The San Juan River Fly Fishing: Spring Break 2015

• Report rights infringement
• published: 03 Apr 2015
• views: 5337

I spent Spring Break this year on the San Juan River in New Mexico with my youngest son and my father. It was the fist trip to the area for my son and I but my father has fish it several time over the past ten years. The fishing was great and we caught fish every day. Most in the 15 to 16 inch range with a couple of 19 to 20 inch fish. Althrough the San Juan River fishes good year around, the water temperature while we visited was in the mid 40 in the morning and reaching into the 50's by the afternoon. Fishing was a little slow in the morning but picked up in the mid to late afternoon every day. Correction: water comes out of the bottom of the dam and has a virtually constant temp between 38 and 41 Fahrenheit, especially where we were at which was the upper flats and around the texas hole *Temps I quote are further down the river, I did not realize that at the time I posted this* Typical weather for the area: Northern New Mexico is one of the sunniest places in the United States. Most days are beautiful year around. The Spring can be windy in the afternoon with temperatures in the 60's. We only had to deal with really high winds (by our standards) one day, when it reach 30 mph. Summer is warm, average temperatures are 80's and 90's. The Fall is beautiful with temp's in the 60's. The San Juan is also a great winter fishery with average temps in the 40's. What you need to fish the San Juan River: We fished 3,4 and 5 wt rods with floating lines, New Zealand strike indicators and small amounts of weight add to get the fly down to the fish. Once they started midging we would take the weight off. Size 22 to 24 black beauties and a blood worm pattern my father ties worked best for us. We parked at the Texas Hole parking lot and walked in and around the braids, there are plenty of spots in the braids and I never had to fight anyone for a spot. The braids are like a maze and a few days I only saw others if I was walking in or out. Never under estimate a hole or run on the San Juan River, the fish hold in most every run or hole you can find. It's up to you to get them to take the fly. Places to stay and eat: We stayed and a fairly new Microtel in Aztec New Mexico. If you are going with other fishermen this will be fine. They hotel offers breakfast ever morning from 6-9 and has a soup bar in the afternoons. We had breakfast there ever morning and eat out most nights. We had lunch on the river every day provided by a local Subway (corner of Hwy 550 and Aztec Blvd) that was open by the time we headed out. The Aztec Restaurant is right next door and we had dinner there also, big menu and the food was good. We also tried the Wonderful House Chinese which is just across the parking lot from Subway, they had good food at a good price but you know you will be hungry an hour later. Pizza Hut was our last stop of the week service and food was good although the place could use some up dates. We drove out and it's a pretty easy drive, lots of open range and wind turbines to look at. It was a great trip and one I would and will take again.