Truchas Chapter Trout Unlimited

Volunteer Stream Restoration Day
2026-05-13 09:30 - 15:00 (America/Denver) | NM
Fancy getting your paws dirty for Mother Nature? Join Rio Grande Return on Wednesday, May 13th, from 9:30am to 3pm at Rio de las Vacas! Help us create beaver habitats in Santa Fe National Forest. No experience needed, just your love for the wild. Email Karen to RSVP.

Spring Ales & Tales – Tumbleroot Distillery
2026-05-27 17:00 - 20:00 | Tumbleroot Brewery and Distillery, 2791 Agua Fria St, Santa Fe, NM, 87507, United States
Join the Truchas Chapter of Trout Unlimited for another Ales & Fish Tales Social at that wonderful patio at Tumbleroot Distillery. Same good people. Same fish stories. Great tap handles.
📅 When: Wednesday, May 27, 2026⏰ Time: 5:00 – 7:00 PM📍 Where: Tumbleroot Distillery
Come swap river reports, stretch the truth just enough to make the fish bigger, and spend the evening with fellow anglers who know that “just one more cast” is never actually one more cast. Whether you’ve been stalking tailwaters all winter, tying flies at the kitchen table waiting for runoff to drop, or simply looking for good company and a cold pint, this is your midweek hatch.
Expect fish tales, laughter, local intel, and the kind of conversations that start with “What were they taking?” and somehow end two beers later.
Bring a friend. Bring a story. Leave with both improved.
Warning: There will be live entertainment on the patio.

Willows & Wild Trout Volunteer Trip, Rio San Antonio
2026-05-30 - 2026-05-31 | NM
Now in its fourth year, this beloved event combines two of the better ways to spend a late-May weekend in northern New Mexico: restoring a cutthroat trout stream in the morning, and fishing it in the afternoon.
The Rio San Antonio — located west of San Antonio Mountain, off of 285 (not the San Antonio in the Jemez) — is home to Rio Grande cutthroat trout and has been a focus of TU’s riparian restoration efforts. Volunteers will plant willows along the streambank each morning to improve cover and bank stability, then pick up fly rods for an afternoon on the water. Camp is set above the river, and carpooling from the highway is available for those without AWD or 4WD vehicles.
This one sells itself.
What to bring: Your own camping tent and gear. All meals provided by TU (and possibly supplemented by volunteers who find the brown trout willing).
Questions? Email project manager Juliet Smith at Juliet.Smith@tu.org
Full event details and registration →

Open Casting Session with Truchas Chapter
2026-07-11 09:00 - 11:00 | Magers Field, Fort Marcy Recreational Complex, 490 Bishops Lodge Road, Santa Fe, NM, 87501, United States
Join the Truchas Chapter of Trout Unlimited for an open casting session, a fun and welcoming way to sharpen your fly casting. This is an informal, skills-based gathering with casting drills, distance and accuracy games, casting challenges, and plenty of time to ask questions or work on specific techniques. Whether you are brand new or an experienced caster, the activities are designed to be useful at every level.
Certified instructors Eric Callow and Tanner Hall will lead the session, offer critique and suggestions, and introduce casters to the American Casting Association accuracy games. Good casting takes practice, and it goes a lot further with passionate instructors and a like-minded community. This session provides both.
This is the first in a planned monthly casting series, so come out, meet fellow anglers, and make it a habit.
What to bring: Your own rod and reel if you have them. A few loaner setups will be available if you need to borrow gear. All skill levels welcome.
Questions: Tanner Hall, Fly Fishing Committee Chair, (404) 971-0777, tannerhall47@gmail.com; or Eric Callow, Director of Casting Activities, (818) 219-2276, cecallow@att.net.

Celebration of Life: Arnold Ray Atkins
2026-07-18 10:00 - 12:00 | El Dorado Community Center, 1 La Hacienda Loop, Santa Fe, NM, 87508, United States
The Truchas Chapter of Trout Unlimited invites you to join in celebrating the life of our friend and fellow angler, Arnold Ray Atkins (March 15, 1943 to April 16, 2026): beloved son, husband, father, uncle, grandfather, friend, and servant, and a familiar face on the water to many of us over the years.
Arnold’s family warmly welcomes his friends from the chapter and the wider fly fishing community to gather in his memory.
Saturday, July 18, 2026
10:00 AM to 12:00 PM
El Dorado Community Center, Community Patio
1 La Hacienda Loop, Santa Fe, NM 87508
For questions or additional details, please call or text Marisol Atkins at (505) 603-0123 or Clay Atkins at (503) 367-4889.

Exclosure Repair & Restoration Tour, Chihuahueños Creek (Jemez Mountains)
2026-09-20 - 2026-09-21 | NM
We return to Chihuahueños Creek in the fall for another round of exclosure maintenance — and this trip adds something special: a full restoration tour of TU’s work in the area.
On Day 1, volunteers will caravan to the north side of the Jemez, hike to the exclosures, make repairs, and camp for the night. Day 2 features a shuttle-assisted hike of approximately four miles back through the full length of the restoration project — a rare chance to see the scope of what TU and its partners have built, from the headwaters down. For anyone who wants to understand what hands-on conservation actually looks like across a watershed, this trip delivers.
What to bring: Your own camping gear. All meals provided by TU.
Questions? Email project manager Juliet Smith at Juliet.Smith@tu.org
Full event details and registration →
