New Mexico has the best-named regulations in the country. Its special trout waters are colour-coded as Red Chile, Green Chile and Xmas Chile, and once you know what the three mean you can read a sign at a river and know exactly what you may do.
Every season we have verified in New Mexico
3 rules for 1 species, as NMDGF publishes them. The band under each heading is the legal season; the row under it is our own monthly activity curve.
Trout β Statewide default
No statewide closed season. Two lake trout and two cutthroat are the most that can be included in the five. Named waters cut it further: four at Tingley Beach, three at Laguna del Campo, the Red River ponds and the Rio Grande between Elephant Butte and Caballo.
- Limit
- 5 a day, 10 in possession, for brown, brook, rainbow and Gila trout and kokanee salmon combined.
Trout β Special Trout Waters
Three designations, and the names do the work. Red Chile Water is catch-and-release with tackle restrictions. Green Chile Water allows two trout a day with tackle restrictions. Xmas Chile Water allows two trout a day with any legal tackle. They are managed for different things β trophy size, native trout conservation, population structure β and the colour tells you which bargain you are being offered.
Trout β Winter Trout Waters
From November 1 to March 31, when water temperatures are cool enough, a set of waters is stocked with hatchery rainbow specifically for the winter. New Mexico does not close its trout season in winter; it moves the fish to where people can reach them.
Read on 2026-09-14 from New Mexico Department of Game and Fish. Read in the eRegulations edition of the official New Mexico fishing rules and information, the designated publisher for NMDGF. Legal dates were read on the agencyβs own page on the date shown beside each entry. Seasons change: the agency link is always the last word.
What the water is doing while the season is open
This is the part an agency page will not tell you. The temperature row above is the seasonal curve we use for the 4 of 13 New Mexico waters we track on a trout river profile, and it is why an opening date and a fishable date are not the same thing. On that curve the water is below 50 F in January, February, March, April, October, November, December and at 70 F or more in no month; it is an estimate for the water type, not a reading.
Where to fish it
We publish a daily report for 13 New Mexico waters, each with live flow or tide and today's conditions.
- Elephant Butte Lake β Sierra County
- San Juan River (Navajo Dam) β San Juan County
- Navajo Lake β San Juan County
- Pecos River β San Miguel County
- Heron Lake β Rio Arriba County
- Conchas Lake β San Miguel County
- Ute Reservoir β Quay County
- Abiquiu Lake β Rio Arriba County
- Cochiti Lake β Sandoval County
- Bluewater Lake β Cibola County
The licence is a separate question
An open season is not permission to fish. New Mexico requires a licence from age 12, and residents pay from $49.00 against $104.00 for visitors. What a New Mexico licence costs and where to buy it β
Questions
When does fishing season open in New Mexico?
It depends on the species: trout no closed season published; trout no closed season published; trout november 1 to march 31. Every date on this page was read off NMDGF on 2026-09-14.
Do I need a licence to fish in New Mexico?
Yes. New Mexico requires a fishing licence from age 12, from $49.00 for residents.
Are these New Mexico dates going to change?
Some of them, and the page says which. Dates written as a rule in the regulations are calculated here for 2026, so they follow the rule rather than going stale. Dates the agency sets each year are shown as exactly that, with no calendar band, because inventing one would be worse than leaving it empty.