Fishing Report

San Juan River Fishing Report & News

My tips of the week
The San Juan is flowing at 800 cfs.  Fishing is great, there are midges everywhere and they are hatching up and down the whole quality water section. The BWO hatch is still coming off below T-Hole . Start looking for them around noon. Foam wings and Johnny flash are working great below T-hole. Fishing the midge hatch in the morning with olive, gray or black midges is very good. . The afternoon has been good with fish looking for baetis below Texas Hole. Chocolate, olive or gray have been best. The water is still a little off color so flash is helpful on your flies. Bright color flies are working well. Try disco midges and bright red and orange larvae. As always a large part of your success will be your in ability to move around to where the hatches are coming off the best. Fish near the dam in the best midging waters to start,most of the midges are small. I have been doing well with a black larvae or pupa to a gray or olive larvae. Around 12:30 move down to where the baetis are hatching, anywhere from lower Texas hole down to the end of bait water. Watch out for moss on your flies, you have to keep them clean. The winds can be tough on us. The fish are still eating well in the afternoons but you can have some trouble getting a good drift. It is best to shorten up your length between the strike indicator and your weight and add some weight. This will help you get a better drift and see the indicator move when the fish takes. With lower flows the bites will be lighter and you will have to fish shallow rigs to avoid the bottom of the river. There are cicadas hatching. They are falling on both the lake and river. I have seen some that are black with orange segments and others that are white on the bottom and black with white segments on the top. As you can imagine the fish love them. Not every fish will eat them but some will ! Whenever the water goes up or down the fish will start eating junk! Try fishing San Juan worms, leaches, red or orange larvae or egg patterns. The PMD hatch is coming off well between Simone canyon and the crusher hole. Start looking for them around 2:00pm, they will hatch until 5 or 6. Fish are eating them both sub surface and on the surface.
Midges are hatching all day long. At the moment they are small, midge pupa and larvae, size 22 to 24, olive,gray, black, chocolate, cream and of course red have been my best. The hatch is strongest from 10:30 to 2:00. The midges are clustering so try fishing a cluster to a single dry midge. Black has been best. Try fishing BWO’s from 1:00pm to about 5:00pm. The hatch is best on cloudy days. Dark or light gray, brown and olive have been the best colors in a size 20 and 22. Both dry and wet patterns. Pale Morning Duns (PMD’s) both dry and wet patterns. Bunny leeches and woolly buggers are working well either dead drifted or stripping them. Black, olive or cream have been best. cicada’s are falling in the water. Try fishing big black foam bugs! The Ants have fallen.
San Juan River NM Water Flow CFS

Chris Taylor - Head Fly Guide

1 Comment

  1. Dick on August 25, 2013 at 5:12 pm

    Good Job!

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