Pastorius, Vallecito, San Juan

From now until February is my favorite time to be on the San Juan. The cold keeps the the crowds down (and it IS very cold) and the fishing is generally excellent. A nice morning stroll up the San Juan would do me right about now, except for one nagging thought... I am sort of a shameless catch-and-eat fisherman. I think bag limits have done great for the populations of grouse, elk, turkey, deer. We don't catch and release any of those animals, yet their populations flourish. I find that setting out to fish when you have 0 intention of eating anything is sort of a sadistic thing. "I'm going to go stress an animal out and put it through a crappy ordeal to prove that I can" is the thing that rings in my head when I set out to catch and release. That being said, I may or may not know someone who has slipped the occasional fish from the upper San Juan into their vest to bring home for dinner. "Mushy midgy mud" was the description of the fish's flavor he or she told me. So we have aggressive, hungry fish that taste horrible. Sure, there's a lot more to fishing than just catching dinner, or else we'd just use bait, right? The positive mental state one is in after a day fishing the Juan probably does more good for that person's family than a stinky ol' Trout. And it IS fun, terribly fun. So why do I feel a little dirty whenever I go down there?

I feel dirty because I witness the effects of people just not following the rules. For a catch and release area to work, the barbless hook rule HAS to be enforced. We've all seen the train wrecks on the Juan: big fish with pussy sores all over their jaws, hand prints on their sides, slow, sluggish movement. Improper handling and barbed hooks account for almost all of these disasters and they're easily avoided. Also, the guy at the fly shop says you need 7x, but you've got a stiff 6 weight rod. Don't do it, for flip's sake, you're just going to break off fish and leave them with your fly hanging out of their butt. Yes, we all break off fish, but setting out to lose is a bad idea. My wife describes the San Juan as "dirty old diseased fish that make me depressed," and I can really see where she's coming from. So please, pinch your barbs, use your net and hemostats, don't man handle the fish too long for your picture. With all of us making it our goal to keep these fish healthy, we will all have a better experience.

In local news... I've heard that Pastorious is fishing well, and Vallecito is still producing hogs. Look for the weather to change in the coming week and we might just see some excellent fishing returning. It's been a year to the day that I caught that monster Rainbow. That day was cold and snowy. I had no such luck on the anniversary, but I'm excited about upcoming changes in the weather. We're planning on going to Puett when time allows to see if we can talk a fall Walleye into biting.