Nm Buggin'

This past weekend was spent just outside of Santa Fe with my in laws. Being that I'm afflicted with the mental illness known as Perhokalastus, I had to go wet a line. As this time of year is the rainy season down there, I figured lakes would be a safety bet, and found lake cochiti on Google maps. 5 am and I was on the road.
At the lake, the water was like milk. Carp were jumping in the middle, but that was the only sign of fishy life for about two hours, so it was Google to the rescue. Turns out cochiti has been nicknamed "the dead Sea" by anglers. Bueno. The one tip I took away from the interwebz was that bass guys use white lures and a slow retrieve. So I put on a white slumpbuster and stripped it in slow.
A few casts later and I caught a decent white crappie, which was cool. A little while later I had made it to the end if the public land, and was casting up against a sheer rock face when the line went tight. It was one of those fish where you go, "aw, I'll just strip it in" right before it hits the boosters. This pupper fought like Ali, which made me glad I brought the 8wt (thought I might be chucking bass bugs into the wind). After a little while the fish began to tire, and I got a look at it. My second fish in New Mexico was my first whisker-doodle on a fly rod:

So that was freaking neat! And it's just another reason to love the slumpbuster. It catches trout in Wyoming, bass in Nebraska, and catfish in new Mexico. I'll be tying some up on heavier hooks for when I fish Washington again.