Fly Fishing the San Juan River, New Mexico

fishingfoolBG · 11-09-2009, 12:37 PM

Hey OGF, thought I would post a report here so the fly guys would see it. The San Juan river is am unbelievable river with monster bows and browns lurking in there deep holes and runs. The first 4 miles is catch and release only, and is only allowed for fly fishing with barbless hooks.

I got to the river on Saturday and set up camp and got my gear ready for the day. This was my first time up there and was overwhelmed with the abundance of trout and insects. I fished below the C & R waters to start, trying to get back into the grove of things. I had a few hits but got the skunk the first day.

On Sunday I moved up to the C & R waters and had better luck. These trout are pretty smart from being hooked some many times, you have to use 6x or smaller to get anyone hook ups. I tied on a cream ufo and red larva both in size 22 and got my first San Juan trout. She measured 20'' and took the red larva.

I fished the same hole for a while and landed a few more trout in the 14-15 range. I then switched out the cream ufo to a San Juan worm and got this pretty 19''.

Boy do these trout fight like steelhead, it sure got me pumped for the steel when I fly back Dec 13. If any of you guys have a chance to fish this river I would take up the offer. These trout will wait for you to kick up the silt and feed on the incest at your feet. I had some BIG trout feeding at my feet, which I couldn't believe. I landed about 5 trout and lost about 10 more. Here are a few more pics from my trip.

Thanks for reading. FFBG

TheCream · 11-09-2009, 02:07 PM

Very cool, nice fish and awesome scenery!

bigduck10 · 11-09-2009, 02:36 PM

Friend of mine was down there about three weeks ago. Told me he had a great time and the fishing was awesome. Very affordable trip. I think he told me under $325 for the airfare 30 days in advance. Spent about a grand for the week, maybe less.

Salmonid · 11-09-2009, 05:14 PM

Wow, those sure dont look like the majority of the fish I caught there about 4 years ago...what I caught was mostly 10-14" fish that were stockers, in fact most had no side fins from concrete raceways but we did manage a few nice looking fish including my PB at 22.5" , that watershed is amazing but the number of fisheremen also amazed me, I couldnt believe having 25-30 drift boats pass us durring a weekday and most of the big parking lots full of wader folks. We found it har dto clain any water that was worth working and we finally took some real fast chute water that everyone called idiots to fish since as they put it, " no one could land a big fish there on a tiny fly and 7x" but that is where we tok all our big fish, it was hairy but our prevailing skills overshown most of the weekend warriors types there.

We stayed at Abes and that place is a real dive, should have slept in the cars except for the snow in the morning....

I do agreee though that if your out that ways, make a day of it

Salmonid

Flyfish Dog · 11-10-2009, 06:55 AM

Cool! Nice report.

peterson.478 · 11-10-2009, 08:04 PM

Nicely done! Yet again.

MP

fishon · 11-11-2009, 12:51 PM

Awesome Pics and nice job.. thank you you for sharing...

fishingfoolBG · 11-11-2009, 09:36 PM

Thanks guys for the comments. I live about 150 miles from the river so it is fairly cheap for me to get up there. Like some people said it is a great river and worth the trip. Weekends get pretty crowded but if you do some hiking you won't see another person.

Salmonid,
They have made some changes on the river to improve the quality of fishing. The rules they implemented sure have improved the fishery. Just on Sept 15th they changed the quality waters to C&R only so it made it 4 miles longer. I guess 20'' trout are pretty common and there are some 25-28''!!!!Your right Abes Hotel looks pretty ran down but they sure had a good fly shop. Well ill be going again this weekend and ill post some pics if I get a big one. FFBG