Catch of the Week
Elephant Butte Lake: Josiah Tyler Norman landed his personal-best largemouth bass, an 8-pounder, using a white shad lure on July 7.
Source: N.M. Department of Wildlife
Photo: Courtesy
Southwest New Mexico Fishing Report
- Bear Canyon Lake: Fishing conditions have been adversely affected in the aftermath of the Trout Fire.
- Bill Evans Lake: Fishing for largemouth bass was very good.
- Caballo Lake: Water levels are changing across the lake; boaters should exercise caution in low-water areas.
- Elephant Butte Lake: Fishing was fair to good for largemouth bass and white bass when using a white shad lure. The South Monticello boat ramp is currently closed due to low water levels. The closure will be lifted when water levels rise and conditions allow. For more information, visit the Elephant Butte State Park web page.
- Gila River: Streamflow near Gila on Tuesday morning was 63.9 cfs.
- Gila Waters: Streamflow near Gila Hot Springs on Wednesday morning was 35.9 cfs.
- Lake Roberts: The most recent report was received July 9. At that time, fishing for trout was fair to good when using Pink PowerBait and salmon eggs. Fishing for catfish was fair to good when using hot dogs.
- Percha Dam: The most recent report was received July 9. At that time, fishing for white bass was slow when using horse-head jigs.
- Quemado Lake: The most recent report was received July 9. At that time, fishing for trout was slow when using garlic worms.
- Rio Grande: The most recent report was received July 9. At that time, fishing for catfish was good when using Thomas EP-series spinners. Streamflow below Elephant Butte Dam on Wednesday morning was 731 cfs.
- Young Pond: The most recent report was received July 16. At that time, fishing for catfish was good when using hot dogs.
Department of Wildlife received no reports for the following waterbodies over the past three weeks: Escondida Lake, Glenwood Pond, Rancho Grande Ponds, Trees Lake, Snow Lake and Whitewater Creek.
Matching the Hatch: The difference between a slow day and a great day on the water
By Dela Joyner
North Area Public Information Specialist
If there’s one concept that separates anglers who fill their creel from anglers standing frustrated in the water, it’s this: fish don’t eat what you want them to eat, they eat what’s actually available.
“Matching the hatch” means observing what’s active in and around the water and presenting something that looks, moves and behaves like it. It sounds simple, but it’s the foundation of nearly every successful day on the water, whether you’re nymphing a high-country stream for trout or working a shoreline for bass.
Here’s why it matters so much: game fish are opportunistic, but they’re also selective especially in heavily fished or clear water. When a specific insect is hatching in large numbers, trout key in on that exact size, shape, silhouette and color. A fly that looks “close enough” to the human eye can look completely wrong to a fish keyed in on thousands of natural insects drifting past. This is especially true with mayflies, whose life cycle — nymph, emerger, dun, spinner — changes not just what the insect looks like, but where in the water column fish are feeding.
Fish holding tight to the bottom eating nymphs won’t move 6 inches to chase a dry fly on the surface. Fish going after spinners in the film at dusk won’t get excited about a bright attractor pattern. Reading the water and the hatch tells you not just what to tie on, but where and how to fish it.
It’s not just a trout concept
While “match the hatch” started as fly-fishing language, the same principle drives success for warmwater species like bass.The difference is that instead of matching an insect hatch, you’re matching the forage base and the conditions of the water itself.
Water temperature dictates where warmwater fish hold. As water warms through summer, bass and panfish often pull toward deeper holes, submerged structure, drop-offs or shaded cover during the heat of the day, then push shallow to feed during low-light hours when temperatures cool. Knowing the temperature of the water you’re fishing and how it’s shifted the fish’s position is just as important as knowing what fly to tie on for a trout keyed in on an emerger.
Presentation matters just as much, too, but it shifts species to species. A trout keyed in on a hatch wants a small natural insect imitation. A bass, on the other hand, might key in on much larger, more aggressive forage something like a frog working through shallow banks, a mouse swimming across the surface, a wounded shad fluttering near the bottom. These lures work because they mimic real, natural prey, but only if that prey is actually present in that water.
A frog pattern will produce explosive strikes on a lake full of frogs and lightly fished bass. Throw that same frog on water where bass have never seen one and don’t associate it with an easy meal, and it may get ignored entirely. The same logic that applies to a trout refusing a fly that doesn’t match the natural often applies to a bass refusing a lure that doesn’t match what’s actually swimming, hopping or struggling in that specific water.
This is where knowing your local water pays off: what forage species live there? Are there frogs, crawfish, shad, sunfish, mice or other small prey present? Matching your lure choice to what’s naturally available and naturally familiar to that specific population of fish is every bit as important as matching a hatch is to a trout.
The FLPS formula ties it all together. Fish + Location + Presentation = Success.This works as a mental checklist no matter what species or water you’re after.
- Fish: What species are you after, and what does it actually eat right now, in this water, this time of year? A trout’s diet in July looks different than in May; a summer bass’s diet looks different than a spring bass’s diet.
- Location: Where in the water column and where in the stream, lake or hole is that food source, and therefore the fish? Nymphs near the bottom, emergers in the film, duns and spinners on top for trout, deep structure and shaded holes during heat, shallow cover at dawn and dusk for bass.
- Presentation: Does your fly or lure not just look right, but move and behave right for that species and that specific water? A perfectly tied dry fly dragging unnaturally across current will get refused by a trout, just as a frog lure fished across water with no frog population will get refused by a bass that’s never learned to key in on one.
Miss any one of those three elements, and success gets a lot harder even with the “right” fly or lure in your box. Miss all three, and you’re just casting, not fishing.
The good news is that none of this requires guesswork. It requires observation: flip over a streamside rock, watch the surface for rises, note what’s hopping around the bank or ask what forage species live in the lake or hole you’re fishing. Ten minutes of watching before your first cast, whether you’re reading a mayfly hatch or reading a bass’s home water, will tell you more than an hour of blind casting with the wrong presentation.
Bottom line: success on the water isn’t about having the fanciest gear or the most flies and lures in your box, it’s about paying attention to what the fish are already telling you, and giving them exactly that, wherever you’re fishing. Fish + Location + Presentation = Success.
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