T.F.M. Spotting - Michael in New Mexico

Michael Clayton recently sent along a few photos from a New Mexico trout trip including a "cowboy-esque" T.F.M. Spotting Photo Contest entry.  Looks like a pretty neat creek to me.  

I thought I would send pictures of my latest fishing trip to the site of an ancient super volcano, Valles Caldera, near Los Alamos in Northern NM.  It is an old crater over thirty miles wide with ongoing geothermal activity and several creeks that originate there.

Legislation has been initiated to add it to the National Parks Service.  Fishing is tough with twenty to thirty mile per hour winds common and stealth is essential.  This is crawl on all fours or approach on your knees country, and you know the experienced fisherman by who shows up in the parking lot with knee pads.
  

In this huge basin, if you are more than thirty-six inches tall the trout see you and scoot.  These photos are of the East Fork of the Jemez River.  In many places, it is eighteen to twenty-four inches wide and over three feet deep.
  

It contains trout up to eighteen inches.  Add in the wind and you have a real challenge.  I managed to catch a couple during a recent trip with the Steffen Brothers eight foot 3/4 wt rod I built from a blank.  It worked surprisingly well in the wind with Sage Quiet Taper four weight double taper line.