Man, that was a really great trip. Thanks for writing it up and taking all
the great photos! Fishing with Chas is great too. I'll see you up there
one of these years, Chas!

I won't even bother writing up a TR for my birthday fishing in the Wild and
Scenic River section of the Rio Grande for my birthday Saturday, but I'll
hit the high points:

The hike down drops 700' in eight tenths of a mile and I jogged it because
the river below looked so damn good. Heidi dropped me off at the trailhead
at about 10 am and we scheduled a 6:45 pm pickup. At the bottom my legs
were humming as I rigged up. The wading is deadly on the slickest frickin
rocks I've ever encountered (basalt polished smooth). The rocks are also
really big so you're often standing on them and fishing water that's ten
feet below the rock. I took one fall that would have scared even the
esteemed Mr. Reid. I was actually swimming in my vest with my rod.
Thankfully still alive!

I fished hopper/dropper, dry only when the baetis were out, and a two
nymph/bobber rig also. The fishing was great. I caught lots of small,
beautiful browns and a few Rio Grande chubs. While I was fishing just a
small parachute adams (baetis were in the air) I had a HUGE brown turn and
grab it. Alas, I got Buck Fever and immediately left that fly in the
brown's lip with a Bass Bubba hookset. Oh well. That would have been my
fourth "brown of a lifetime" but the first on a dry. Later I hooked (and
landed!) a 30"+ Carp! When I hooked him he took me to the backing, running
*upstream* through some huge rapids and boulders. Amazingly, my 3X (apprx)
Cabela's Tectan held up and I got the fish into some shallow water
eventually. My PT was stuck way back in the roof of his mouth and this fish
scared me. Certainly twice as heavy as anything I'd landed on a five weight
before. As I was struggling to free my hemostats, the hook popped out and
that beautiful fish swam into some deep slow water and sulked. Can't blame
him.

If anyone wants to see this place in the next couple of weeks, I'll meet you
up there. Drop me an email or reply to this thread.

In my opinion, it blows the Box Canyon of the Henry's Fork away - more
variety of fish, more solitude, tougher wading by far, and of course it's in
New Mexico!

bruce h

Oh yeah, my legs are sooooo sore that I can't step off a curb. My "downhill
muscles" were completely unprepared and I'm not sure if they'll ever be the
same.