Listen Now

Something we have been wanting to do for a while is destination based episodes. So our first one is the San Juan River in New Mexico. We met up with the Rainbow Lodge and they took good care of us for the two days we spent on the river. In this episode we get the perspective of the San Juan from a lodge owner, guides, newbies and experienced anglers.

The San Juan was the first water in the US to be designated as fly fish only. Even though the river is infested with whirlings disease there is plenty of healthy rainbows to pick a fight with. The river is a tail water that is wide and shallow. The river is rarely deeper than 2 feet. The first 3/4 mile of the river below Navajo Dam is the wade only area known as the braids. Probably because the river braids through and around hundreds of islands of willows. It makes for some interesting structure to fish. There is some real exciting sight fishing there. You are fishing to fish 3-4 feet from your toes. I found the indicator was pretty useless, and I got more fish by watching for the white of the fishes mouth when I thought my fly was near him.

My favorite area to fish was lower falls. It's about half way down the quality waters section. It had a lot of structure to the river and I think the fish were just a little bigger there. It had some fish rising to dries and some would take streamers. It was pretty much how did you want to fish. Since I wanted to work on my streamer skills it was a great place to try it out. If I could just learn to strip set instead on tip set those things I would be deadly.

The San Juan is great for both Beginners and experienced anglers. Be sure to take your camera so you dont miss any photo ops with some awesome rainbows like these.









Fly of the Week
San Juan Worm - Simple to tie. Just wrap the body material on and tie it off. When Im on a river with high water thats usually a good time to fish this just a few feet from the bank. If legal where you're fishing, try tying a dropper behind it like a WD-40 or some small midge pattern.
Hook: Size 8
Body: Red v-rib