This San Juan River fishing report will help explain the when, where, how and why of catching fish on the Juan. The release has risen to 300 CFS and the fish are starting to spread out. The water color has not changed and remains a milky green color. The fish don’t mind and have been putting on a heavy feed. With the bump in flows, the BWO hatch slowed down but it’s only a matter of time before they become prolific. The fish have been keyed into midge larvae throughout the day and have been more willing to eat worms downstream of baetis bend.
Tips And Tricks
Starting with 5x to the first fly and 6x to the second fly is still recommended. When fishing small flies, it can be helpful to tie your second fly tippet to the eye of the hook of the first fly. This will leave the hook gap on the first fly un-blocked and will ensure more hookups. This will also help when cleaning flies by whipping them in the water.
Something that is common to do when throwing split shot is to place the split shot above a blood knot or double surgeon knot so it doesn’t slip down into the first fly. When adding tippet to your leader, add 14-16 inches of tippet off the end and place your split shot above. With all the cleaning of flies on the Juan it almost guaranteed for the split shot to slide down your rig. This is also helpful if throwing your split shot well above your flies because if it does slip it won’t totally sit on your flies. It’s a nice safety net and easy to do.
Best Flies on the San Juan (for the past week)
With the water clarity still being 1-2 feet the fish are feeding on “larger” midge patterns. The fish have really keyed into midge larvae with the bump in flows and anglers don’t have to make it complicated. Our guides have also been catching more fish on baetis nymphs than emergers. Our recommended patterns right now from Cable to Simon are:
Big Mac – Size 18-20 in olive, black, grey/black. They haven’t been too picky so if they aren’t eating one color, switch to another.
Annelid – Size 14-18 in red or orange. These need to be fished within 1-2 feet of the river bottom for best success.
Pheasant tail – Size 18-20. These have been good producers in lower texas hole down to three island.
Fluff baetis – Size 18-22 in brown and olive. These fish well behind a big mac and produce well when fished at the bottom of a riffle or in the tail out of a long run.
San Juan Worm – Size 10-14 in brown or wine. From baetis bend down to crusher the worm has been a great lead fly. Fish it deep and close to sand bars or drop offs.
With a low snowpack in the San Juans and across the state, we should see low flows until the Animas River peaks and starts coming down. They are going to have to run the Juan at higher flows for longer than usual and they are going to try and save as much water as possible before this happens. Once they bump flows for irrigation, they will probably stay that way for many months.
The lake is still off color from the Fall rains and doesn’t seem to be clearing at a rapid rate. There is a chance the Juan stays off color for weeks/months to come as the lake settles. Would be nice to get some cold rain/runoff in the lake to help this happen.
As always, please shoot us a call to ask questions or talk about fishing in the surrounding area. We are always happy to point folks in the right direction to ensure you have a good day on the water. If you’d like to book a trip, click here and we will get you on the water! Thanks for stopping by and reading our San Juan River fishing report and hopefully we will see you on the water!
