Ping you guys that fish the San Juan..

If my posts to this group have been a little thin lately it's because I
been road warrioring for the past several weeks, (well hell, somebody has
to deliver those expensive machines) Several trips to Florida, Calif. and
just returned from LasVegas today, via Ruidoso, NM. A tad off-route but I
was curious. Had recently read some nice stuff about Ruidoso as a place to
live..a nice dry climate at about 6900' elevation, etc. Nice little town in
pretty country I found, even though it is a ski resort town, very
unassuming. Just wondering if any roffians have fished in this area?

Frank Church
...being over 70 means people admire your alligator shoes when you're
barefoot

The Rio Penasco is down there and it's amazing. Jon Cook can tell you about
it.
I don't think this is real current but there's a private ranch on several
primo miles that offers an annual membership

http://www.flys-etc.com/mulcock_ranch.htm

Check it out.

bruce h

Frank Church wrote in message . 49.11...

just returned from LasVegas today, via Ruidoso, NM. A tad off-route but I
was curious. Had recently read some nice stuff about Ruidoso as a place to
live..a nice dry climate at about 6900' elevation, etc. Nice little town in
pretty country I found, even though it is a ski resort town, very
unassuming. Just wondering if any roffians have fished in this area?

Don't move to southern NM for the fishing! :-)

Ruidoso would be a nice place to live...easy summers and easy winters
(usually). Some fishing around, mostly small water, small fish. Rio
Ruidoso flows right through town and seems to have pretty good access
(NM stream access laws are very restrictive vis a vis private property).
An occasional 16-18" brown comes out of there, but mostly we're talking
small fish, and the main sections in town are stocker bows during the
season. Upper headwaters are on the Mescalero Indian Reservation and
you can pay to fish (I never have) those streams and a few small ponds
they have (near campgrounds). Bonito Creek is just north of town,
begins up in the Sierra Blanca Wilderness and there's a couple of
access points further down. Small water, small fish. Just below the
wilderness, is Bonito Lake (which Bonito Creek feeds). A good size
lake but it is a water source for the town, so no boating, only fishing
from shore. A side effect of this is that I hear springtime can bring
bows up into the inlet and up Bonito Creek that reach 20". I've never
fished it (last few years the inlet has been dry this time of year.
This year it might have some real good fishing). A couple of other put
and take reservoirs are around there, and a couple of other lakes on
the reservation that you can pay to fish for stockers.

As bruiser mentioned, south of there, near Cloudcroft/Mayhill, is the
Rio Penasco. A spring creek, good flows yearround, and some very
large fish. Unfortunately all private. No public access anywhere
that I know of. You can pay mega-bucks to fish some areas lik the
link bruiser put up, or a membership in the Mesilla Valley Flyfishers
gets you access to one stretch for $20/day. Rio Penasco is probably
a hour's drive away from Ruidoso -- nothing in NM is "close by" :-)

Jon.

(Jonathan Cook) wrote in
:

Frank Church wrote in message
. 49.11...

....snip lots of good info on Ruidoso area fishing..

Thanks Jon, but due to the paucity of available warmwater fishing in the
area I have scratched Ruidoso from my list...still, a nice little town with
a decent climate if that is all one is looking for.

Frank Church

There's a fair amount of warmwater fishing in Southern NM also, Frank.

bruce h

"Frank Church" wrote in message
9.11...
(Jonathan Cook) wrote in
:

Frank Church wrote in message
. 49.11...

...snip lots of good info on Ruidoso area fishing..

Thanks Jon, but due to the paucity of available warmwater fishing in the
area I have scratched Ruidoso from my list...still, a nice little town
with
a decent climate if that is all one is looking for.


If you four like seasons, but not too intense ones, no bugs, and available
remote warmwater rivers and stunning scenery, consider Flagstaff or Williams
Arizona. Property values have stabilized, and there's lots of great places
to explore.

--riverman

Frank Church wrote in message . 49.11...

Thanks Jon, but due to the paucity of available warmwater fishing in the
area

Depends on how big of an "area" you want to define :-). You certainly
can hit bass (black,white,striped) in Elephant Butte and Caballo lakes
on the Rio Grande, and Brantley Lake over on the Pecos river. Plus a
few smaller waters.

I have scratched Ruidoso from my list...still, a nice little town with
a decent climate if that is all one is looking for.

All? I must say there are plenty of other joys of living in southern
NM other than climate and fishing :-)

Jon.

(Jonathan Cook) wrote:
snip
All? I must say there are plenty of other joys of living in southern
NM other than climate and fishing :-)

When I think of New Mexico one of the things I recall is the tactics
of their state police. We were driving on the interstate near Gallup
when they quite literally closed the interstate highway. All traffic
had to exit and wait in a line to run a gauntlet consisting of dozens
of heavily armed men in combat dress under blinding spotlights.

Freaked me out.

I guess New Mexicans get drunk and kill each other in car accidents
more often than almost anyone else in the civilized world and these
"roadside stops" are the supposed "cure".

But for all the weirdness involved in getting there, we enjoyed our
time in Taos. At first glance it appears that one could pick a worse
place to live or retire.

--
Ken Fortenberry

(Ken Fortenberry) wrote in message m...

"roadside stops" are the supposed "cure".

Then you'd really enjoy the border patrol checkpoints that are
10 miles outside of our town on all major roads :-) (Seriously,
though, what you described must have been a while ago, and I do
think it's a _good_ thing for them to try to address what was,
and maybe still is, a serious problem (though I doubt it was
_much_ higher than every other state).

But for all the weirdness involved in getting there, we enjoyed our
time in Taos. At first glance it appears that one could pick a worse
place to live or retire.

Taos (and Santa Fe) are about as representative of New Mexico
as my 3forks 3wt is of high quality fly rods :-)

Jon.

"Jonathan Cook" wrote in message

Taos (and Santa Fe) are about as representative of New Mexico
as my 3forks 3wt is of high quality fly rods :-)


Good fishing though!

I saw a bumper sticker once that read:

"Help stamp out howling coyote art!
-brought to you by the society for the prevention of visual cruelty to
humans."