San Juan River Review

We have been home from the San Juan for a month now so I figure I had better post the results. The water this year is WAY up due to record levels of snow in the Cortez mountains in Colorado the BLM decided to raise the river from 600 cfs to 3000 cfs to clear some water before the run off and they were planning to raise the river to 5000 cfs once the run off begins. With 3000 cfs coming from the dam we knew that fishing below Texas hole would be really difficult without a boat so we planned to attack the upper stretch known as the Braids and Kittie Hole.

We began our drive around 2pm from Salt Lake City and we crammed ourselves and gear into Leland's Suburban. This ended up being a great vehicle for 4 guys and their gear and put me in the market for a 'Burb' myself. The trip down was uneventful and after some gas stops and pit stops we made it Farmington, NM around 10:30pm. Of course we hadn't bothered to eat dinner so we found a still open Del Taco and ate there. We drove to the Walmart to buy our licenses and other misc. junk and then hit the road for the 20 miles to Abe's Motel and Fly shop.

Abe's has been around longer than I have been alive so some of the rooms aren't that new or that nice but they are right on the river and very convenient. We have stayed there twice now and previously I had camped in the Navajo State park so this is a real plus to have a shower and bed every night. When we found our room we were really surprised to find a newer room that would comfortably sleep 4 guys if one took the floor. The notes on the room are filed away for future reference. The one MAJOR downer to Abe's is that they only have 1 station on the TV!!! It comes in on 3 channels but it is the same station. COME ON ABE - HOW ABOUT A LITTLE SATELLITE OR SOMETHING???

Friday morning we hit the river and headed up from Texas hole. Hard to picture the volume of water until you see it, and it was impressive. We did some scouting and found some fishable water and got into a few fish. The secret was to find a decent channel of water with a good feeding lane or riffle above it and then you would find fish below there. Numbers of fish per day were down a bit from where you would like them but the quality is sure there. Actually the issue isn't number of fish, rather the fact that there is so much water means that the fish are really spread out. You could see fish in many places as we waded to new sections. The fish are just all looking for places to not have to swim hard and get lots of food and with the high water in the braids there are lots of places for fish to hold.

I am posting the pictures very late in this process. I also have some video I need to clean up and post as well. Also, somehow I never got a photo of Leland with a fish. I know he caught some. I'll have to see what I can dig up and get it posted too.

This final picture is after a full day fishing and then a HUGE mexican dinner, it was all I could do to keep the eyes open. Off to dreams of bigger and bigger fish.