San Juan River Fishing Report & News
Chris’s San Juan River Fly Fishing Tip of the Week
Fly Fishing is great, there are midges everywhere and they are hatching up and down the whole quality water section. The fall BWO hatch is also coming on strong. Start looking for them around noon. Fishing the midge hatch in the morning with olive, gray or black midges is very good. The afternoon has been my favorite with lots of trout looking for baetis. Chocolate or gray have been best. The slowest time of day seems to be around 11:00 to 12:00. Cloudy days are the best. 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. Fly Fish near the dam in the best midging waters to start, most of the midges are very 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. The afternoon baetis hatch is coming on strong. Dry fly fishing is still good. The whole river is fishing well,. Visibility is amazing, you can see the bottom everywhere!
7-Day Forecast
Fall is here! The weather looks great and the fishing has been very good. The upper flats are fishing great! Be there between 6:00am and 1:00pm. Watch out for moss on your line, you need to keep your flies clean. The trees are starting to change colors, they should all be yellow in another week. Good luck to all the Fisheads out there, Chris
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 11:30 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. Bunny leaches are great attractors! Brown, Black, purple, and white.
Fish species: Rainbow and Brown trout
Fishing season: Year Round
Nearest airport: Albuquerque, NM (2.5 hr) or Durango, La Plata Airport, CO (40 min) or Farmington, NM (40 min)
Recommended fly fishing leader: 9 Foot Leader
Recommended fly fishing tippet: 5X Tippet
Best fly fishing rod: 10′ 5 Weight Fly Rod
Best floating fly line: Trout WF
‘This I like.
I am coming up to stay with you guys this weekend. What are one midge and one beatis pattern I can’t be without?
Eddie, My new favorite is the black or gray Zebra midge #24 & 26 and my old fav the Chocolate foam wing/ RS-2 #22. Nothing new or fancy just keep them clean, the river is throwing out a lot of moss. See you soon
Peggy