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Conchas Lake Fishing Report

Updated Fri, Oct 23, 2026 from live gauge and weather data

Conchas Lake: a state park reservoir northwest of Tucumcari where New Mexico Game and Fish reports walleye, white bass and both black basses.

2/5
Slow. The wind owns today.24 mph gusts make boat control the real battle.
Flow
16 cfs
Air / High
78 / 80 F
Wind
SSW 14 mph

Sources: USGS gauge 07221500, Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.

Satellite view
Friday
23
October 2026

Today's Fishing Report

Generated this morning from live readings: gauge, weather model, sun and moon. A fresh report is published here every morning.

2/5Slow. The wind owns today.24 mph gusts make boat control the real battle.

Conchas Lake sits in the sweet spot of the season: active fish and workable weather. The main inflow is running 16 cfs, falling. Today brings clear skies, wind SSW around 14 mph, steady pressure near 1010 hPa and a high of 80. Water sits around 74 F for the season (estimated). With the waxing gibbous, the solunar majors run 9:34 AM-11:34 AM and 10:02 PM-12:02 AM: the windows to build the day around.

The plan, species by species

Largemouth bassGood

The main feeding season after the spawn: work moving baits along weed edges, points and wood, and follow up with a soft plastic where a fish swirls.

Smallmouth bassGood

Post-spawn and summer feeding: cover rock, wood and current breaks with crankbaits, jigs and tubes, and use live crayfish, minnows or hellgrammites where bait is the plan.

WalleyeGood

Summer pattern: nightcrawlers and leeches on rigs or jigs near bottom, trolled crankbaits to find scattered fish, and the shallows after dark in clear lakes.

White bassFair

Summer and early fall schooling season over open water; follow the shad, and try live bait on the bottom at night.

Tomorrow: Cooler at 66 F with likely rain: fish ahead of the front. The solunar majors shift about 50 minutes later.Next report: Sat, Oct 24, 6:30 AMHow this report is made β†’

Before you go

New Mexico requires a fishing licence from age 12, from $49.00 for residents. What a New Mexico licence costs and where to buy it β†’

Chasing largemouth bass here? Check the size and bag limits with NMDOW before you keep anything. The season dates for New Mexico, read off the agency, are on the New Mexico seasons page.

Water and weather

Live readings from Canadian River near Sanchez (inflow).

Flow, last 30 days

USGS gauge 07221500.

2266291,03316 cfs09/2310/0310/1310/23

Right now

Latest readings

Air temp78 F
High / Low80 / 53 F
WindSSW 14-17 mph
Pressure1009.5 hPa, steady
Sky / Rain14% cloud, 35%
Sunrise / Sunset07:10 / 18:11
MoonWaxing Gibbous, 91%
Water temp (seasonal)~74 F est.

Bite planner

Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today. Tap a bar to see why.

5 AM8 AM11 AM2 PM5 PM8 PMsunrisesunset

Which day to fish Conchas Lake this week

The best day on Conchas Lake this week looks like Saturday Oct 24, at 4 out of 5, against 2 today.

Best day this week: Saturday, Oct 24 β€” good at 4/5, rising pressure behind a front, typically the slowest.

Today, Oct 23 β€” Tough

24 mph gusts make boat control the real battle.

Solunar majors
9:34 AM-11:34 AM and 10:02 PM-12:02 AM
Minor period
3:57 AM-4:57 AM
Sun
07:10 to 18:11
Moon
Waxing Gibbous, 91% lit
Sky and wind
Showers, 24 mph
Rain chance
35%

Forecast-based scores, less reliable further out: how the score is built.

Species guide

The species that matter on Conchas Lake: seasons, structure and how to fish each one. Today's ratings live in the report above.

Largemouth bass illustration

Largemouth bass

Best: the spring pre-spawn and the fall feed

A warm-water sunfish of lakes, reservoirs, ponds and slow river backwaters that holds tight to cover: weeds, logs, rock ledges and docks. In Texas, TPWD surveys rank it "by far" the freshwater fish anglers most want to catch. The main feeding season after the spawn: work moving baits along weed edges, points and wood, and follow up with a soft plastic where a fish swirls.

White bass illustration

White bass

Best: the spring run up the tributaries, then summer surface schools

A silvery temperate bass of rivers and large reservoirs, also called sand bass, that schools in open water after shad and runs up tributaries to spawn in early spring. Summer and early fall schooling season over open water; follow the shad, and try live bait on the bottom at night.

Smallmouth bass illustration

Smallmouth bass

Best: spring and fall, when bigger fish come shallow

A bronze-brown black bass of clear, cool streams and rocky lakes, with dark vertical bars instead of a side stripe. Michigan DNR says its southeastern coast, from Port Huron to Lake Erie, is known nationally for both the size and the number of its smallmouth. Post-spawn and summer feeding: cover rock, wood and current breaks with crankbaits, jigs and tubes, and use live crayfish, minnows or hellgrammites where bait is the plan.

Walleye illustration

Walleye

Best: spring and late fall, around dawn, dusk and night

A cool-water perch of large lakes, reservoirs and rivers whose reflective eyes are built for low light, so it feeds most at night and in murky water. The Missouri Department of Conservation ranks it among the continent's most important freshwater game fish. Summer pattern: nightcrawlers and leeches on rigs or jigs near bottom, trolled crankbaits to find scattered fish, and the shallows after dark in clear lakes.

When to come: the Conchas Lake calendar

Activity by species and month, and how the water warms through the year. Tap any cell.

Species activity by month

1 = slow, 5 = peak. Current month highlighted.

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Largemouth bass
White bass
Smallmouth bass
Walleye
SlowPeak

Water temperature through the year

Typical surface temperature for this water type; today is around 74 F (estimated, not a reading).

5060708090JanMarMayJulSepNovOct, ~74 F now

Angler reports

Real reports from real anglers, reviewed before publishing. The water log below tracks each day automatically.

No angler reports yet this weekBe the first: your report helps every angler who checks Conchas Lake today, and we feature the best catch of the week.

Water log, last days

Auto-logged from live data
Thu, Oct 22

3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Largemouth bass led the card at good. High of 82 F, wind to 16 mph.

Wed, Oct 21

4/5 Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up. Largemouth bass led the card at excellent. High of 81 F, wind to 8 mph.

Tue, Oct 20

3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Largemouth bass led the card at good. High of 80 F, wind to 16 mph.

Where roughly, what depth, what bait. Skip anything you want to keep secret.
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Before you go

License

New Mexico requires a valid fishing license for adults. Buy online from the state agency; one-day options exist for visitors.

Regulations

New Mexico fishing license. For bag and size limits, see the current New Mexico Department of Game and Fish fishing rules.

Access

Conchas Lake State Park, 501 Bell Ranch Road, Conchas Dam: six boat ramps and a boat dock (NM State Parks). Check the park's alerts for closures and boating conditions.

About this water

A reservoir on the Canadian and Conchas rivers in San Miguel County, New Mexico. Flow on this page comes from USGS 07221500, Canadian River near Sanchez, upstream of the lake.

Fishing Conchas Lake: the full guide

Two river arms

New Mexico State Parks calls Conchas one of the state's largest lakes, with about 11 miles of the Conchas River arm and 14 miles of the South Canadian River arm to explore, just northwest of Tucumcari. The park lists six boat ramps and a boat dock.

What the state reports

New Mexico Department of Game and Fish weekly reports from September 2026 describe largemouth and smallmouth bass taken on Ned rigs, Senko-style worms and topwater poppers, and walleye on crawler harnesses and bottom bouncers. The department's October 1, 2026 report adds that fall surveys have found white bass populations highest at Conchas, Sumner and Ute lakes.

Camping along the shore

Besides reservable sites with water and electric hookups, State Parks estimates about 500 primitive campsites along the Cove and Central shorelines.

Common questions

What has the state reported from Conchas this fall?

In September 2026 reports, Game and Fish rated walleye fishing very good on crawler harnesses and bass fishing good to very good, with largemouth and smallmouth on Ned rigs, Senko-style worms and topwater poppers.

Where can I launch a boat?

Conchas Lake State Park lists six boat ramps and a boat dock.

Does the gauge on this page show the lake level?

No. USGS 07221500 measures the Canadian River near Sanchez, above the lake. USGS also runs 07223500, Conchas Lake at Conchas Dam, which reports a gage height.

Is fishing good at Conchas Lake right now?

Check the daily report at the top of this page: it is regenerated every morning from live data. Today's read: Slow. The wind owns today. 24 mph gusts make boat control the real battle.

Nearby waters

Ute Reservoir42 miPecos River84 miCimarron River91 miEagle Nest Lake98 miRio Grande114 miCochiti Lake121 mi

Where this page's numbers come from

River and reservoir readings
USGS 07221500 β€” Canadian River near Sanchez (inflow)
Read from the USGS Water Data API (api.waterdata.usgs.gov). Latest value timestamped 2026-10-23 at 19:15 UTC.
Weather and pressure
Open-Meteo forecast model
Queried at 35.3928, -104.1960 in this water's own timezone. A model, not an observation.
Moon and solunar windows
Calculated on this site
Astronomical calculation from these coordinates and the date, not a third-party feed. How much weight it deserves.
Pages checked
The facts in the written guide were checked against these pages, from the agencies and operators that manage the water, on October 8, 2026. Anything we could not verify was taken out.
The written guide on this page
Pablo Ruiz Quintero
How this page was made. The daily report is computed by our scoring engine from live readings; nobody types it. The written text was drafted with AI assistance from the official pages listed above, and its facts were checked against those pages by automated verification on October 8, 2026; anything that could not be verified was taken out. Pablo Ruiz Quintero sets every guideline, the data-verification system and the minimum standards a page must meet to be published, reviews page structure and approves what goes live; the responsibility is his, and the AI carries out the work. We work this way because it is how one person can keep every page current with named sources. Errors are published in the verification log; the full policy is in the editorial policy.

Readings refresh on a 30-minute window. The full method, with every figure and its source, is on how our reports are made. Something wrong here? Tell us and it goes in the log with the date.