New Mexico Fly Fishing.

Top Rivers to fly fish in New Mexico.

New Mexico Trout Fly Fishing on the San Juan River

New Mexico has some of the best fly fishing in the United States. The San Juan River quality waters below Navajo Lake reservoir dam is consistently named as some of the best trout fisheries in the country.

This World-class trout fishing is experienced all along the San Juan River in New Mexico, but the 4.25 miles of river just below Navajo Dam, known as "Quality Waters", holds over 80,000 trout. An average San Juan River trout is 17", but fish over 20" are abundant.

New Mexico offers year round fly fishing waters throughout the state below are some of the best New Mexico trout fishing rivers.

New Mexico Fishing Rivers
The following list for New Mexico fly fishing rivers is courtesy of Land of Enchantment Guides.
For more detailed information please go to their website: www.loeflyfishing.com

  • Rio Chama River: The Chama river is probably one of the West's most undiscovered and diverse trout rivers.
  • Rio Vallecitos River: Located northwest of Santa Fe in the Carson National Forest, the Vallecitos is a small stream that sees very little fishing pressure.
  • Brazos River: For the most part, the Brazos River flows through private land. However, there are approximately 4 to 5 miles of the river that is open to public fishing.
  • Rio Grande River: The Rio Grande River has fishable trout water from just north of Espanola upstream to the Colorado border.
  • Red River: The Red River flows into the Rio Grande from the east, north of the town of Questa. New Mexico Game and Fish operates a trout hatchery on the lower part of the stream.
  • Rio Pueblo de Taos River: This tributary to the Rio Grande flows through a gorgeous canyon and contains some of the best small pocket water fishing in the area.
  • Los Piños River: The Los Piños river starts high in the San Juan mountains of Colorado and works its way to the east towards the Rio Grande. There are over 20 miles of the river in New Mexico offering beautiful freestone trout water with great fishing for both brown and rainbow trout.

  • San Juan River: The San Juan River is a fishery that everyone should experience.
  • Pecos River: The Pecos River is a beautiful, small to medium sized, stream that flows through many different types of terrain. Because it has a road that follows most of its course, it gets a lot of fishing pressure during the summer months.
  • San Antonio Creek: One of the most unique trout fisheries is the Valles Caldera National Preserve (VCNP).
  • East Fork Jemez River: The Jemez River and several of its tributaries including the East Fork of the Jemez, San Antonio Creek, the Rio Guadalupe, and the Rio Cebolla offer fly fishermen the opportunity to fish a wide variety of different streams.
  • Costilla RiverCostilla Creek is possibly New Mexico's best wild Rio Grande cutthroat stream.
  • Cimarron River: The Cimarron is one of the prettiest smaller rivers in the state. It is a tailwater which flows out of the dam on Eagle Nest Lake.

For more information on New Mexico fishing visit :  www.newmexico.org/fishing/
New Mexico Fishing Reports : www.orvis.com/nm-fishing-reports