Two dams and a chile-coded rulebook
The Rio Chama is really several fisheries strung along one river. It comes out of the San Juan Mountains just north of the Colorado line, passes the town of Chama, picks up Willow Creek below Heron Lake, and fills El Vado Lake. Below El Vado Dam it runs south through the Chama River Canyon Wilderness to Abiquiu Lake, and below Abiquiu Dam it swings east past the village of Abiquiu toward the Rio Grande near Ohkay Owingeh. New Mexico Fly Fishing, whose guide pages trace that route, sums up the timing: El Vado from spring through fall, Abiquiu from fall through early spring, and the upper river at La Puente from late June through August.
New Mexico Game and Fish manages several pieces of it as Special Trout Water under its chile system, with posted signs at each: Red Chile water is catch and release with a single barbless artificial fly or lure, Green Chile water allows two trout on the same tackle, and Xmas Chile water allows two trout on any legal tackle. Above El Vado, the Rio Chama inside the Rio Chama Wildlife and Fishing Area, from the Heron outlet 2.9 miles to Cottonwood Flats, is listed with the two-trout, artificial-only waters, as are the Sargent Wildlife Management Area waters that include the Rio Chama. A kokanee snagging season runs October 1 through December 31 from El Vado Lake to the western boundary of the Rio Chama Wildlife Management Area.
The Red Chile water below Cooper's
The most protected water is below El Vado. Game and Fish's cold water rules list the Rio Chama from the U.S. Geological Survey gauging station below Cooper's Landing downstream to the Rio Nutrias confluence as Red Chile Water: catch and release only, artificial flies or lures with a single barbless hook. That gauging station is the one whose readings appear on this page, USGS 08285500. High Desert Angler in Santa Fe describes the same boundary as downstream of the stream gauge at Cooper's Ranch.
New Mexico Fly Fishing says the best trout fishing is within several miles of El Vado Dam, with brown trout the main event; its access page lists rainbows and kokanee as well. Below the dam the BLM manages a 22-mile stretch from El Vado Ranch to the Chavez Canyon access, and the Santa Fe National Forest's Coyote Ranger District manages the nine miles from Chavez Canyon to the Big Eddy take-out off Forest Road 151. The canyon walls rise to 1,500 feet, and Big Eddy is the take-out for float trips on the Wild and Scenic section.
Releases that change by the hour, and the 300 cfs line
Watch the gauge more than the calendar. New Mexico Fly Fishing warns that El Vado's discharges fluctuate wildly and can change several times a day, and that this section fishes best below 300 cfs, noting that even at low flow the water is usually stained. High Desert Angler's report says the same thing more briefly: fishing below El Vado is good when flows are reduced, so check the USGS gauge before heading out.
The lower end of the 100 to 300 cfs band comes from the gauge's own record since 1970. Median monthly flows sit near 100 cfs in January and February and 160 to 200 cfs from October through December, climb to about 1,000 cfs in May, and stay in the 360 to 650 cfs range from June through September. Summer, in other words, often runs above the line, and fall is when the El Vado water most reliably drops into it.
Seven miles below Abiquiu Dam
Below Abiquiu the rules loosen. Game and Fish lists the Rio Chama from the U.S. 84 river-crossing bridge at Abiquiu upstream 7.0 miles to the base of Abiquiu Dam with a two-trout daily bag, and New Mexico Fly Fishing notes that standard bait and lures work as well as flies on the many stocked rainbows. The state stocks it regularly, and it has long been treated as a winter fishery.
Access is straightforward. New Mexico Fly Fishing counts about five miles of public access from the base of the dam down to just outside Barranca, with a parking and picnic area, shelters and a vault toilet right below the dam and more pull-offs downstream, and about two miles below the dam received habitat improvements in recent years. Late fall, when the water drops and clears, is when it fishes best. Use the Abiquiu Dam gauge, 08287000, for this reach rather than El Vado. Elsewhere on the river the statewide limit of five trout applies, and all Special Trout Waters ban chumming and baitfish.
Baetis, craneflies and streamer days
No shop publishes a monthly Chama chart. New Mexico Fly Fishing ranks the insects in order of importance as stoneflies in the freestone water, then baetis, craneflies, caddis and midges, and High Desert Angler lists baetis, midges, mayflies and caddis for every Chama section. Their pattern lists overlap: Pheasant Tails, Salvations, Mop Flies, Stimulators, Elk Hair Caddis and Chubbies. Most trout are caught on nymphs and streamers, New Mexico Fly Fishing says, and The Reel Life in Santa Fe adds that the Chama's browns will chase a streamer or blow up a mouse pattern. Slightly off-color water is normal here and does not stop the fishing.