Month: August 1999

Because of easy access the Costlla gets lots of fishing pressure and by August the fish get picky. They tended to be wary of the large Stonefly patterns they saw so much of in July and tended to go for smaller bugs. PMD patterns {small yellow Mayfly #16} worked well over fussy fish and this hatch comes off in mid-morning. This is a good pattern to use for rising fish and others that have refused other offerings. There were lots of Hoppers around in the meadow sections and we fished Hopper-Dropper combos with good success this month..Later in the day Caddis dry also produced well. There is very little shade in this mostly meadow area and staying late to take advantage of low light conditions is a good idea. Flows were 60-80cfs Mon.-Thurs. but on weekends it dropped to 20cfs and with the weekend pressure fishing was tough.

New Mexico Fly Fishing Guide Ed Adams

Releases remained low and water temps high. Early and late when water was cooler seemed to be the ticket. Water from the tributaries got low too and didn’t help the downstream flow.

New Mexico Fly Fishing Guide Ed Adams

By early August flows from Platoro had dropped to 40-60cfs and the Pinnacles were wadeable for the first time this season. Fishing was good with Caddis or Hoppers on top with a Beadhead dropper {Prince-Copper John #14}. Lots of Browns 13-17″ with an occasional Cutbo to 20″. On 8/4 and 8/16 we fished the Hamilton lease and on the 14th it was slow and we didn’t get a lot of fish but some nice ones. On 8/16 we got over 75 fish thru the lease, mostly Browns and none over 17″. Patterns used were Hoppers. Moths and Caddis with the usual droppers { Caddis emerger-Prince or Copper Johns #14}. Fishing was great in the Pinnacles and above thru the month.

New Mexico Fly Fishing Guide Ed Adams