WOW!!!
What an amazing fly fishing trip, to the Animas River in Durango Colorado for 1
day and to the San Juan River in New Mexico for 3 fishing days. Jim, Dan,
Rocky, and I all enjoyed the trip tremendously and look forward to our next one.
We all met in Durango Monday and got our fishing licenses for both states (at
Duranglers fly shop) and checked in at the Durango Downtown Inn (a pretty good
place to stay right on the Animas River). We fished all day long the next day
right there in the town on the 7 miles of Gold Medal Water. The flow was nice
at about 430 cfs. The fishing was a little tough there but we caught a number
of fish, fairly small at 12 inches and less. It was very convenient as the
river ran right through town with several public access spots as well as a
paved path the whole 7 miles. The river was beautiful along with the recent
peaking yellow leaves. I think the best flies we used were the prince nymph,
mudler minnow, and woolly buggers.
Then
Wednesday we drove down to the San Juan River where we stayed at the Fisheads
motel (which included a fly shop, guide shop, and restaurant). We fished a
little that night, using rigs that the fly shop recommended and had some minor
success on some small rainbow trout.
These flies were size 22 and 24 mostly (I asked for some “larger” 20’s
and I was promptly told they didn’t sell any that big!). Then the next day was
with guides on the drift boats (2 per boat plus guides, Ron and Mike), where we
fished the complete primary section of the river. And of course we were able to
fish some very good spots from the boats, as well as wade fish several areas.
We had some very good luck this day, with Rocky starting to catch some big ones
before Dan and I even got into our boat. Well luck was with us as we all caught
some great fish that day (I’m guessing almost 100 fish between us). We got some
good pictures although we didn’t end up with many of Rocky and Jim, even though
they caught some great fish. The flow here was about 250 cfs, which is on the
low end, and pretty crowded for this time of year (although we didn’t have
trouble finding fishing spots). Rocky caught the most fish that day using
mostly a beta chocolate foam emerger. He really enjoyed bringing in his biggest
fish and wasn’t sure what to expect on his first time in a drift boat. Jim also
had good luck on that fly along with a black midge. His best moment was
catching his big fish in the boat with the guide netting the fish. He was
concerned about Rocky being in the back on not catching as many fish but that
concern vanished quickly with Rocky’s sore arm. Dan caught a lot of great fish
on a big mac and a bead head, and enjoyed watching me take a while to bring in
my biggest fish. He was a little disappointed when he lost a really big one
before it was landed. For myself, I really enjoyed being in such a beautiful
place with some great friends; life doesn’t get much better than this. It was
pretty windy a few times, and a little cold as the temps were between 28 – 60 or
so. Then Friday we fished on our own at the lower flats and Simon Canyon and
had some pretty good luck then too. Dries weren’t working too well for us but
Jim did catch one nice rainbow on that last day. Then we ended our great trip
on Saturday and headed home. Dan and I flew turbo props from Durango to Denver
to home. Rocky also through Chicago and Charlotte, and Jim drove home. What
else can I say???
Here
are a few pictures at the end of this blog. To see all our pictures, go to:
