NEWS & STORIES
Taos Program Holds Their Biggest Outing Yet
Story by Doc Thompson
On August 21, 2021 Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing Taos, New Mexico program held its eighth in-person fishing outing of 2021.
The local destination was the Cimarron River in the Cimarron Canyon State Park located between Eagle Nest, NM and Cimarron, NM.
This was the program’s largest in person event so far this year with Kelly, Victor, Lawrence, Louis and Ken, a new participant, in attendance.
The Cimarron is a smaller mountain tailwater flowing out of Eagle Nest Lake, although it looks and fishes more like a small mountain trout stream. It was a fun morning of dry fly fishing for a mix of rainbows and browns.
Depending on who you ask; you will get different answers on who had the most strikes, who landed the most fish, the biggest fish, smallest fish and who tangled with the least amount of trees.
Program Lead Doc Thompson
Suffice it to say everyone had fun, learned some new techniques, and came together in fellowship and camaraderie.
Louis was the lucky winner of the attendance prize which was a dry fly maintenance kit. After fishing in the morning everyone gathered for lunch with grilled bratwursts and amazingly delicious peaches for dessert.
This was a half day morning fishing trip because a third of the attendees were volunteer River Helpers for Casting for Recovery later the same day.
The Taos program might be small in numbers but mighty in size. Many of the participants and volunteers give back to the program in various ways, are there for each other and support other organizations like Trout Unlimited, Casting for Recovery, local volunteer fire departments, search and rescue, local food banks and other community organizations.
Thank you to volunteers John Biggers and Shane Clawson for your time and fly fishing knowledge for the day. Thank you to PHWFF Eagle, CO for providing peaches and for loaning out your APL for the day.
The Taos program continues to follow the PHWFF, state, local and CDC Covid guidelines for its events. The Taos Program has a couple of fishing days planned for later in September. In October, PHWFF Taos will field a team for the annual Enchanted Circle Trout Unlimited Fly Fishing Tournament on October 23-24, 2021.
The Taos program is currently raising funds for the tournament entry fee, if you would like to donate to the cause please contact the Taos program directly.
