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All fire closures affecting your ability to fish have been lifted!!! Our summer rains have made the streams nice and cool and the fish are happy, so come on out and play!!!
All public accesses within the Pecos Canyon are open as of Saturday July 30th. These recreation sites include: Bert Clancey, Terrero, Jamie Koch, Mora River and Monastery Lake. Other Game and Fish properties that have reopened include the Rio de Los Pinos Fishing Area, the Red River Hatchery, Rio Chama Wildlife Area (access to the Chama River off of NM Highway 112), Cimarron Canyon State Park.
The Las Conchas Fire area will be off limits and Paliza and Jemez Falls Campgrounds also will remain closed for fire suppression activities. The Valles Caldera National Preserve is open but with limied access. The visitor center is open and the Valles Caldera will resume normal summer activities excluding those which normally occur in the burned areas. The Rio San Antonio fishing program on the Preserve is suspended for the remainder of this year. They will resume the fishing progam on the East Fork starting August 17th and it runs through October 9th. Please call the Valles Caldera or visit their website at www.vallescaldera.gov for more information.
Effective July 22nd, the Carson National Forest has reopened the forest that had been closed under stage III fire restrcitions. Please see the Carson National Forest website at http://www.fs.fed.us/r3/carson/for the details of Stage II. The Camino Real Ranger District has reopened. The Camino Real district includes Rio Chiquito, Rito de la Olla, Rio Grande del Rancho, Rio del Pueblo, and the Rio Santa Barbara and north end of the Pecos Wilderness. The other open waters are the Red River, Cabresto Lake, Hopewell Lake, the Rio Hondo, and the Valle Vidal.
As of this writing, some New Mexico State Parks will reopen. Hyde Memorial, Fenton Lake, Morphy Lake, Coyote Creek, and Cimarron Canyon State Parks are now open under stage II fire restrictions.
Cochiti Lake is also closed. US Army Corps of Engineers facilities at Cochiti Lake will remain closed through August 17th. The water quality at the lake was cited as one of the factors in keeping the lake closed. There has been a lot of ash runoff from the areas affected by the Las Conchas Fire entering the Rio Grande and into the lake. It is also being used as a water source to mop up the Las Conchas Fire and the campgrounds at the lake are being used to house the firefighters.
Currently, the BLM areas like Orilla Verde, Rio Grande Wild and Scenic Rivers, and Santa Cruz Lake are open have lifted all fire restrictions. Eagle's Nest Lake, Abiquiu Lake, El Vado Lake, Heron Lake, Navajo Lake, the San Juan River, and Jicarilla Nation Lakes are open.
