Northern New Mexico Snowpack Report

The media throughout the Southwest is working hard to paint a doom-n-gloom picture of a bone-dry New Mexico. I have an  issue with this, since they forgot to look into what’s going on in the northern part of the state, particularly the Taos area. Yesterday I had 4 to 5 inches of fresh snow, and it continued to snow throughout the day. Here is a picture I took yesterday morning along the Cimarron. The Cimarron Watershed snowpack is only 9% below average, and some of our other high-mountain watersheds are only 1 or 2% below average.   

The Cimarron River handles runoff exceptionally well, making it  a go-to stream during runoff—starting as early as late April, with the quality of fishing increasing by first of May. The Costilla typically is on the downhill side of runoff when the RCCLA section starts fishing in early to mid May, and remember the Valle Vidal section of the Costilla doesn’t open for fishing until July 1. All signs indicate that the Red River runoff will be about normal, starting in mid April, with the upper Red River starting to fish in mid to late May. The Pecos Basin is currently light, and if this continues we could see the PRR fishing in March well into April if the runoff is light. Cow Creek Ranch is always fun and should see good fishing conditions in late April  through May for day trips. Approximately 2/3 of our snowfall comes in February, March and early April, looks like we are on track for decent totals. Although it’s hard to predict Mother Nature, things are shaping up to be a fun fishing year.

For a recap of the current snow fall totals in the Taos Area please click the link to my blog.