The San Juan River Fly Fishing Report - Pagosa Springs, CO: 2015

Thursday, September 17, 2015

Fall Fishing in Pagosa

Fall fishing is around the corner!

The fall fishing forecast is very good. Water levels are higher than they have been in years for most drainages. The monsoon season was tough for a week or two with high water, but should pay off with some great fall fishing. We have already had some mornings with the temps around 38 degrees, and mid-day highs around 75 – 80. Nice comfortable days and great sleeping weather.

The fish on all of the mountains streams are still aggressively taking dry flys, on some of the deeper holes a dropper is needed for the larger fish. Most of our trips on the high country steams have been fishing the best between 11 and 3 pm. Most of our guests want to get an early start, but the bugs aren’t up yet! With the temps getting cooler it takes a while for the bugs to get active. If you start too early, the fishing will be getting hot, about the time the trip is over.

With fall just around the corner, it is time for the BWO’S to get active and provide some great dry fly fishing. The fish have still been looking up to dead chickens, black stimulators, hoppers, and small midge patterns. You just have to find the right fish. Often it is the right group of fish. You will find a pod of fish eager for one pattern, and then the next group will ignore your offerings. Just keep working them, if you want to cheat a little, add a midge emerger and grease the line up to 3 inches from the dropper.

Scott Taylor
http://highcountrycharters.com
970-946-5229

While you are in town make sure that you visit the following businesses!

Need Fly Fishing gear? See Pop's
Let it Fly
Located in Downtown Pagosa Springs, across from Kips.
970-264-3189
http://www.flyfishpagosa.com

Hungry for Adventure?
Pagosa Outside Adventures - Rafting, Biking, Kayaking, Tubing
Downtown Pagosa Springs
970-264-4202
http://www.pagosaoutside.com

Need Ski Rentals?

Pagosa Ski Rental (PSR)

Downtown Pagosa Springs

970-264-2866

http://www.skipagosa.com

Thursday, August 20, 2015

Still Good Fishing in Pagosa Country!

Our Favorite Time of Year

Can you believe that the summer fishing season is almost over! Now with town not quite as busy as it has been, we can take a little break and do some fishing on our own and get ready for hunting season before heading to the Everglades. This time of year, school starts and families return to their normal lives of school, sports and other after school activities. The fishing has remained good even with some high temperatures the last few weeks. There were several days in the upper 80’s and now this week back into the upper 70’s. There are even a few Cottonwoods at Sunset Ranch turning yellow.

Steve and I got to spend a few days looking for Mountain Goats up in the Silverton area. We road on the train and got to see the sludge that is on the Animas River from the mine spill. It looks like Animas water quality is back to pre-spill levels. The big concern is the sludge and how it will affect the aquatic life. We are very lucky to have no mines on the Upper San Juan River drainage, all of our streams and The Quality Waters were unaffected by the spill. Oh, we did find some Mountain Goats!

The Quality Waters are a 622 cfs toady, after several days of higher releases to flush the lower San Juan where if joined with the Animas to help disperse the toxins in the mine spill. The town stretch of the San Juan is at 53 cfs today, the lowest this year. With the water getting lower on the freestone stretch of the Juan, the fish have been moving closer to the top of the pools and only being in the tailing sections of the pools when a hatch is actively going on. Lately there has not been much going on with hatches. The best times have been in the evenings for hatches. During the day we have still been doing well on the hopper dropper rig.

Make sure to visit the Laid Up Charters web site (http://www.laidupcharters.com).

Scott Taylor
http://highcountrycharters.com
970-946-5229

While you are in town make sure that you visit the following businesses!

Need Fly Fishing gear? See Pop's
Let it Fly
Downtown Pagosa Springs, across from Kip’s
970-264-3189
http://www.flyfishpagosa.com

Hungry for Adventure?
Pagosa Outside Adventures - Rafting, Biking, Kayaking, Tubing
Downtown Pagosa Springs
970-264-4202
http://www.pagosaoutside.com

Need Ski Rentals?

Pagosa Ski Rental (PSR)

Downtown Pagosa Springs

970-264-2866

http://www.skipagosa.com

Thursday, July 23, 2015

Best Fishing of the Year

Some of the Best fishing of the Year

All the local water are fishing very well, and there are a lot of fish looking up for dry’s. Fishing below the dam has also been very good. Today the BOR is bumping the river up to 500 cfs. The midge fishing has been great, grey big mac below a cricket pattern has been awesome in the back waters of the Juan. The Ranch has had small hatches of PMD’s, Caddis, and Yellow Sallies.

It is still very busy, if you are interested in guided trip book early. We are turning down trips every week. With that said it is time to hit the water. Here are some pictures from last week.

Marry with a fat bow on the lower Juan.

Marry with another big bow from Sunset Ranch.

Marry with a nice brown.

Barry Simmers with a nice bow.

Guide Andy Warden with a big bow.

Elaine in the High Country.

Cutthroat

Make sure to visit the Laid Up Charters web site (http://www.laidupcharters.com).

Need Ski Rentals?

Pagosa Ski Rental (PSR)

Downtown Pagosa Springs

970-264-2866

http://www.skipagosa.com

Sunday, July 5, 2015

Great fishing in Pagosa Country

Water levels on the whole are in good shape on area streams, and all the area streams are producing catches. We are in a pattern of afternoon thunderstorms that make most of the streams spike up with water flow during the night, and then the flows have been dropping rapidly till the storms start again. So right now you do not have to fish early, and around 3 pm if you start hearing thunder, head out of the high country.

Here are some pictures from recent trips, it is easier to post them and let the pictures tell the report when it is busy.

Make sure to visit the Laid Up Charters web site (http://www.laidupcharters.com).

Need Ski Rentals?

Pagosa Ski Rental (PSR)

Downtown Pagosa Springs

970-264-2866

http://www.skipagosa.com

Saturday, June 20, 2015

Great fishing below the dam and on the lake!

Summer is here in the High Country!

With the incredible late season snow pack, we are still having a good run-off. It is great to see how green Pagosa is in the valleys, and up in the high country there is still snow hanging out on the high peaks surrounding Pagosa. It makes you think that is spring time in the Rockies, but it’s not, its summer. With all the rain and late snow it has made some of the fishing tough in our area. On the plus side, this should help us have a great fall and help some of the fish populations on streams that have been affected by several years of the drought. The other thing that is amazing, is to see how quickly Navajo Reservoir is filling up. Areas of ground and rock that we have been looking at for several years are now gone, spots I have been fishing are now under 20 to 30 feet of water. My favorite pike flats now have water….

With all the water in the reservoir, the BOR will hopefully flush the Lower San Juan with flows up to 5,000 cfs for at least 3 days. This is not only good for the whole river, but the last mile of the Quality Waters if full of sediment from a huge blow out at Simon Canyon. If you end up fishing the Quality Waters during the high water, be very careful. There are limited spots to wade fish, and I would recommend wearing a life jacket.

The fishing below the dam has been very good the last few weeks, and the bass fishing on Navajo has also been good. Last week we had several fish eat poppers and the top water fishing will be on fire in another week or so. The local streams are starting to clear and drop. Looking at the flow chart today the San Juan was at 1,280 cfs and showing a definite dropping trend. The weather also shows 5 days of sun and no rain. This looks like this will be the last week of the big run-off and most streams should be fishable by July 4^th.

Here are some pictures from our trips last week.

Make sure to visit the Laid Up Charters web site (http://www.laidupcharters.com).

Need Ski Rentals?

Pagosa Ski Rental (PSR)

Downtown Pagosa Springs

970-264-2866

http://www.skipagosa.com

Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Great Fishing On the Lower San Juan!

With Spring Run - Off in full force we have been concentrating on fishing below the Navajo Dam in Northern NM. The town flows on the San Juan have hit 2,000 cubic feet per second today, and the flows below the dam are at 350 cfs.

The San Juan River lies in Northern New Mexico and is one of the most renowned tail - waters in the country. This outstanding fishery was created by the construction of Navajo Damn in 1962. The dam is 400 feet high and 3/4 of a mile long, the water released at the base of the dam is consistently around 41 - 42 degrees. Perfect trout habitat! The management of the New Mexico Fish and Game and the New Mexico State Park system has created and maintained this outstanding fishery. The first 3.75 miles of river below the damn has been given the designation of "QUALITY WATER". The Quality Waters offer some of the most consistent fishing conditions, with fish averaging between 16 - 18 inches! Fish this size would be considered a trophy on any other river. Recent studies have shown that the river is supporting 10,000 fish a mile, through the Quality Waters.

The fish have been eating midge larva or pupa in black, gray, olive and dark brown in sizes 22 -24, in the afternoon gray foam wing emergers and beatis patterns have been very effective.

Here are some pictures from last week.

Scott Taylor
http://highcountrycharters.com

970-946-5229

While you are in town make sure that you visit the following businesses!

Need Fly Fishing gear? See Pop's
Let it Fly
Downtown Pagosa Springs, across from Kip’s

970-264-3189
http://www.flyfishpagosa.com

Hungry for Adventure?
Pagosa Outside Adventures - Rafting, Biking, Kayaking, Tubing
Downtown Pagosa Springs

970-264-4202
http://www.pagosaoutside.com

Need Ski Rentals?

Pagosa Ski Rental (PSR)

Downtown Pagosa Springs

970-264-2866

http://www.skipagosa.com

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Spring Has Sprung in the High Country!

Spring Break is in full swing now at the Wolf Creek Ski Area, but we are still fishing on the Lower San Juan River with both wade and float trips and when the conditions permit on the upper San Juan at Sunset Ranch and thru the town stretch. Most days in the spring the temperatures in Pagosa are 35 – 50 degrees. So if you come to town and are not going skiing, lets go fishing.

The fishing below the dam has been good with some bigtime midge hatches from mid – morning on, and the water clarity is getting better every day. The lake has stopped turning and the greenish color of the river will soon be gone. The one good thing about dirty water is that the fish can’t see us either and we can use some larger flies than we typically use on the Lower Juan. Now that it is getting clearer we can get back to the sight fishing that we all love on the Lower Juan. The snow pack in the last few weeks has changed greatly. The Ski Area had over 100 inches of snow in 10 days, and if we get a few more storms we might get lucky and have enough water in Navajo Lake for a few days of flushing the river out with flows around 5,000 cfs. It has been a few years since we had enough water to flush the river.

Spring Tarpon fishing is right around the corner. Steve and I will be in the Everglades April 1^st to the first week of June. Jeff, Dave, Alex and Andy will be holding the fort down in Pagosa. If you have ever had the itch to fly fish in the saltwater or have fished other areas in the Salt you need to check out Fly Fishing in the Everglades Nat. Park and the 10,000 Islands on the West Coast of Florida. For the upcoming Tarpon Season, I am offering readers of this fishing report some big savings. For fishing trips in April & May of 2015 that are 3 days or longer, the rate will be $450 a day. A savings of $100 a day!

Make sure to visit the Laid Up Charters web site (http://www.laidupcharters.com).

Here are some pictures from the Dave Mitchell group last week.