The Cimarron below Eagle Nest is the intimate counterpoint to the San Juan — a small, tumbling canyon stream tight against the road through Cimarron Canyon State Park, holding wild browns and stocked rainbows in pocket water you could almost step across. Its flow is shaped by releases from Eagle Nest Lake, so it has a tailwater steadiness the freestones lack, and the canyon shade keeps it cool. It's technical in a different way to the big rivers: short casts, careful approaches to spooky fish in skinny water, attractors and small nymphs. There's a tightly regulated reach up near Tolby with stricter rules. It's drought-sensitive — a low year hits a small stream hard — but on a good flow it's a delight, and a lovely change of scale.

• Mixed

• Aquatic life: Impaired