Where to Fly Fish for Wild Trout in New Mexico

The 70-mile drive from Santa Fe Regional Airport to Taos cuts through high-desert valleys – open expanses of sagebrush and junipers framed by 13,000 foot peaks in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains to the east.

I've been wanting to get to Taos for a long time, but this trip was different from what I expected. I always imagined the drive with snow on the mountaintops – sometime in January or February, on my way up to high elevation to ski.

But it's June, and I was headed there for trout.

Fly Fishing the Rio Grande near Taos

As Taos draws closer, the road starts to trace the Rio Grande through a canyon of high basalt cliffs, following 50 miles of trout water holding big wild browns and rainbows.

The lower stretch of the river is fishable from a raft, but much of the middle and upper sections is only accessible by trail. It’s not an easy hike in or out, which helps keep the fishing pressure down and the trout happy.

Fly Fishing for Rio Grande Cutthroat Trout

I ended up on a tributary of the Rio, a small meadow stream about an hour and a half north of Taos. Flowing at 9,000 feet, the Rio Costilla is clear, cold, and home to New Mexico’s state fish – native Rio Grande cutthroats.

It runs along a dirt road that winds up into the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and out of the sagebrush valley below, flowing through a tight canyon before opening up into a wide meadow lined with conifer trees.

I spent most of my time fishing the meadow stretch, casting size 22 mayfly imitations to colored-up wild trout, and by the end of the day I’d lost count of the little fish that came to the net.

Trout Fishing in Northern New Mexico

The Rio Costilla looks and fishes like dozens of streams I’ve fished in Montana, Colorado, or Wyoming. The water is cold, the meadows are green, and the trout behave exactly like trout should.

But thirty minutes back down the dirt road, it’s desert again – adobe homes, centuries-old churches, and New Mexican restaurants dotting the sides of the road in small towns scattered across wide valleys.

What Makes Taos Different From Other Trout Towns

The history behind those scenes runs deep. The nearby Taos Pueblo has been inhabited for more than 1,000 years, making it one of the oldest continuously occupied communities in North America. Spanish explorers first reached the Taos Valley in 1540, and both Pueblo and Spanish influences remain woven into the architecture, food, and identity of the region.

Surrounded by more than a million acres of national forest and miles of public trout water, it's a place that feels distinctly different from anywhere else I've ever fished.

The Best Fly Fishing Trips Offer More Than Trout

In Testament of a Fisherman, Robert Traver wrote, “I fish because I love to; because I love the environs that trout are found, which are invariably beautiful.”

Trout do have a knack for leading anglers to remarkable places. But beyond the scenery, the best fishing trips offer a glimpse of the people and cultures that have long called those places home.

This was one of those trips.

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