Winter Fishing on the San Juan

[nmmuley]

Decided to knock the ice off the boat and hit the San Juan this weekend for a little bit of fishing. For those of you who aren't scared of a little cold weather, the fishing is extremely hot on both dry flies and nymphs.

 

[hunting1]

Very nice! Looks like you had a good day!

 

[philthy]

Nicely done! That's a good looking brownie you caught at Texas Hole. Did you float the river to the take out? Was wondering how the road back in there is doing. We're hoping to get our boat (Hyde) out in a couple weeks...nice Clacka by the way. Winter can be a little tough, but it sure is nice to have the place to yourself!

Phil

 

[vinihunt]

awesome trip!! LOOKS SO COLD...I need to go up sometime!! any over 21"?? looks like average 17" 18" that brownie looks good!

congrats!!

vinihunt

 

[nmmuley]

Phil - We got on the water a little late that morning, so we just hung out around the T Hole. The fact that we had the place all to ourselves for a couple hours combined with the hot bite, made it an easy decision to stay put. Not sure how the road is doing at the take out, but there is plenty of mud everywhere.

Vinny - On Friday we waded the lower river for a few hours. I caught a 22" bow on a dry fly, which was the biggest fish we netted on our excursion.

 

[philthy]

You hear lots about T Hole being "over rated", but I can't count the times we've spent 5 or 6 hours there before floating on down. Last October my fiancee and I had 16 to the net before we moved on after 4 hours. We caught 28 that day (our best so far) and she had one break off in an oar lock that put my previous 25" to shame. Thing looked like a bass when it swam by! We saw several "brooders" G&F put in that would easily go 10-12 pounds. Some real toads in the river now.

I'm busy tying this week and hope to have 10 or 12 dozen tied before I head back to work on Sunday.

 

[nmelktrout]

Michael, thanks for sharing the pics. Makes me jealous that I'm not up there hucking a line...Hope you are having a good winter and got into some elk this fall.
-Cody