Ed's Fly Fishing News for the First Week of March 2011

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Very Important. House Bill 206 before the New Mexico legislature will abolish the state Game Commission and put the Department of Game and Fish under the Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department. All of these things could be very disasterous for fish and wildlife in New Mexico not to mention the adverse impacts on humters and anglers. The Game Commission holds regular hearings and meeting where the public has an opportunity to have their voices heard. As a division of Energy Minerals, and Natural Resources, the concern is that someone who may have a conflict of interest that heads this department could hold sway over our wildlife agency. In this day and age, we need all of the transparency we can get. The House Energy and Natural Resources Committe will be discussing this bill this Monday at 8:30 am at the State Capitol in room #315. Please e-mail or contact the members of the House Energy and Natural Resources Committee to voice your concerns! You can find those committee members at http://www.nmlegis.gov/lcs/committeedisplay.aspx?CommitteeCode=HENRC

The Fishing Program at Pecos National Historical Park opens this Thursday March 10th. The water is open and warm enough to catch fish. The spring season runs from March 10th to April 11th. The cost to get on one of the beats at the park is $25.00. Please call for reservations during the Park's operating hours (which are 8am-4:30pm Labor Day-Memorial Day in the winter and, in the summer, from Memorial Day-Labor Day. Reservation requests will be taken by phone until all slots are filled. The fishing reservation phone number is (505) 757-7272. Our mailing address is: Fishing Program, Pecos National Historical Park, P.O. Box 418, Pecos, NM 87552. See the parks website at http://www.nps.gov/peco/index.htm and click on "2011 Fishing Program" for more details.

The Fly Fishing Film Tour comes to New Mexico. Proceeds from the upcoming fly-fishing film festival will go to trout habitat improvements and other worthy projects on the state’s top angling attraction, the San Juan River below Navajo Dam, according to sponsors. The San Juan River is rated among the country’s top ten trout fisheries. But the river, one of state’s top tourism draws estimated to bring in up to $40 million a year, is in need of habitat and other improvement projects to benefit anglers and trout alike. Thus members of the angling community have come together to sponsor the fly-fishing film festival in March with shows in Albuquerque and Santa Fe and proceeds to fund future projects on the San Juan River. The first show will be on March 11th. Hotel Albuquerque in Old Town at 800 Rio Grande Blvd NW, will play host to the first showing sponsored by Charlie’s Sporting Goods and Los Pinos Fly Shop. Bob Gerding will be the emcee for the event. In Santa Fe, the film festival will be shown at the Lodge at Santa Fe, 750 North St. Francis Drive, on March 25 with High Desert Angler and The Reel Life fly shops sponsoring. TJ Trout of 94 Rock will emcee this showing. The doors opening at 5:30 p.m. and the show to begin at 7 p.m. Proceeds will go to projects on the San Juan River endorsed by New Mexico Trout, the Truchas Chapter of Trout Unlimited and the San Juan River Guide Association.

Check out the latest on our website. We've been doing podcasts for a few weeks here in the store. Currently you can click on a podcast from our website or the iTunes store. It's been alot of fun, and we hope you all find it that way and informative as well. Keep on listening!