Enjoyed my time on the San Juan and caught about a half dozen decent fish. Only landed 2 though, the biggest of which was in the neighborhood of 16". It was a humbling experience and taught me some valuable lessons, like ensuring I choose my knots wisely and they are well-tied, doing my best to keep fighting fish out of a strong current, and always keeping a tight line. I lost a couple of pretty big ones, best I could judge upwards of 18". The Airflo putty worked well but like all things, it had its pros and cons. I liked the ease of use but yes, it was hard to judge exactly how much I had on there. I found split shot to be easier to meter out but didn't care for the time it took to get #8 shot aligned properly at the tip of my hemostats. I didn't use thingamabobbers but tried both the NZ strike indicator and palsa floats. The NZ thing was easy to apply to the line and adjust up and down but it seemed to sink or go under the surface more often than I would have liked. Perhaps its just a matter of applying floatant or water proofing the wool better but other than that, I really liked it. The palsa floats sure are fast to get on there but I did not like the fact that where you stick it on is where its gonna stay. They were also kind of a pain to get all the glue off the leader when I removed them. I thoroughly enjoyed my time on that water and will return in the near future. However, it seemed there were as many fishermen as there were fish. Not exactly what I look for when I go fishing but I guess that's just the nature of this river. The crowds thinned out on Mon but Sat afternoon and Sun showed me plenty of company.

Mid-day on Mon I left the Juan and headed into Colorado. For as awesome as the fish were in NM, this is where my soul resides. I camped off the highway just north of Rico and spent the last 2 days on the San Miguel River near Norwood. Caught as many fish there as I did on the Juan but not nearly as big. Didn't see another angler the whole time and the solitude was fantastic. Visited some friends at Telluride Angler, and Duranglers on the way over. Great people in both shops and to whom I've given quite a bit of my money. Speaking of which, I picked up a new rod on day one before making camp on the San Juan. The latest is a 6 weight Scott Radian and I fished that rod 4 out of 5 days. Wonderful rod, absolutely a laser beam when it came to casting distance and accuracy. Great line feel and plenty of power. And it roll casts better than anything else I've got. It won't replace my Scott M but it sure does a lot and adapted to many different sections of the rivers.

Anyway, very successful trip on many fronts. Can't wait to get back up there. 8.5 hrs on the road home saw me lose 8000' in elevation, gain 60 degrees in temperature, and raise my blood pressure 30 points on the bad end of that equation. Plenty of time and reason to mentally plan the next trip. Thanks for all of your help, it certainly steepened my learning curve.