2 Great Days On The San Juan

My buddy Rob is in town visiting. He fishes lots of bass tournaments on the east coast and we can't wait to see him in the Bassmaster Classic one of these days. What's better to hone the skills of a bass fisherman than a couple days on the San Juan setting the hook on finicky trout. Rob brought some hats and shirts from one of his sponsors, DedicatedTen, who is an apparel company "Dedicated to that 10% of fishermen who catch 90% of the fish." We sported those hats in a real D10 kinda way because Wednesday on the Juan was a real challenge. Temperatures below freezing with 15mph upriver wind. It was downright nasty. We were the only people at Cable Hole all morning. In the afternoon we had to get out of the cold so we headed down to the braids where we were one of four cars in the parking lot. Shoulda took a picture. We caught a variety of big fish and it was great. On Thursday we returned to warmer weather and still barely a crowd and walked from the braids up to cable hole and caught some nice fish again. While I pulled in a couple on dries, It was one of those days that it wasn't fun to change your rig often, so we mostly fished with nymphs size 24 and 26 in red, black and tan. We'd put an egg on top because there is a lot of spawning activity in the braids right now. Don't mess with the big hens digging the redds, but drag an egg pattern through the first deep pool below them and hang on! The staging males are very very aggressive and will take you for a ride. When the Juan is crowded it isn't uncommon to catch fish that fight like wet rags. Combine the low fishing pressure with the spawning activity and you've got fish who will show you your backing, and that's great! It was a beautiful couple of days. Photos by Rob Tipton.