San Juan

Bruce did a good job of summarizing the trip.

The river was lower and more colored than I've seen it. Sight fishing
although not impossible was very limited. Although Bruce's "mauve dyed
leeches" caught lots of fish, the trout were still feeding on the little
midges even in the colored water. Amazing that they could see them.

We saw a couple VERY large fish that had moved up in the shallow runs
for spawning. Bob spotted a large Brown that he pointed out to me that
I', guessing would have gone close to 10 pounds. The Brown was VERY
agitated and and disappeared soon after we spotted it. While Danl and
I were eating lunch, I spotted a BIG Rainbow that disappeared into a
hole just in front of an in stream rock. I told Danl to put down his
lunch and cast to it. His first cast was placed perfectly and the fish
hit immediately and shot off upstream on a screaming reel. We both got
excited. Danl chased and stumbled after it and after a protracted
battle, he landed a fat fish of 18+ inches, not the big one but a fine,
hot fish. The Browns seem to have had some recent spawning success. We
caught more Browns this year, including some small fish, than we have in
the past. Bruce said he has never caught a Rainbow smaller than stocker
sized. Maybe the Rainbows aren't successful because they're "factory"
raised mutants that try to spawn in the Fall/Winter instead of the Spring.

Surface feeding was very limited and it took work to find the few fish
that were feeding on the top. If you found a fish consistently feeding
on top, most were more catchable than usual in the cloudy water (trout
feeding on single size 32 or smaller midges are tough!).

Except for the last day, I thought the weather was great. No ice in the
guides even first thing in the morning. Crowds seemed bad considering
we were fishing in early December and on some weekdays. The low water
tended to concentrate the fishermen in the limited areas than still had
some depth and some current. There were lots of areas that normally held
fish that were very shallow and placid and pretty much devoid of fish.


PS I got new boots before this trip. On Bruce's suggestion, I got a pair
of studded aqua stealths. They were like velcro on the San Juan. I hope
they're half as good on a free stone river.

Willi