We had a great day on the Rio Grande and these three friends had a “BLAST”.

Click on image for more Funyak photographs.

This is a short video, illustrating what we do on Northern New Mexico’s best white water river, the Rio Grande, and shows that “This Could Be You”.

Our rafting guests are framed by wild roses, in this nice shot by Britt Runyon.

New Wave rafting guests pose next to a display of wild roses

The newly out Taos Visitor Guide features an article by NWR VP Steve Miller entitled: “Welcome to Whitewater, New Mexico”. The article also features a full-page photo of NWR Operations Manager Britt “Runyon” Huggins.

Article by Steve Miller, with photo of Britt Runyon and crew (photo by Tina Larkin)

According to the fishing author John Gierach, when the fishing is slow and people wonder about how good the river is, the old timers invariably respond: “They’re in there”. That seems to happen a lot with the Rio Grande, which is considered, hereabouts,  a very fickle river. There are times when the river is “dead”, meaning that you’re getting no action whatsoever, and you wonder what’s going on.

Before commenting further, I should mention which fish I’m talking about. Most of the sport fishermen are after trout. Of course there are no longer any Rio Grande cutthroats in the Rio Grande main stem. There are stocker rainbows, which generally get cleaned-out pretty quick … and there are browns. These browns, like most encountered elsewhere, are wild fish. Although introduced from across the Atlantic way back when, they are now very “native”, in that they maintain their numbers very well without any help from Game and Fish agencies. They are also very resilient, being able to subsist under conditions that other trouts find intolerable. They can “live in a cup of coffee”, according to one local expert on the matter. Now, browns are thought to be “smart”. But they’re probably no smarter than any other trout, everything else being equal. What may distinguish them from other trout is how often they feed. They seem often to be afflicted with what my friend John Lopez describes as “lockjaw”. Perhaps they feed only when there is an abundance of food available. Who knows?

Lately, we have been seeing great “hatches” on the Rio, along with water levels that make it possible for fishermen to locate feeding fish. The hatches mentioned are occasions when multitudes of the winged forms of aquatic insects appear on and above the water, to mate and die. There are many families of insects that may appear together, including different species of caddis flies, mayflies, stoneflies, crane flies etc. and they are all emerging now. The fish (not to mention the swallows) are loving it, and have abandoned all caution, to get in on the feast.

Yesterday afternoon I returned to a piece of water that had recently rewarded me with good dry fly fishing. I had caught a number of brown trout on that occasion, and although only the very little ones were rising (to caddis), I wondered whether the bigger ones were “looking up”, and discovered that they were. But I didn’t use a fly pattern that corresponded to caddis. Instead, I used my favorite “attractor” pattern, a fly that looks very “buggy”, and that could be mistaken for any number of insects. When I first arrived yesterday I didn’t see many bugs in the air, and started with a weighted fly called  a “Bitch Creek”. I caught one brown on that fly and then waded to the opposite side of the river, hoping to see bugs coming off the water.  Soon there were all kinds of bugs flying around, especially a rusty-colored mayfly that was hovering close to the water’s surface. And then I saw trout leaping out of the water to grab these mayflies. I was in luck (as they say). I tied on the very same fly I had used last time and started to catch fish – all brown trout. I caught the ones that were leaping and I caught ones that were sipping bugs directly off the surface, occasionally on consecutive casts. I caught some that were rising directly under the grassy banks. I probably hooked twelve in all, within the space of an hour.

No, these brown trout were anything but smart. They were greedy (just like you and me). The dinner bell had rung, and they responded. Soon enough the main insect activity was over, at about the time I had fished myself to the head of the riffle. I waded back across and walked the hundred yards to the car. Now I was thinking about dinner.

When you go rafting with New Wave, you may also go surfing. Huh?
Well … you can surf a raft like you can surf a kayak, which is to stay in place on the face of a wave.
To surf a raft you need to locate a pour-over, which is like a small waterfall, and then maneuver the bow of the raft under the fall of water.
The water then starts to fill the boat, which is the fun part. Eventually you struggle free, and the raft empties (it’s self-bailing).And that is raft surfing.

Guide Orlando Torres surfs his raft in the Toilet Bowl, at Big Rocks Rapid, on the Racecourse.Photo by Jim O'Brien

Springtime brings a renewed spirit to northern New Mexico, which includes fresh scents in the Spring air and fresh faces to New Wave Rafting. We have had a superb turnout for our May 2012 Guide Training Program (GTP) – 18 participants. It started with 4 days of running the Bosque and Racecourse sections of the Rio Grande River, and is now in Phase 2, where the trainees practice what they have been taught in the first four-day instructional phase. For a trainee to graduate to Apprentice Guide status will require that he/she pass a Final Exam, which will be administered on the Racecourse on May 25. Britt Runyon (once known as Britt Huggins) directs the Guide Training Program, and has been joined in the effort by Mike Boren, Jason Pfeifer and New Wave President Kathy Miller. About the GTP, Britt says: “This is my favorite Spring activity – showing apprentices the beauty and excitement of being a river guide”.

images by britt runyon

Our Guide Training Program was doing repeat runs on the Racecourse on the day (5/7/2012) that was slated for the annual clean-up effort. Our trainees picked-up trash while scouting rapids or pulled the rafts over to the shore for garbage seen along the way.

Our Guide Trainees show off the trash they collected throughout the day.

Today is Day 4, and the final day, of the instructional phase of our Guide Training Program. Tomorrow begins the two-week practice phase, followed by a Final Exam, and the graduation to Apprentice Guide of those that pass. We have a very mixed-bag of trainees – older and younger, male and female, tall and short etc. They have great enthusiasm, and we look forward to having some of them join our ranks. Here are some shots from Big Rocks rapid, and their Nemesis – the Slot.

A swimmer above the Slot

Trouble in the Slot

Swimmer in the Slot

The New Wave HQ is located in Embudo, NM, and just a very short ways up Hwy 75 from Embudo is the very picturesque village of Dixon. New Wave President Kathy Miller is the Fire Marshal of the Dixon Volunteer Fire Dep’t., which services this larger area.Today (5/6/2012) is the occasion of the DVFD fund-raising pancake breakfast, which was very well-attended. Kathy was serving eggs when I got there.

There was a line all morning

There was lots of seating in the Elementary School gym

Kathy Miller serving the eggs

Ed Lucero (left) and David Rigsby doing the bacon and sausage