New Mexico ? 2010 ? La Gran Trucha!

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Christmas on the San Juan

Me and my dad did a day of fishing on the San Juan just before Christmas,well, I did anyway. When we woke up on the fishing day we awoke to about 4-5 inches of fresh snow. It was enough to make him want to take it easy but it wasn’t stopping me. The water just below the dam is pretty much a constant 45 or so degrees anyway so snow on the ground isn’t going to make a difference.

There are two good fly shops there and they all had the same information about what would work and how to fish it. I have never fished this river I have only heard about how great it was year round. In fact I have read that there are two places in the world where you will find the best winter trout fishing action; one is the San Juan River and the other area is New Zealand. They say the San Juan is so because of the constant water temp. It allows for massive generation of food.

From the moment I stepped foot in that river it was constant action. Once you figure out the depth to run it was game on!

The first five or so I caught were not very large but I hooked into two real nice fish after that but I failed to land them. They put up a great fight though and I got a close enough look at them to see that they were big. Not long after that I landed a really nice sized rainbow. I am not used to catching fish this big as a general rule since I am mostly fishing small wilderness streams where the fish are 8-12" on average. It had been a long time since I have seen a really large rainbow, not just in length but girth as well.

The action after that was intense, around 10 AM the fish were slow rising every where you looked. A quick look in the slower moving water exposed what they were feeding on. It was an easy match, the fly shops did not let me down. It was fish after fish after fish. None of them were quite as large as the one below but they were all very close so I was pleased. Another thing I thought that was really neat was when I was working my way up the flats I would go through some shallow pools and I would have a group of anywhere from 10-20 fish following me up river. They were literally on the heels of my boots waiting for me to kick up food for them. It was pretty amazing. I took a video but you cannot really see the fish so I won’t bother posting.

Towards the end of the day I moved down out of the flats into what they call the “Texas Hole.” I tried with no luck using the previous fly patterns at any depth so I changed up the rig to run a small salmon egg and a San Juan Worm. After two drifts I hooked on to something big. It ripped my line faster than anything else that day. I fought it for about 2-3 minutes then lost it. I never saw it but it would have been the largest fish of the day without a doubt.

Oh well, next time…


New Years on the Pecos River

On the first day of the new year I thought I would go try my luck on the Pecos River in Pecos NM. I live in the town of Pecos and this river flows through the town. It originates in the canyon north of town in the Sangre De Cristo Mountain range. Most of the river is frozen over this time of the year but if you go up the canyon 10 or so miles there are some spots exposed to the sun and you have a few small sections that are fishable.

I started my day at the old mining town of Tererro. I didn’t have much luck but managed to hook a really small rainbow that wiggled off my line as I was reaching for it. After that it was slow. I moved up the river a ways between Tererro and Cowles(another old mining town) and hit a section of river there. I managed to get one small Brown landed.

No one really fishes this river in the winter for obvious reasons seeing that most of it is frozen over and there is not a lot of activity. I just went with the go to flies; the Stonefly and Hares Ear.

I will have to play around a bit more with size and color and see if I can generate more interest from the fish. But, at least I am off on a decent start for this years season, I didn’t skunked anyway…

Edit

On a good tip I will keep this thread as a running log of my trips on the Pecos and it’s feed waters for the year.

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Golly - I hope you didn’t ask for anything MORE for Christmas !!

Great report. Looking forward to the next one.

John

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Glad to hear you had a ball. The Juan can be fun when the fish are on, especially in the dead of winter when it is not so crowded.

Just in case you didn’t read the fine print, you can’t fish for those fish that are feeding on the stuff you are kicking up. And the wardens do watch for that.

PS. There are monster carp in there. Be prepared. :stuck_out_tongue:

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Its referred to as the San Juan Shuffle and its a BIG TIME “no-no” to do…

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vmabuck, Hello and welcome to FAOL from SoCal. Thanks for the report and for stirring up some No. NM memories. I lived and worked for a time in the '70s around the Las Vegas area. I have fished the Pecos near it’s headwaters as well as the San Juan. I look forward to more reports from you. Jim

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That’s a very nice report. I’ve heard that the San Juan is a small fly tailwater, is that true? Glad you had a great Christmas.
Bruce

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Thanks for the responses!

Ya, I didn’t go for the ones at the feet, seemed kind of like, well, shooting fish in a barrel.

It is a small fly tailwater. It is fed from Navajo Lake which is in both NM and CO. The water remains a constant temp on the quality section of the river throughout the year so it generates huge amounts of food. As for size, all of my rigs that day I used nothing larger than say #18.

Nymphing seems to be the way to go on the San Juan. For a majority of the day I was running with a Mayfly emerger (Foam Wing RS2) and some kind of Midge Pupa or Emerger as a dropper.

All you had to do was look straight down in a slower section of water and you would see what they were gorging on. I fished at all different depths that day. I looked down at one point at around 11-12 noon and there were little cream/white colored midges floating at or near the surface.

I ripped my weight off and fished that RS2 and a Sparkle Pupa on or very near the surface and I don’t think I could cast more than three times without getting a fish.

I did try a Griffiths Gnat and parachute Adams in various sizes and colors for some dry fly action but I could not get any takers. There was a guide from the area fishing near me at one point who was killing it with a dry. I didn’t ask what he was using but he mentioned he was using a rather large fly. A lot of guides have their own patterns so who knows what it could have been.

It was a frenzy on the river. I have never fished the San Juan before and now I kick myself in the *** for not making a trip sooner…

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Great report, thanks for sharing.

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Great report, thanks for sharing! Brought back some fond memories for me of that great river. I’ve seen pictures of Rainbows in Alaska they call ‘leopard bows’ due to all the spots, but the fish we caught on the San Juan were the most beautifully spotted bows I’ve ever seen anywhere. Hope to get back there someday. Thanks again for taking us all along.

Kelly

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Nice report. Sounds like a really good day was had, and by the sounds of it, more good days will be happening there again! And my guess would be sooner rather than later.

  • Jeff
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Thanks for the report. Always wanted to fish the San Juan. Maybe one of these days.

Beaver

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vmabuck, Thanks for sharing the great pictures along with the detail report. I am jealous I cant be there fishing San Juan, what a Christmas outing. Also I would like to say welcome to FAOL.

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Thanks!

I can’t believe that was the first time I went to the San Juan after living here for two years! I don’t know what I was thinking.

I really do like the small streams though. I can’t really explain why but I tend to be drawn towards them more than the big rivers…

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Same here. For me, it’s because they are usually in the mountains, more remote, fewer people, if any, and more chances to see a variety of wild life. Also, I usually cover more ground ( water ) - I really like being on my feet and on the move. Plus the fishing will likely produce more action, albeit with smaller fishies.

Looking forward to seeing more of the small creeks in your neck of the woods and the fishies you play with down there.

John

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I fish in NM about 6-7 times per year. Some very beautiful country and some very good small stream fishing. I met a gentleman a couple of years ago who wrote a book about NM trout streams. His book is titled “49 Trout Streams of New Mexico”. Great resource for those looking to fish other places in NM than the SJ.

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The book I use as my bible right now is “Fly fishing in northern New Mexico” by Craig Martin…

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In case you get tired of fishing tiny midge pupae, the fish on the Juan will eat larger flies, if you know which flies to use S. Back when I fished it regularly, I would typically dredge up half the day’s fish early in the morning, on much larger stuff than the “you have to use these tiny flies” stuff, then when they started rising, throw dry midges to individual risers with great success, even though people told me for years (and continue to do so) that you had to fish little midge pupae to do well on the Juan.

In other words, the books never tell the whole story.

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I did experiment to an extent that day. I went with some tips from a local shop in Santa Fe and tried a couple different sizes and colors of the Griffith Gnat. I didn’t have any luck with them personally.

The guide I mentioned in the write up had the money pattern, whatever it was, but I didn’t ask and he didn’t offer up anything.

I usually ask someone at the local fly shop what the activity is. i try not to go into new water without gathering some recent local intel regardless of what the book says. But it has been pretty accurate thus far…

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I have fished PMD’s and terrestials there in the warmer months.

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It was time to hit the Pecos River again and try out my newly tied flies. The river had melted a lot since my venture out on the first of the year so that was good. I even saw a couple other fisherman on the water which is rare this time of year.

I intended to fish this stretch of water but I took a little while getting everything setup and by the time I walked over to get in those two guys I saw before had moved in. It was semi-Ninja like on their part, nice moves!

So I hit the pool above the old bridge.

With a large Beadhead Hares Ear and a smaller Hares Ear trailer I hit the pool. First cast, I saw a fish rise and strike my indicator! 2nd cast nothing. 3rd cast I felt it, Strike! I had him on for about 5 seconds then he shook loose. Oh well.

Seeing as that hole was pretty much spooked after that I moved up river to another section. As I made my way to the river I kept seeing small piles of black fluffy feathers and as I rounded a small group of trees I found the source.

Seems a wildcat or dog had a Turkey lunch

I ended collecting a really nice bundle of Turkey feather. I don’t know if I could use all of this in a lifetime.

After gathering and stashing I kicked through the ice and worked this small stretch of river. I was working the stream from one side to the next but no action. Then, I got my rig to run right along the ice shelf on the side, and damn it if another fish didn’t shoot out from under the ice and strike at my indicator.

Well if they want big orange bugs I will help them out. I re rig using the largest attractor pattern I got that is the same color as the indicator. I tie a small Hares Ear dropper and go to work. Not another bite the whole time. So I moved back to the original hole I started in above the old bridge with this same plan. No takers on the attractor but I got another fish on the hares ear but failed to land this one as well.

Well, my flies got bites and I got enough turkey feathers to last a lifetime. So, all in all, not a bad day for me!