve our cold-water fisheries last year and we will be continuing our efforts this year.
Ron Loehman and crew have a lot of opportunities coming our way in 2024. Keep an eye out for the Constant Contact messages letting us know the who, what, when and where of our activities in 2024. I hope to see everyone participating.
Once again, we have a really good Conclave and Workshop coming in early March with Bruce Newton and Elizabeth Noyes heading up the activities. We have Pat Dorsey as our main speaker and a NMGF speaker coming to talk about our Rio Grande Cutthroat. As always if you have anything you would like to donate for the auction or the garage sale, please contact Bruce Newton/Elizabeth Noyes for auction items or Jerry Burton for garage sale items.
While the pricing for everything else in the world has gone up, our Conclave and Workshop pricing is staying at $30 for the Conclave, $30 for the Workshop or $50 for both if purchased at the same time. Look for the posters in your favorite Fly Shop the near future.
I look forward to working with, talking to, and most importantly fishing with as many of our members as possible.
Your President
Rick Luitich
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Vice President's Message
Bruce Newton
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The New Year 2024 is here!
2023 was a busy year for NMT and for me personally.
This year begins with the logistical preparations for our Annual Conclave & Fly Tying Workshop on March 1-2, 2024. I am looking forward
to the presentations by Pat Dorsey our main speaker. He is an extremely knowledgeable fisherman, guide and professional in the fly fishing industry.
Make sure that you attend. Do Not Miss It!
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My 2023 year was very full with personal and fly fishing activities:
• 5 flyfishing clinics introducing 75 people to this great activity
• River cleanups on the Rio Guadalupe and San Juan Rivers.
• Stocking trout in the Rio Grande and Pecos Rivers.
• Surveying and monitoring trout populations in the Valles Caldera.
• Organizing 7 monthly meetings for NMT.
• Spent 60 days fishing on the waters of New Mexico, Arkansas, Campeche, MX and Aransas, TX. Trout, bass, tarpon and red fish and provided much excitement, challenge, satisfaction and good times with my fishing companions.
As always, life presents other challenges. My mother needs my support
during the last phase of her life. My brother had a stroke and can no
longer fish. I have inherited all his fly fishing equipment. SAD (If you need
something, let me know). My dog was hospitalized for several days.
Retirement is not without it work and demands.
I appreciate all the members of New Mexico Trout, especially those you
volunteered to help with our projects. I hope you had as much fun and felt
the satisfaction that I did!
Let’s have a great year! See you “On The Water”!
PS. Please go through all your fishing stuff for things that can be sold at
our Canclave used equipment sale. Any type of fishing equipment is
needed...spin or bait casting stuff, flies that you have used, boots, waders,
vests, bags, boxes, etc. All items can be taken to Los Pinos Flyshop.
Bruce
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Membership Chairman
Dave Klosterman
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Winter and lake fly fishing. To the lake fly fisherman – it’s down time. You can’t use a fly rod out ice fishing. What to do? First off, organize the mess within your chest pack or vest fly boxes. Then get busy tying up replacements.
Winter time is also the time to do an in-depth inspection of everything you use for lake fly fishing and fix or replace the weak links.
Start with your leaders: Look at the leader/line loop connections for nicks or other weak spots. Replace the leader if this connection is damaged. Then run your fingers down the length of the leader and feel for nicks, kinks, etc. Replace if damaged. I use a tippet ring for my leader to tippet connection. Tie a new
knot from the leader to the tippet ring. (Knot’s probably weak anyway.) Then replace your tippet section(s) and call that good.
Fly lines: Inspect your fly lines closely, particularly the last five or so feet. Look for cracks and damage such as the fly line coating peeled back or off. Replace if damaged badly. You can cut a couple of feet off the end of a fly line and the line will still work well. However, you’ll need to get familiar with a nail-knot
tool to reattach a leader. If the line is good, clean it well. Dish soap works well to clean a fly line. Then apply line cleaner to floating lines and to the floating portion of your sink tips. Do not use fly line cleaner pads on your sink tips or sinking leaders. A hover or intermediate sink tip just won’t sink for a long time if you do.
Reels: Time to clean and lubricate them. If you’ve dropped a rod onto a sandy or muddy bottom, wash the spool and the cage in soapy water and rinse well. It’s likely the reel has sand/dirt in it.
Rods: Inspect all of your rods for cracks, bent guides, especially the tip section. Check the real seats for
looseness.
Waders: If you have a leak, you already know it. Fix it as best you can.
Fins: Check the strap rivets and connections for integrity. Add a commercial retaining strap or tie one end of parachute cord to the fin and form a loop in the other end to go over your foot. You just don’t want to lose a fin out on the water – been there, done that.
Float Tube or Boat: Inspect for scratches and patch any that look deep. Most float tubes/boats are one chamber designs – a leak in one side means the whole thing loses air. Oars need to be checked too. Especially if two section oars.
Life vest or PFD: Check for overall condition, tears, etc. If the PFD uses a CO2 bottle, maybe get it replaced. It’s State law to have a floatation device while in a float tube/pontoon/boat. The wardens do
check!
That’s it for now.
Dave Klosterman
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"FAR MORE FLIES ARE LOST IN THE TANGLE OF OUR FLY BOXES THAN ARE LOST
ON TROUT"
Robert Traver
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"EVERY MAN HAS A FISH IN HIS LIFE THAT HAUNTS HIM"
Negley Farson
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"EVERY CAST IS A SEARCH, AND EVERY HOOKUP WITH A GOOD FISH A DISCOVERY THAT CONFIRMS WE ARE GOOD AT FINDING
WHAT IS HIDDEN"
Christopher Camuto
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"DON'T TRAVEL IN LARGE OR EVEN MEDIUM-SIZED GROUPS. A TYPICAL GANG OF SIX FISHERMEN WILL INCLUDE A BAD COOK, A WHINER, A SCORE KEEPER, SOMEONE WHO ABSOLUTELY HAS TO BE BACK BY THURSDAY NOON, HIS FIVE YEAR OLD SON AND HIS DOG GONZO"
John Geirach
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“FIRST A MAN TRIES TO CATCH THE MOST FISH, THEN THE LARGEST FISH, AND FINALLY THE MOST DIFFICULT FISH"
Ed Hewitt
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"FEAR NO FISH.
NEVER GROW UP"
Flip Pallot
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Volunteer Conservation Projects for 2024
Ron Loehman Conservation Chair
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This is the period when we start planning our volunteer conservation projects for the coming
year. Many of the streams that are candidates for restoration are now frozen, inaccessible, or
temperatures are too low for outdoor work. However, we can think about warmer days ahead and set priorities for our late Spring to mid-Fall projects.
Here are several relevant planning or coordination events scheduled for the next month. We will know more details on projects later this winter.
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January 11, 2024, 10:00-11:30 MST - Initial meeting for the New Mexico Beaver Coalition, Chaired by Cecil Rich of Rio Grande Return
The purpose of the meeting is “to provide a forum for information sharing, coordination, and collaboration aimed at advancing beaver-human coexistence, improving public policy and legal frameworks for beaver management and restoration, and to help accelerate riparian and aquatic habitat improvement and beaver expansion in New Mexico, This will include regular virtual meetings for individuals, nonprofits, Tribal, state, and federal agencies, policymakers,
and others to break down silos, gather knowledge, and form collective actions and goals for progressive beaver-related activities across New Mexico and at a local level.
Join the Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81802831641?pwd=WXh4OXdXUFMyYzYraVkrR0Q1b3l6dz09
Meeting ID: 818 0283 1641
Passcode: 388913
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January 22, 2024 1:00-5:00 PM. and
January 23, 2024 8:00-noon - The annual RG Cutthroat Trout Conservation Team meeting
Chaired by Bryan Bakevich
Rio Grande Basin Native Fish Supervisor
New Mexico Department of Game and Fish
In person at the following location:
Toney Anaya Building
Rio Grande Room (upstairs)
2550 Cerrillos Road, Santa Fe
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January 24, 25, or 26, 2024 (the specific day TBD) – Volunteer project planning meeting at Jemez District Office, Jemez Springs
Liam Covey-Shannon
Natural Resource Specialist
Recreation Staff Officer
Forest Service
Jemez Ranger District
We expect to get a tentative list of volunteer projects from this meeting for work on the Jemez District of the Santa Fe National Forest
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Other potential projects include the following. They are only ideas at this point, and we need to get them on the USFS and NMG&F priority list to proceed.
Fish population sampling on the Valles Caldera National Preserve.
Reintroducing Rio Grande Cutthroat to Peralta Creek (on the list for a number of years).
Building beaver dam analogs (BDAs) on more Jemez streams.
Building more Cattle/Elk exclosure: upper Rio Cebolla, Rio San Antonio
Read and possible battery replacement on the stream temperatures loggers we installed several years ago
Hope to see you out there!
Ron
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Natural Beaver Dam on
The Rio Guadalupe
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Beaver Dam Analogs on
Polvadera Creek
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Peralta Creek Area for
Possible RGCT Reintroduction
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Fish Sampling by Electroshock at Valles Caldera National Park | |
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FLY OF THE MONTH
Joe Raymond
THE STILLWATER NYMPH
By Dave Klosterman
This fly is presented by Dave Klosterman NMTs' Membership Chairman and Lake Fishing Aficionado.
The Stillwater Nymph was originated by Denny Rickards in Oregon. It is a great searching pattern when fishing a lake and you haven’t determined what the trout are keying on. Tie the fly without weight when fishing above weed beds or in the top two feet of the lake. Tie it with weight to present it in weed channels & pockets or when fishing at or below three feet.
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This recipe is for an olive brown body and marabou tail. The fly is weighted. Hook 1 or 2 xl, 1 x heavy size 12. Thread brown or olive.
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Weighting: Start the thread and tie in .015 lead wire. Wrap ten to twelve lead wraps. Keep the lead on the front part of the hook for better fly action in the water. Then wrap your thread over the lead from the start of the lead to the hook
bend. Cover the lead with thread and the cement the thread. This prevents the lead from breaking while fishing and loosening the fly body.
Tail: Tie in three medium sized clumps of olive brown marabou fibers. Tie each clump in separately.
Marabou length guide: 1.5 to 2 times the hook length.
Flash: Mylar flash (Larva Lace brand). Tie in eight to ten strands of flash the length of the marabout tail on top of the tail.
Colors: Rusty Olive, Nasty Rusty, Rainbow.
Wire: Tie in copper wire (small or medium size) at the base of the tail.
Hackle: Tie in a burnt orange saddle hackle at the copper wire.
Wing Case: Tie in a narrow thin skin strip, (mottled brown or olive) at the marabou tail.
Under Wing Case: Tie in a narrow strip of pearl mylar flash on top of the thin skin.
Body: I use a dubbing mix of olive brown and Cascade Crest UV olive brown leech and dark olive. Build a ciger shaped body with the dubbing.
Hackle: Wrap in four hackle wraps and tie off at the fly head.
Wire rib: Wrap in the copper wire using two turns of wire for each hackle wrap. This one detail will make this fly very durable.
Under wing case: Pull the pearl mylar strip over the top of the fly and tie off. This material will provide flash under the thin skin wing case.
Over wing case: Pull the thin skin over the fly and tie in.
Whip finish the fly. Then pick out the dubbing and brush the hackle fibers back towards the tail. I use a craft stick with male Velcro glued to it. Works well. The overall appearance of the fly should be a little rough – lots of dubbing fibers sticking out.
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If you have a helpful, fun or interesting tip, trick or tidbit to share please let me know! | |
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New Mexico Trout Merchandise
Get Some Swag!!
Wear With Pride!!
New Mexico Trout has arranged with Albuquerque-based Rowan Apparel to embroider items with the distinctive NMT logo.
You can get your NM Trout gear in the following ways:
- Go to the store and select from items in stock (or they can special order them)
Address: 7400 Montgomery Blvd NE #3,
Albuquerque, NM 87109
Phone: (505) 344-9939
- Take your own items into the store and they can add the logo.
Rowan Apparel has a wide variety of shirts, hats and jackets in stock, and you can special order other items. Embroidery adds about $20 to the cost of any item (or you have your own item embroidered for the same amount). If you order online, just leave a comment to use the New Mexico Trout logo artwork.
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2024 Fishing Licenses
On-Line Renewal Date
Starts March 25, 2024
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FISHING LICENSES!
Available On-Line
While fishing in New Mexico, anglers 12 years and older must possess a valid New Mexico Fishing License or Game-hunting & Fishing License. Licenses are valid April 1 through March 31 of the following year.
Licenses are available to purchase year around
On-line renewal date starts March 25, 2024.
A New Mexico Fishing License is not required on tribal reservations and private Class-A lakes.
Click here to renew online at NMDGF
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New Mexico Trout Business Sponsors |
Yearly business membership entails the sponsor to a link and an ad in the NMT Newsletter and website. Contact the membership chair for more information if you or a business owner you know would like to become a sponsor, or visit our website at newmexicotrout.org.
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Fish on New Mexico!
Your Editor,
Elizabeth Noyes
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