SAN JUAN RIVER FISHING REPORTS ARCHIVE - 2008

Fishing Report for June 5, 2008

The San Juan River is finally fishing well after months of off-colored water. The increase in flows last week to 5000 cubic feet per second seems to have pushed much of the suspended sediment, moss, and "river snot" (guide term for dead, white-colored plant material) downstream. This has left the trout in the Quality Waters hungry and willing to bite.

We have been catching numbers of quality fish - fat, healthy 18, 19 inchers with several over 20. Our best luck has come by fishing chamois leeches, San Juan worms, OJ's, Big Macs, and egg patterns on five to seven-foot leaders with size BB shot to pull the rig down to the bottom. You must be willing to adjust your rig often to keep getting strikes. The weight needs to be right on the bottom, so adjusting leader length by moving your strike indicator is an absolute must! If you are not setting the hook for bottom bumps on almost every cast - then you are missing the fish.

A word of caution for those planning to fish the San Juan in the next few weeks - Be very careful as wading is extremely difficult and potentially dangerous. Only a few areas of the river offer water that is wade-able, and those areas are sketchy. Drift boats are definitely the way to go right now.

Flows are scheduled to decrease on June 18 and continue falling until they reach 500cfs on July 2nd. The river will be very busy once the flows bottom out, so mid-June will be a good time to be here with lighter crowds and good high-water drift fishing.

Fishing Report for March 15, 2008

The river is flowing high (4000 cfs) and dirty (visibility of about 1 foot), but the fish don't seem to care. Nice sized trout have been feeding just out of the fast current everywhere there are indentations in the bank that allow water to slow down. Eddy currents and inside bends are fishing well too.

We have been doing most of our guiding between Texas Hole and the gravel pit, fishing out of drift boats, and using egg patterns, San Juan worms, leeches, wooly buggers, and red hots. The best rig seems to be a brown bunny leech above a size 20 red hot with a BB shot about 6 feet below the indicator. We have also been picking up fish with a 4 1/2 to 5 foot, heavier rig (BB and a 4) using a chamois leech above a size 18 red larva. Bead head and flash back pheasant tails in sizes 18 to 22 have been working well in the afternoons. (I have been fishing them below red San Juan worms on a 5 foot rig with a BB and a 6.)

With the fast water you want your rig to get down quickly to take advantage of as long a drift as possible. That's why we are using heavy weights. If you are hanging up on the bottom, try adjusting your length first (shorten it up a little). If you are still hanging up, then lighten your weight.

If I were going to fish on foot, I would fish a bunny leech or a wooly bugger on 3x tippet with a weight heavy enough to get the fly down to the bottom very quickly. I would cast close to the flooded brush, let it settle for a second or two, then strip it back. I had a client using this method the other day while we had the boat anchored up, and he caught several fish in a matter of minutes. Boats are the way to go right now as wadeable water is somewhat limited. Some of the braids are wadeable, as are the side channels. I like to wade the back channels during high water, especially the ones near the Cable Hole. Big trout often hold just inside the side channel and feed on the aquatic life that gets pushed in from the main flow. The slews often hold trout during high flows that cause a current to flow through them. I like to fish a size 10 black wooly bugger with a BB weight in the slews.

Good luck out there, and be very careful in the high water.

Fishing Report for Februay 17, 2008

Presidents' Day weekend and the San Juan is mostly devoid of anglers - everyone seems to be worried about the recent flow increase to 3000 cfs. True, flows of 3000 make wading in some areas difficult, but there is still plenty of water that is safely wadable, and higher flows do not negatively affect fishing from a drift boat. The water has been off-color with poor visibility for several weeks. Now, with higher water, visibility has increased to about 4 feet and much of the milky color is gone. The increased flows seem to have pushed out a lot of the murky water left over from the lake turning over.

On the negative side, streamer fishing has suffered with clearer water, but we are still picking up some trout on streamers such as wooly buggers and bunny leeches. On the positive side, nymph fishing has really picked up. During the last two days we have been doing well on nymph rigs with egg patterns, red larvae, chamois leeches, and UFO's at the end of 7 ½ foot leaders with two number 4 shots about 18 inches above the first fly.

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