The Reel Life

The Reel Life is a fly shop and guide service inside the De Vargas Mall at 526 North Guadalupe Street in Santa Fe, New Mexico. In March of 2014 it was bought by Ivan Valdez and Nick Streit, who moved the store to that location; after a ten-year run as co-owner, Ivan and his wife Kay took on full ownership in August of 2024. The shop guides full and half-day trips on the Pecos, the Chama, the Rio Grande, the Brazos and the Jemez area streams, and it offers guided fishing on both private and public property on the Brazos, which is framed by the Brazos Peaks and holds trophy-size rainbows and browns north of Tierra Amarilla. Its Rio Grande water covers roughly seventy miles of river famous for its Mother’s Day caddis hatch, with the Red River, the Rio Pueblo and the Rio Embudo counted among the most productive tributaries. Alongside the guiding the business runs a retail store, teaches beginner and intermediate classes, and hosts winter trips to Patagonia.