End of October Fishing Report

San Juan River Fishing Report & News

Fisheads of the San Juan’s Tip of the Week

The river is running at 430cfs, to meet demands for water downstream of the dam. It is running clear throughout the quality water and fishing well. The nymph fishing has been excellent with midge patterns, olive, gray and brown have been best. Keep your flies out of the moss beds by fishing lighter weights and move your indicator closer to your flies. These flows have the fish eating well on the surface! Try to be sneaky. Use small midge patterns in the mornings and your best baetis patterns in the afternoons. The fish will still eat some leech patterns and San Juan Worms natural colors have been best.

5-Day Outlook

The weather this week is looking cloudy with highs in the 50’s and 60’s. Excellent weather for our blue winged olive hatch which is strong lately from noon to about 5:00pm! Fish have been eating all kinds of nymphs and streamers. We are doing a lot of sight nymphing over the weed beds with small midge patterns, size 22 and 24 midge larvae and pupa. Most of these fish are in only a couple feet of water so rig light and short below your strike indicators. The fish are spitting flies quickly so be ready to set the Hook! You can find some fish on the surface eating Midges and BWO’s in the afternoons, Some terrestrials as well. We have had some rains lately and ants and hoppers are working well!

Techniques & Tips

Fish fluorocarbon tippets at the end of your mono-filament leader when nymph fishing. 5X to the first fly and 6X to the dropper. This will produce more strikes as the fish can’t see the fluorocarbon. Fishing 22 to 24 midges in the slower waters has been great. The fish are eating lots of midges, fish short light rigs. 8-10 size weights with a strike indicator set at 2-3 ft. We are finding lots of baetis, especially on cloudy afternoons. Baetis live in fast water so look for them in the riffles at the top of holes and at the bottom of holes in the tail out. Fish are eating gray, olive and brown mayfly nymphs in these places, it just depends on the day so have them all. You may have the chance to see fish on top during this time. A parachute Adams or comparadun should do the job. The may flies are blue-gray and are about size 22. Use dark colored wings as the fish are turning away from white wings. If you can’t see this try a marker fly about 12 inches above the baetis. You should fish mono-filament tippets when fishing on the surface as fluorocarbon sinks. Change back to midges when the fish stop eating your may flies. Try some bunny leaches if all else fails. Dead drift them like the rest of your nymphs. Fish are eating them for moss! They will shake the drifting moss to get the bugs out. All this goes out the door when fishing streamers. Get them on the bottom and fish 1X fluorocarbon.

Fisheads of the San Juan’s Recommended Fly Patterns

“Must-have” fly fishing patterns in descending order of importance:

NAME: COLORS: SIZE(S):
Vernille San Juan Worm Brown, Black, Natura 8, 14
Lynch’s Double Dot Egg Orange Blood Dot 18
Griffith’s Gnat Black, Olive 18
Rojo Midge Gray, Olive, Brown, 20 To 22
Midge Larvae Gray, Red, Olive, Br 18 To 24
Foam Wing RS2 Brown, Black, Gray, 18 To 24
Rosenbauer Parachute Beetle Black 10 To 24
Cartoon Hopper Gray, Olive, Brown Flash! 4 To 8
Bunny Leaches Black, Olive, Gray, Natural, White 6 And 8
Ants Black 12 To 16

 

San Juan River NM Water Flow CFS