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Home › Waters › New Mexico › Bluewater Lake
Lake · Western New Mexico, Cibola and McKinley counties, the high country below the Zuni Mountains at about seventy-four hundred feet · New Mexico

Bluewater Lake Fishing Guides

A high western New Mexico lake below the Zuni Mountains, stocked with trout and managed for trophy tiger muskie, sitting at roughly seventy-four hundred feet in Bluewater Lake State Park.

A dock and moored boat on a misty reservoir at sunrise
Gauge location. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

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About the Bluewater Lake

Bluewater Lake sits at about seventy-four hundred feet in the high country below the Zuni Mountains of western New Mexico, impounded on Bluewater Creek and surrounded by a state park that gives it some of the best public access of any water in that part of the state. It drains roughly two hundred square miles of high desert and forest, and the gauge reads lake elevation and storage rather than flow, which is the right pair of numbers for a water whose fishing is governed almost entirely by how full it is.

That variability is the first thing to understand. Bluewater has drawn down severely in dry years and filled again in wet ones, and the fishery has been rebuilt more than once as a result. When the lake is high it is genuinely good water, with flooded shoreline vegetation and a productive shallow end. When it is low the fish concentrate and the fishing can be excellent for a while before conditions get hard. Checking the storage figure before committing to the drive is not optional here.

Rainbow trout carry the everyday fishery and are stocked to support it, with cutthroat trout also present. The water the lake is best known for, though, is its predator management: Bluewater is one of the few New Mexico lakes managed for trophy tiger muskie, a sterile hybrid stocked to control rough fish and now a genuine draw in its own right. Special length limits apply to them and anglers should read the rules before going. Channel catfish, largemouth bass, bluegill, crappie and carp fill out the assemblage.

Access is from the state park, with a boat ramp, campground and shoreline that is walkable over much of the lake. Winter ice fishing happens in colder years.

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The photo at the top of this page is not Bluewater Lake.

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Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

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5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

Pool right now

7,364.00ft NGVD29
  • 24 hours-0.01 ft → steady
  • Storage2,950 acre-ft

Reading taken 1h ago at USGS 08341400, BLUEWATER LAKE NEAR BLUEWATER, NM. Elevation is the surface of the lake above the survey datum, not depth. Source.

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Reviewed by hand before it appears. Pick the water, not the spot — we never publish exact locations.

Never published. We use it only if we need to ask about the photo.

Posting to Bluewater Lake.

JPG, PNG or WebP, up to 12 MB. We resize it and strip the location data out of the file.

The name shown under the photo. Leave blank to stay anonymous.

Reader photo license v1.0 — the short version:

  • You grant Guided Floats, LLC a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to publish, resize and crop your photo on guidedfloats.com and in GuidedFloats’ own social posts and apps. You keep the copyright and can use the photo anywhere else.
  • You confirm that you took the photo yourself, that publishing it does not infringe anyone else’s rights, and that anyone recognisable in it (or a parent or guardian, if they are under 18) is happy for it to appear here.
  • Credit is printed beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, using the credit name you give us. Leave it blank and we use your name; write “Anonymous” for no name. Your email address is never published.
  • Withdrawing is one email to hello@guidedfloats.com naming the photo. It comes off the site within 7 days.
Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

Lake level alert

Tell me when the pool at Bluewater Lake ft (NGVD29)

Now: 7,364.00 ft pool elevation, read 5:15 pm CDT, Sun Oct 18, 2026 (USGS 08341400, BLUEWATER LAKE NEAR BLUEWATER, NM).

We never use this address for anything else and never share it. See the privacy policy.

Access

Bluewater Lake State Park - the main access, with a boat ramp, campground and day use areas.
Prewitt - the nearest community on the interstate, the turn off for the lake.
Grants - the regional town half an hour east, with lodging, fuel, food and tackle.
Gallup - the larger city to the west, with full services and an airport.
Zuni Mountains - the forest country above the lake, with streams and a change of scenery.
Bluewater Creek - the inflow above the lake, a small trout stream in its own right.
El Malpais National Monument - a nearby public land destination for a non fishing day.

Seasons

Spring: ice comes off and trout fishing is at its best, with tiger muskie moving shallow as the water warms.
Summer: trout go deep and the warmwater species take over, with early and late the productive windows at this elevation.
Fall: cooling water brings trout and muskie back within reach and this is the most reliable period of the year.
Winter: the lake ices in cold years and ice fishing for trout and perch becomes the local pastime.

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Questions

What species can you catch on the Bluewater Lake?

Anglers target Black Crappie, Bluegill, Channel Catfish, Common Carp, Cutthroat Trout, Largemouth Bass, Musky, Rainbow Trout on the Bluewater Lake in New Mexico.

Where can you access the Bluewater Lake?

Bluewater Lake State Park - the main access, with a boat ramp, campground and day use areas. Prewitt - the nearest community on the interstate, the turn off for the lake. Grants - the regional town half an hour east, with lodging, fuel, food and tackle. Gallup - the larger city to the west, with full services and an airport. Zuni Mountains - the forest country above the lake, with streams and a change of scenery. Bluewater Creek - the inflow above the lake, a small trout stream in its own right. El Malpais National Monument - a nearby public land destination for a non fishing day.

When is the best time to fish the Bluewater Lake?

Spring: ice comes off and trout fishing is at its best, with tiger muskie moving shallow as the water warms. Summer: trout go deep and the warmwater species take over, with early and late the productive windows at this elevation. Fall: cooling water brings trout and muskie back within reach and this is the most reliable period of the year. Winter: the lake ices in cold years and ice fishing for trout and perch becomes the local pastime.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Bluewater Lake?

Regulations change by season and section. Read the current rules on the New Mexico agency site: https://wildlife.dgf.nm.gov/fishing/