The little waters of the Jemez Mountains — the San Antonio and the upper Jemez above the springs — are about as far from the San Juan's crowds as New Mexico trout fishing gets. This is volcanic country, the streams running cold and clear through meadow and canyon out of the Valles Caldera, holding wild browns and stocked rainbows in water you can read at a glance. Some reaches carry special trout regulations and there's restored native-cutthroat work in the headwater tributaries that deserves a gentle hand. It's classic small-stream fishing: a short dry-dropper, a careful approach, attractors and a small nymph dropped behind. It runs thin and warm by high summer and the monsoon can colour it fast, so early summer once the snowmelt clears and again in autumn are the times to go. A quiet, pretty river that rewards stealth over reach.
- Volcanic