Left for Philmont Scout Ranch Tuesday noon. Spent the night in
Littlefield, TX and got to Philmont around noon on Wednesday. Drove
down to where NM 21 crosses the Rayado River and was suprised to see
that my little river had turned into "big water". Didn't want to fish
this alone, so I headed back to the ranch. They've had a bunch of rain
in the Cimarron area since mid-July and all the creeks/rivers are
blowing and going. However, with the water a "stained" color it was
easier to catch the fish, if you could keep from getting knocked onto
your butt. On Thursday, I was busy along with the other Philmont
Fishing Committee members, hauling supplies to the back country camps
where the participants in the 13th Annual Philmont Fly Fishing
Invitational would be housed when they arrived on Friday. I moved my
group into Zastrow on Friday morning and we hurriedly hit the Rayado.
Fishing was good, but only a couple of rainbows were over 10", one
being a 12" and a 13". I caught only 11 Friday, but they were nice 8-9"
rainbows. I caught them all on a #12 Chili Pepper that I tied,
plaigerizing Tony's pattern. I tied this one without the beadhead and
kept it loaded with floatant. Everybody caught fish, some as many as a
dozen, but most caught around 5-6. On Saturday, my son David used a
Chili Pepper with a copper beadhead to catch five enormous browns in the
"Crags", which are in the upper reaches of the Rayado - deep pools and
long runs and much larger fish, mostly browns. He caught two that were
16" plus and my best bud Steve Taylor caught an 18" on a beadhead chili
pepper. I wanted to fish the crags, but there was no way I could
navigate the boulders and swift water up there, with all my feet and
ankle problems, so I was relegated to the lower Rayado and the smaller,
but fiesty little rainbows.
Late Friday afternoon I had the misfortune of spraining my right ankle.
( this is the one that I broke several years ago on the Gunnison, and
have had severe problems with it ever since and also developed
osteoarthritis in the ankle joint. I used to wade right up the middle
of a stream, but not anymore. I have to creep along the bank and be
super careful not to twist my ankle on a rock The worst problem I have
is with my balance. Just one little miss step and I'm on my butt on the
bottom of the river. That is what happened when I sprained my ankle,
tried to catch myself to keep from falling, but got my ankle caught
between to rocks. If the bottom is fairly flat and gravelly and the
water not terribly fast, I can wade, but not the rough stuff like I
could handle before my accident on the Gunney.
My ankle was still swollen on Saturday morning, so instead of sitting on
the Zastrow porch all day, while the others fished, I decided to head
home. Jody was surprised that I did that, but she had no idea about my
ankle and the pain until I got home late Saturday night. The only thing
I hated about coming home early was leaving my son and best friend Steve
Taylor to fish without me. There were six others in the group, besides
us, so they still had plenty of company. Son David should have come
home too, what with the severe Plantar Faciatis that he's been battling
in both feet. He could hardly walk when he got in Friday afternoon.
But, David, being the hard headed youngster (43) that he is, said he
had to try the Crags on Saturday. He had his own vehicle anyway, as did
Steve, so I wasn't leaving them high and dry.
I didn't take any pictures of my little baby rainbows, but David did
take some of his bigguns. He's supposed to email me some jpgs of the
larger them. When he does, I'll post them on my website and alert
ya'll. I spent most of yesterday, after church, soaking my ankle in hot
epsom salts water. Didn't keep count of fish caught, but I suspect
that among the nine of us, we caught and released upwards of two hundred
fish in two days, pretty evenly split between rainbows and browns.
JIMMY D
- [VFB] Fidhing Report - Rayado River Jimmy D. Moore
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