Rio Grande cutthroat from Alamitos Creek

No one will ever accuse Alamitos Creek of being a destination trout fishery. You are going to come out of a day on the stream with a more bumps, bruises, scrapes and cuts than you will fish. Like a bad golfer, you’re going to spend a lot of time in the trees. On a long cast you might have 5 feet of actual fly line out of the rod. And you better know how to roll cast.

That said, this is an important little piece of water for the future of the Rio Grande cutthroat trout. This stream holds one of the few remaining historically pure populations. That’s why TU has taken an interest in the stream. TU received a $50,000 grant from the Western native Trout Initiative to work with the La Sierra Acequia Association to rebuild a headgate so that it will also act as a fish barrier to prevent non-native fish from getting upstream. The Truchas Chapter has raised in excess of $10,000 in their Rio Grande Cutthroat Trout Restoration Fund, and through a grant from the Guadalupe Chapter in Texas to complete the NEPA work for this project

The Lumber Yard

Considering the beautiful fall day staring me in the face, I decided to drive the 80 miles from Santa Fe up to the Alamitos to do a personal inventory of the cutthroats. My “point source sampling” indicates that the fish are doing just fine. I hacked my way up about a half mile of stream, landing several small fish and picking up several nicks and bumps. I only fell in once.

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