Jemez Adventures Short Fishing Notes – October 15, 2024

These notes on Jemez Mountains fishing are excerpted from the Friends of Fenton Lake articles that appear in the After the Thunder newspaper published in Jemez Springs. They provide a window into Jemez fishing as a function of time and are reported twice a month. 

The Santa Fe National Forest Western Division improvements to stream access parking and streamside erosion issues are nearing completion. Again, thanks to all involved in these projects – the results are great! Fenton Lake stocking the week of October 10 included 398 triploid rainbow trout. The Cebolla in the park was stocked with 398 fish. Lake fishing has been fair to good with spinners (e.g., Panther Martins), power bait, and wooly buggers all producing fish. No Jemez waters were stocked the week of October 11.

The Jemez River was also stocked the week of October 4 with 220 fish, and the East Fork parking lot at Battleship Park was completed in time for the weekend of October 12 and was near full that Saturday. 

The Jemez River flows dipped down to 6 cfs (cubic feet per second) at the gage below the NM 485 bridge on October 8, recovering to 12 cfs by the 13th (for reference mid-summer flows are typically around 20 cfs). This means that the Guadalupe River drainages remain dangerously low for our wild brown trout. The East Fork Jemez River brown trout have slightly better water conditions with decent fishing, and fishing for the brown trout of the VCNP is fair to good but expect spooky fish – it is the Valle after all!