July Fishing Report

San Juan River Fishing Report & News

Fisheads of the San Juan’s Fly Fishing Tip of the Week

The river is running at 500cfs. The water is getting clearer daily! We have 6 feet of visibility, and the fishing is very good! Time to come and fish. We are doing well in the guide boats! We are still catching fish using attractor patterns and bright colored larvae. Wading the river will be excellent as many fish haven’t seen any fisherman for a month or more due to the higher flows. With the water flows back to normal the fishing is very good, so try to get here if you are looking to wade fish the river. Dry fly season is just starting with chances at fish in the early morning and evening eating on the surface. Hoppers and ants are always a good option. We are having some fish looking for midges, Blue winged olives and even some caddis dry flies down through town.

5-Day Outlook

The weather this week is looking partly cloudy to sunny with highs in the 90’s. Possible thunderstorms in the afternoons so bring your raincoat. The mosquitoes are strong so bring your bug protection!

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