Doc Thompson’s High Country Anglers

High Country Anglers is run by Doc Thompson from a PO Box in Ute Park, New Mexico, and he started the business in 1995 believing he could make a living guiding fly fishers in this state. He has been guiding the Cita, one of his private beats, since that first season, and the private water he draws on now runs to more than three miles across several streams, including the Lower and Upper Cardinal stretches and the Holy Water immediately downstream of Eagle Nest Dam. Beyond the home river he guides the Rio Costilla, a high mountain meadow stream near the Colorado line where the Valle Vidal and the Rio Costilla Cattle and Livestock Association stretches combine for over twelve miles of public fishing for native Rio Grande cutthroat; the upper and lower Red River, including the hard four-to-five mile canyon from Questa down to the Rio Grande confluence; and the Rio Grande itself through the Rio Grande del Norte National Monument. Vacations combining a guide trip and lodging in guest houses, cabins or a ranch are sold as single reservations.