KAYAKING A LIFE ON THE LAKE

Zia Kayak Outfitters – Elephant Butte, NM

With waters reflecting the deep azure of the New Mexico skies, Elephant Butte Lake – the state’s largest body of water — is a recreational playground amidst the high desert. It draws folks from not only across New Mexico, but also throughout the southwest region. Not surprisingly, the local economy is geared toward service for people who visit. And perhaps none more so than Zia Kayak Outfitters.

While the wife and husband team of Edna and Russ Trager no longer provide kayaks for rent – that business was passed on to Neal Brown, owner of nearby Marina del Sur – they still do a stellar job of luring anglers into their well-stocked room of fishing gear. And the Tragers have not entirely abandoned kayaking as they continue to sell them, as well as run and sponsor annual kayak fishing derbies on the lake.

It was the Tragers, Brown pointed out, who can be credited as the grandparents of sport kayaking in New Mexico. “Russ and Edna have increased kayaking in the state of New Mexico,” he said. “They have single-handedly probably quadrupled the kayak usage, all their advertising, all the tournaments that they’ve sponsored, all of the things they’ve done, they have really increased the usage of kayaks.” Zia remains the state’s sole retailer for Hobie Kayaks, but the rental aspect simply got to be too much for the couple, who are well into their retirement years.

DOING THE KAYAK PIVOT

“We’re getting old,” Russ said with a chuckle. “It’s a lot of work. But that was so much fun because we got to meet so many people.” Meeting people and talking shop and swapping fishing tales, however, remains the heart and soul of their business as the fun-loving, customer-pleasing couple has the time to chat up everyone who walks through their doors.

“You know, this is, this is really the fun stuff in here,” Russ said, sweeping his arm across the many aisles of gear, like rods and reels fit for beginners to those willing to drop top dollar for the best of the bunch, as well as gaudy lures and tackle made by locals that are nearly guaranteed to produce a bent rod and taut line with a yay-big fish wriggling at the far end. And Edna remains a leading role model extolling the benefits of kayaking as virtually every day – yes right through the winter — she visits the lake in her custom, fire-red craft for some exercise and a break from the store.

It was Russ who first got Edna intrigued with kayaks, giving her one when they lived in California. “And then we brought it here,” Edna recalled. “It’s a bad story, sort of. Did he tell you the story about the first time I put it in the lake here? It was winter time and we were down by the lake and I was putting in and a woman from the marina came running out going, ‘No, it’s cold.’ But I like getting in the water in the kayak. She just didn’t understand that I wasn’t going to be actually in the water.”

HOME SWEET NEW MEXICO

Edna is originally from New Mexico, but her life took her farther west. The idea, however, always was to return to the Land of Enchantment. “He and I met in Los Angeles. And then we got married and had our family and raised our family,” she said. “But my mom was living in Albuquerque and my father was living down here (Elephant Butte). So we were in and out of New Mexico, both northern and southern, and the whole state a couple of times a year, every year of my life. And we always knew we would move back. And then when we started thinking about this, this would have been 2009 or 2010, somewhere around there, we decided it was time. So we always knew we would come to New Mexico. He fell in love with it when he met me. So he loves the food, loves the people, loves my family.”

That’s when her father stepped up with a suggestion about his printing press business in Elephant Butte. “He got to a point where he said he actually wanted to have a talk with me. And he said, ‘Are you still thinking of doing that kayak business?’” Edna said. “We’re working on the plan. And he said, ‘Well, what about my shop?’ And I said I hadn’t thought about it. But that worked great.” And that turned out to be all the nudge the couple needed.

“Times were kind of different and in the kayaks, all the outdoor recreation toys were getting better and better,” Edna said. “I mean, they’ve changed so much. From the kayaks to the ATVs, boats and everything has really come a long way. And it was relatively new for New Mexico — definitely for this part of the state. In fact, the people from up north still think that kayaks means going down the Box and Taos, right?”

For certain, there is nothing quite like the adrenaline rush of the whitewater blitz through the narrow canyons of the upper Rio Grande as it cascades its way south. But kayaks can provide a wonderful exercise experience and a delightful way to glide across still bodies of water, as well, Edna said. “That’s kind of the end that’s wonderful,” she said of the adventure kayak. “I mean, that’s a huge draw for people coming to New Mexico. Now there is a ton of kayakers because everyone has discovered it is such an easy way to get in and out of the lake. And then the way gas prices fluctuate all the time, we’re great to know as an alternative for people who don’t want to be filling a fuel tank. With a boat, it’s just such a hassle. So these are easy. I would just tell people, cover them or stick them in a garage and you’re good. If you’re up north, turn them over so they don’t fill up with snow. That’s it. You’re good to go.”

The thing about kayaks, Russ said, is they are more than a great way to run rapids. As a matter of fact, kayaks can make for a tremendous fishing platform. Relatively quiet, stable, and with plenty of room for gear, beverages, and snacks, it just made sense to combine fishing and kayak rentals at the old printing shop, they said. “We changed it a little bit, not too much. That used to be our work area,” Edna said as she showed off the cozy space. “And then we wanted to expand the fishing department. So we added workspace in the back so we could add more space for the fishing products.”

And, oh, those fishing products. Russ visibly swells with pride as he shows off his aisles of gear. “You can walk into a tackle shop, like Sportsman’s or like Kip Ellis, yeah, any of those, and they have rows and rows and rows and rows of stuff on tackle. But the buyers were buying for mass areas covering the United States. They weren’t focusing in on local water. Everything in here works locally. So people walk in and they’re not having to walk aisle after aisle of garbage that they don’t need. People come in here and go, ‘Oh, wow!’ And then I have fun warning them about the back row. I say, ‘Okay, be careful about the back row, because you’re gonna go back there, and it’s very dangerous. You’re going to fall in love and leave here broke.’”

That back row is filled with equipment from Megabass, a company founded in Japan that essentially produces the Rolls Royce line of fish gear, Russ said. “I tried to sign up eight years ago. And they sent me an email saying that they were on a moratorium of adding new dealers to the United States because they couldn’t supply the ones they already had,” he said, shaking his head. But earlier in 2023, “they sent me an email saying you can reapply now. We can handle it. And since I got their stuff in, I’ve already reordered like seven times. It’s amazing. I’ll be showing you something on it because you’re not being a fisherman, you’re still going to look at this thing and go, Hey, this is amazing engineering.”

But it is the local knowledge that the Tragers possess — and freely dispense — that really sets the back end of the store apart from other tackle shops. “Well, the economy here is based on the lake. So we have the gas stations. We have the places that sell the live bait; you have our place where we sell more of the plastics,” Edna said. “And you have guides that live here. So everybody talks to each other. And people are members of groups, like I’m on the board for Friends of the Lake. And Russ is also a member. So, again, everybody’s communicating and talking and what’s working, what’s not working.”

Edna paused and pointed to the door, where a couple of local men had just departed. “One of the guys that just left, Randall Bell, he’s a huge part of the New Mexico bass trail. So he’s not in a kayak; he’s in a bass boat, but they coordinate a lot of the tournaments here. So again, everybody’s communicating all the time. And we try and everybody tries to be very generous with their information for the visitors because you want them to have a good time, right?”

And for many visitors, having a good time means getting out on the lake and tossing a line into the water. There is no better place to stop and soak up a little bit of that local knowledge than Zia Kayak Outfitters. “Elephant Butte Lake here has lots of bass: both large mouth and small mouth or the white bass,” Russ said. “And then they have walleye, crappie, drum, striped bass, and catfish. And then an occasional trout or pike that somehow ends up in the river that ends up here. What you’re seeing here are handmade by a woman in our area. And she uses amazing materials for this stuff, and yeah, they’re beautiful. Neons and oranges. Feathers and all kinds of stuff. Her stuff is great.”

KAYAKING FOR LIFE

And as popular as the tackle section may be, what really gets Edna and Russ going are their beloved kayaks. Yet, despite their continued efforts to promote kayaks as recreational vehicles, the vessel still suffers from something of an identity crisis. “When we opened, few people had heard of kayaks. Certainly not like this,” Russ said, gesturing toward a 130-pound, water-faring craft decked out with a cooler, rod holders, and gear storage areas, powered by a pedal drive. “Of course, they’re thinking like an Eskimo with that furred-wrapped thing around some kind of structure. And if you sneeze, the thing tips over. My wife, when we moved to Elephant Butte from California, that was her boat. It was a blue, a certain color blue that we found was dangerous here because the color of the lake and the color of the sky, that thing became invisible. And so we sold it and she got into red boats and all that kind of stuff.”

And while the general perception is that kayaks are relatively slow, requiring a lot of arm power to row, that, too, is a fallacy. “They didn’t know about these very stable types of kayaks where instead of using a paddle, you’re using a pedal drive. And it’s a whole different animal,” Russ said. “In California, where we were, it’s like Starbucks there. There’s a kayak shop around every corner, and here we’re still the only Hobie dealer in the state, and we draw from Arizona and Colorado and parts of Texas, and we do rather well with Hobie. They are at the top. In fact, this one is the number one selling fishing kayak in the world market. It’s a Hobie Outback, the model name in the United States. The number one is the Pro Angler. What makes it different is its capacity. It will hold six fishing rods horizontally in the hull. It’s a boat where you get to take all your stuff.”

In their younger days, Russ went all out with his kayak, but he’s had to make a few allowances for age. Not that he’s really complaining, though. “Every year, we would take the top model, this 14-foot Pro Angler, and that was outfitted with whatever the current electronics were and made into a really beautiful boat,” he said. “This thing weighs 130 pounds. After I’m all done with all my accessories, I was probably around the 200-pound mark, and I had to design a special trailer for it using plywood as the base and a winch to get it up there. I’d tie it down and off I’d go. Anyway, I’m getting up in age, so this year for the first time, I have not set myself up with a heavy, heavy, heavy boat. I have it outfitted like the one that’s in the showroom with all kinds of great accessories, but this boat weighs 45 pounds. That was a game changer. And what’s interesting is the hull on it. It’s not flat like a stand-up paddleboard, but it’s got a very interesting design. It’s super stable, but yet it’s lightweight. And when you’re sitting in the chair doing that foot drive, MirageDrive, they call it, you fly. This thing is fast. And it’s a great fishing platform. So I love it.”

Life is good at the lake for the Tragers, riding high on their kayaks, fishing when they find the time, and extolling the virtues of outdoor recreation opportunities in southern New Mexico.

Photos by Roberto E. Rosales Photography Editorial by Glen Rosales

Zia Kayak Outfitters – Elephant Butte, NM