Waters · Lakes · NM · Thu, Oct 8
Navajo Reservoir water level today 6016.92 ft, rising
Bite index 5/10 — Picky — fish it after dark.
Work for it.
Built from solunar, pressure, level, wind. This water has no live gauge for every reading — see the sources below.
Today's bite windows
Sunrise 7:11 AM · sunset 6:43 PM · tomorrow's first major 11:12 AM–1:12 PM · windows on every water
Conditions right now
What this means
Navajo Reservoir level over the last 8 days
6016.92 ft up 0.09 ft in 24 hours
That sits 100% of the way up the band it has held over the last 9 days, between 6012.57 and 6016.92 ft. Over the week it is up1.70ft.
The week ahead
| Fri | 6 | Biting | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sat | 7 | Biting | |
| Sun | 7 | Biting | |
| Mon | 7 | Biting | |
| Tue | 7 | Biting | |
| Wed | 6 | Biting | |
| Thu | 6 | Biting |
Forecast days carry solunar and the wind outlook. Pressure and gauge movement land the morning of.
Before you go
A New Mexico fishing license covers this water — $35 a year for residents. NMDOW sets the rules and is the one that counts.
What it costs, and who is exempt →Nearby waters today
- 5 Picky Heron Reservoir NM · 76 km
- 5 Picky El Vado Lake NM · 77 km
- 5 Picky Blue Mesa Reservoir CO · 180 km
- 6 Biting Port Aransas TX · 1402 km
- 6 Biting Normandy Lake TN · 1913 km
Questions people ask about Navajo Reservoir
Answered from the same readings as the rest of this page. Where we have no basis for an answer, there is no entry — spot-by-spot local knowledge is not something we can claim for Navajo Reservoir.
- Is it worth fishing Navajo Reservoir today?
- 5 out of 10 — picky. Work for it. The strongest stretch is 10:27 AM–12:27 PM. That number is worked out fresh each morning from the solunar windows, the pressure trend, the water level.
- What time should you fish Navajo Reservoir?
- Today's major windows run 10:27 AM–12:27 PM and 10:49 PM–12:49 AM, with minor windows at 4:37 AM–5:37 AM and 5:07 PM–6:07 PM. Sunrise is 7:11 AM and sunset 6:43 PM. A major landing on first or last light is the stretch worth setting an alarm for.
- What is the water temperature at Navajo Reservoir?
- No gauge on Navajo Reservoir measures it, so this is an estimate: roughly 59.6°F, worked out from the 7-day mean of air temperature at NOAA weather station KLAM (Los Alamos Airport). Checked against the lakes that do have a thermometer, that method lands within about 4.5°F of the real reading and was off by 8.3°F at worst. Treat it as a ballpark, not a measurement — and note the bite index above ignores it entirely, because an error that size would move the verdict as often as it would fix it.
- What is the water level at Navajo Reservoir right now?
- 6016.92 ft, the reading for October 7 from the Navajo Reservoir and Dam gauge run by the USBR, which publishes one value a day. Over 24 hours it is up 0.09 ft.
- Are water levels rising or falling at Navajo Reservoir?
- Rising. The lake is up 0.09 ft in 24 hours and up 1.70 ft over the week. Over the last 9 days it has held between 6012.57 and 6016.92 ft. Every figure here is a difference between two gauge readings, not a forecast — what the level does next depends on rain and on what the dam releases.
- Can you eat the fish you catch in Navajo Reservoir?
- That is a health question, and it is answered officially rather than by us. New Mexico Environment Department publishes the fish consumption advisory covering these waters, where mercury, PCB and DDT advisories are listed per water in a chart linked from that page. Read it before you keep a meal — we give no eating advice.
- Do you need a licence to fish Navajo Reservoir?
- Yes. A New Mexico fishing license covers this water, required from age 12. NMDOW sets the rules and is the one that counts.
- What size fish can you keep in New Mexico?
- It depends on the species, and several have slot limits rather than a simple minimum. Open to harvest today: largemouth, spotted and smallmouth bass, catfish (all species except bullheads), crappie, striped bass. Seasons here change mid-year by agency order, so the status is re-checked every morning.
Largemouth, spotted and smallmouth bass limits · Catfish (all species except bullheads) limits · Crappie limits · Striped bass limits · Check a length against the rules
Where these numbers come from
- Solunar computed 9:10 AM
- NOAA KLAM Los Alamos Airport 8:35 AM
- NOAA ABQ gridded forecast 6:01 AM
- USBR Navajo Reservoir and Dam daily reservoir operations Oct 7
Read at the dam by the Bureau of Reclamation once a day. The reservoir reaches north into Colorado, but the dam and the gauge sit in New Mexico. No temperature sensor.
No one types these in by hand. If a source goes quiet, the page says so instead of showing you yesterday.