McFly Angler - Episode 2 - Fly Fishing The San Juan River

If you haven't ever fly fished the quality waters on the San Juan River in New Mexico, you are missing out. Trout are everywhere, and its difficult not to hook a few. The problem there though is that your best bet for hooking trout is with small midges in the 28-32 size verity. Also you need to use really light tippet like 6x. Flourocarbon is best. Because the river is fished quite heavily, the trout come accustom to knowing what is a fly, and what is not, so you need to fish really light. These are not small trout, and therefor its difficult to bring them in. The small hooks rip out of their mouths, and the light tippet snaps when you put any pressure on the fish. Fighting a large trout can take you 10-20 minutes before getting it in, and by that time you have lots of chances to loose them.
 
The rod I was using is a TFO Lefty Kreh Professional Series II which is a bit more moderate action then the last rod I was using. However it didnt seem to help much with bringing the larger sized trout in on these tiny nymphs. I tried very hard not to put much pressure on the fish when fighting, however I still lost them.
 
The reel I was using is a Sage 2250, and the line was Rio Mainstream WF5F, a simple $40 fly line. You don't need much more then the mainstream line on this river due to not having to cast very far to often.
 
I hooked 4 good sized trout, and one was well over 20". In fact, the one I lost due to it wrapping around "big rock" was easily 22-24". I just could not put enough pressure on him to steer him clear of the rock.
 
https://youtu.be/c5M43yJC8H0

I know what is wrong with your shoulder.























smAl arrMs duud.

Just kidding. Enjoyable video.

shrodreel
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Nice program...enjoyed it. I was under the impression the San Juan was always "packed" with people...Looks like you were pretty much alone..Did you try any slightly larger patterns..maybe a # 24 or #26 in a "wide gap" configuration ? Those big, wild fish are hard enough to hold on a #16 or # 18...let alone a # 28..

Your impression is 100% correct, it is packed.  Well mostly.  I went on a weekday.  Also, I don't go to the normal areas.  And, when people are around, I make sure that my camera isn't pointing at them (I don't want to get form releases signed or anything).  I try not to film others unless they say its ok.  Its actually quite tough to do on that river for the reason stated above.  I do go to other spots though.  The popular spots is texas hole (the actual hole), kiddie hole, and all throughout the braids.  I did have to skip past much of the braids to find spots with no people.  Spots I would normally have fished if I wasn't filming.  But there was no way to keep others out of the shot.  


Yeah, they look right past 24, and sometimes even 26.  However this last trip (Video coming out in 2 weeks.) I was able to up my size to 22-24 due to the water clarity dropping.  They couldn't see the small midges, and you had to upsize.  I ended up getting two fish on my attractor pattern actually...  (an egg pattern).  They wouldnt even hit the midges no matter what size I threw on.  

Shrodreel, I am always up for fishing with someone!  Fishing with a friend is usually better then fishing alone!  Im rather new to the area, so I don't know many people here that fish, so yeah, heck yeah!  

So what size midges did you send him?  The 28-32 verity?  HAHA  They are so picky at that river, they won't touch anything other then tiny tiny midges.  You can get away further down stream with some larger baetis nymphs, but even then we are talking size 22-24...  Its tough for sure, but thats what makes it such a great river!  You never have trouble hooking fish, just have trouble bringing in 20+" fish on tiny tiny midges.  HAHA