Jemez Adventures Short Fishing Notes – April 30, 2025

These notes on Jemez Mountains fishing are excerpted from the Friends of Fenton Lake articles that appear in the After the Thunder newspaper published in Jemez Springs. They provide a window into Jemez fishing as a function of time and are reported twice a month. 

Fenton Lake fishing is OK, but the lake hasn’t been stocked since the week ending April 4^th and those that remain in the lake are the smart ones! The lake should be stocked with fish in early May, and after that stocking becomes highly dependent on water temperatures and by mid- to late-summer stocking is often halted until fall. May is one of the best months for lake fishing and provides opportunities for catching fish  on top or just under the surface. A dry fly with an unweighted dropper is a good early morning choice, and so is a two wet fly rig fished without weight. Spinners that run shallow and eggs and power baits that are fished near the surface are also good bets in the AM. The Rio Cebolla in the Park was last stocked with 399 fish the week ending April 11. The Cebolla also has a small population of wild brown trout – please treat them gently and release them back into the stream. 

The other Jemez Mountain stream stockings were in early April but will receive one or two more stockings before summer. Stockings are announced on the NMDGF website and at jemezcentral.com. 

Wild brown trout fishing is getting better by the day. The East Fork Jemez, Guadalupe, San Antonio (in the forest and on the Valles Caldera) and Las Vacas all have robust brown trout populations. The best times to fish these streams are May through July when aquatic and stream-side insects are most abundant. Please respect our wild fish and destroy or make a flow path through any tourist dams you find to save the food chain these fish depend on.