It’s No Fish Tale: Anglers Cast for Trout in Santa Fe

By RAAM WONG Journal Northern Bureau

SANTA FE — Aryanna Taylor, 6, momentarily set her fishing pole down Saturday, as she had something very important to say and it required the use of both hands.

How big was the rainbow trout she had caught earlier in the day?

"This big," Aryanna said as she spread her hands wide apart. As her family gave her a skeptical look, Aryanna inched her hands back closer together.

Tall tales could be forgiven, however, along the shady banks of the Santa Fe River on Saturday, where it’s a rarity to see water — let alone fish — in the riverbed downtown.

But the city this week began releasing water from its mountain reservoirs and stocked the river with 216 pounds of 10-inch trout just in time for the Children’s Fishing Derby on Saturday, part of the second annual Santa Fe River Festival and Picnic.

Young anglers could net additional prizes like tackle boxes and Scooby Doo fishing poles by catching one of 15 tagged fish.

While the derby ran until noon, children who catch one of the remaining tagged fish over the next few days can still pick up a prize at City Hall. However, city staffers say they would prefer that people brought in only the tag. Last year, several winners showed up at City Hall with frozen and fileted fish with the tag still attached.

The river festival, presented by the Santa Fe Watershed Association and sponsored by the city, county and local businesses, comes amid continuing brainstorming about how to keep the long- neglected channel flowing year-round.

Encouraging an awareness and respect for the river is one step in that effort. The day began with volunteers trudging up and down the muddy banks picking up beer cans, carpets, sleeping bags and other junk that end up in the stream despite regular cleanup projects.

"The first time we came out here it was a massive amount" of trash, said Daniel Wendland, a teacher at Santa Fe Waldorf School. Waldorf students have adopted a stretch of the river near the Galisteo Street bridge, which is inscribed with the year 1969 — "Moon Year."

A previous attempt to stock the river ran into trouble in 2006, when the state released about 250 rainbow trout. While many were caught over Fiesta weekend that year, some were stranded in dwindling pools of water when the city stopped releasing flows from the reservoirs.

Saturday’s event provided a chance for native Santa Feans who grew up fishing the river and have since moved out of downtown to return to the banks with their own kids.

But the fish weren’t biting for Tom Sandoval and his three kids, though 6-year-old Autumn did scoop up one fish with her bare hands.

"I think the fish are spooked," Sandoval said. "It didn’t even try to fight. They just grabbed it."

Upstream, about 200 fishermen sat on tackle boxes and coolers along the river’s grassy banks between the Don Gaspar and Old Santa Fe Trail bridges as cottonwood fluff showered down on them.

And when the kids decided it was more fun to build sand castles and splash around in the water, it was their parents who cast pink Barbie fishing poles and crossed their fingers for a catch.

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