The river is finally looking like the San Juan again. We have had some sort of high water conditions since the middle of February. Now we are back to flows that allow you to fish pretty much wherever you want. This is what everyone has been waiting for, I’m sure you will not be disappointed.
The fish are in all the usual places and eating very well. Fish the slow water in the morning with midges. Try light weights that won’t get you to the bottom to quickly and move your indicator around to keep your flies in front of the fish. I have been doing well with grey, black and cream midges, size 20 and 22. You will get more bites if you use fluorocarbon, 5X seems to be fine right now. You won’t need a fluorocarbon leader, mono will be fine. Just use the fluorocarbon after your weight so the fish don’t see any line around your flies. I have been catching fish with this rig all day long from Texas hole through the catch and release area. Just keep changing your midges around so the fish get a fresh look once in a while. If you are fishing from the Texas hole down river there has been a good mayfly hatch in the afternoon. It has been starting around 1:00 and lasting two to three hours depending on the cloud cover. Olive beatis seem to be working best but I have caught some fish on chocolate foam wings. Fish these around the faster waters and you should do well. The water is clear so I am sure the fish will start to look for bugs on the surface. I will let you know. We are having our first thunder storm as I write this so the ants will fall soon.
Good Luck, Chris
The last two days we have actually done some sight fishing! The river has close to six feet of visibility and the fish are falling back into there old routines. Midges and baetis are fooling more fish than eggs, worms and larva. I took some folks wade fishing. We fished a dry dropper all day catching many fish on a grasshopper with a cream midge below it. Fish ate the hopper in sand hole and along the bank to upper flats. We also hit fish in the bushes wherever there was a small clearing, very cool fishing.
Float fishing is still the most productive way to fish the river. I am using red or orange larve to a midge before lunch and then switching the midge to a chocolate RS2 in the afternoon. Most fish will not take the colored larve but it is a good attractor. The trout are still finding big meals, one fish had a night-crawler in his mouth. Another fat female regurgitated small frog eggs all over the boat but catching fish on imitations of these is getting difficult. They have seen too many egg and worm imitations lately, now that the river is clearing up they are getting wise to us. Insect imitations look more like the real thing and fish take them more readily. Only another week of 5000cfs, I’ll let you know how it fishes on the way back down.
Some of you may want to know that the bait water is also fishing very well. I floated an 11 year old and his grandfather to the village yesterday. We caught countless small fish on an orange egg to a size 14 red larve. Great fun for any young fly fisher that may want to get out and catch a bunch of fish.
The water is up to 5000cfs again. Obviously this makes wade fishing a challenge. There just aren’t that many places to go. The best places are up river from the Texas hole. There are lots of fish holding right on the bank or in any eddie that is along the side. Don’t try to wade out to far the fish are right in front of you. I have been catching fish on red and orange larve all day. Use an egg or a San Juan worm as an attractor with the red or orange larve under it. You will need a number 2 or larger weight to get it down with the indicator set at about 3 feet from the weight. This rig should work along the bank in most places above Texas hole. The water is getting clearer every day. There is about five feet of visibility and very little debris in the water.
Float fishing has been very good, lots of big healthy fish all over the river. I have been catching fish that are so full they are puking earth worms and larve all over the place. Anywhere that the water slows down the fish are stacking up. It is amazing how many are willing to take a red larve, I can hardly catch them on anything else. There have been large midge and beatis hatches which the fish have been eating but the colored larve are still superior to more natural looking insects.
There is hardly anyone on the water, get out there before the summer crowds get here.