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Last week Paul and I went out to kayak fish the Medina and had a blast. The water was super clear though and we could not get any fish to bite. So I decided to head out on my own, wading the river and see if I couldn't get a few. The water clarity was slightly off color comparably, so I was able to get a few to nibble. Quite a few sunfish, and one really nice one. Then also some bass. What a fun time! The fly that caught most of the fish was something I came up with. I called it the panfish delight. Here is a link to that tying video on how you can tie the same fly. https://youtu.be/AbdUmeNTABQ

So, the weather was miserable, and cold. We fished all morning in the snow without seeing the sun. Finally the sun came out, and we actually got a fish. Then the storm came again and we got caught in sleet, snow and some small hail on our way back to the car. Was the weather bad? Yes... Did we still have a great time? YES!!!. Don't ever give up on fishing just cause the weather doesn't look great. Bad weather fishing days can be some of the most memorable.

Ok so, literally on the first cast, I hooked a fish and landed him. He wasn't huge, but still a great start to a day. I thought after that fish, that I would end up having a 20+ fish day, but that didnt happen. It took a lot of work and moving around to find more fish, not what I expected after the first few minutes of fishing.

One of the last free-flowing rivers in the state of Colorado, the Animas River is a unique and rare treasure. With the newest and one of the best Gold Medal Water fly-fishing sections in Colorado, the Animas is a river that should be on your list of places to fish. When Juan Rivera passed through this corner of Colorado in 1765, he named the river El Rio de las Animas Perdidas en Purgatorio, “The River of the Lost Souls in Hell.” To Rivera and his Spanish compatriots, the valley was remote, bleak, and had little to offer them in the way of riches. The Animas River is the major stream draining the high alpine terrain of the Needle Mountains. It heads in small meadows on the flanks of Cinnamon Mountain north of Silverton, then plunges through wild canyons as it carves a route between the Needle and West Needle Mountains. By the time it reaches Durango, the Animas has grown to a large river. Out of the mountains the Animas meanders through a shallow depression across broad plains. South of the New Mexico border at Farmington the Animas joins the San Juan River. Fortunately, public access to the Animas River within the city of Durango is plentiful with almost 7 miles of river from 32nd Street Bridge to the Rivera Bridge south of town. Two parcels of private land are found in this stretch, but they are well marked. Foot and bike trails parallel the river through much of town, providing abundant easy access. The Animas is big water. In Durango the river is almost 100 feet wide, filled with huge rocks and deep holes. The river offers extensive riffles, freestone conditions, and stretches of pocket water. The bottom consists of gravel and cobbles. The rocks are as slick as those in any river in the West, and anglers must always be very cautious when wading. Wet wading is popular in summer, but waders are called for in the early season and in the fall. On this trip to the Animas I only got to fish a few hours. I had a late start on this impromptu fishing trip. I also forgot my SD drive for my go pro so I could not film everything. However It still was a fun trip even though I didnt land any fish. I did hook a very large fish though, but could not bring in this big brown. He threw the hook within a few seconds of hooking him. I was fishing nymphs all day, and the fly rig I hooked the big one on was a small (18 size) red copper john, and a 20 size two bit hooker. Im guessing the one he hit was the two bit... The rod was my custom rod (a bit stiff of a rod) and the reel was my sage 2250. I was using the basic Rio line, "mainstream WF5F". Some of the above info about the animas was gotten from the Duranglers website. You can see more info about the Animas on their website http://www.duranglers.com View the youtube video below, or click this link to view on my website. http://www.mcflyangler.com/episode-5-fly-fishing-animas-river

If you haven't ever fly fished the quality waters on the San Juan River in New Mexico, you are missing out. Trout are everywhere, and its difficult not to hook a few. The problem there though is that your best bet for hooking trout is with small midges in the 28-32 size verity. Also you need to use really light tippet like 6x. Flourocarbon is best. Because the river is fished quite heavily, the trout come accustom to knowing what is a fly, and what is not, so you need to fish really light. These are not small trout, and therefor its difficult to bring them in. The small hooks rip out of their mouths, and the light tippet snaps when you put any pressure on the fish. Fighting a large trout can take you 10-20 minutes before getting it in, and by that time you have lots of chances to loose them. I hooked 3 good sized trout on this trip, and brought in 2 of them. The 3rd one I lost never got on camera due to my batteries dying. This trip was a tough trip though even though I landed a few fish because I was struggling to get bites. I only had 3 hit all day, and I was lucky enough to bring in 2. Finally the hunt for the San Juan River trout is over, and I can move onto another river in my next series of fishing rivers. Some would consider the San Juan to be more of a creek as its not very wide, but there are spots that are very wide and those places are slow and shallow, but there are big trout all throughout this river. I landed 2 fish, and hooked a 3rd on this trip. That third fish was just too big, and too strong to bring in. I lost him about 2 feet from landing him in the net. All around a great day fishing. The first time I fished the San Juan must have been a once in a blue moon trip because I landed 20+ trout in about one hour. This river is considered one of the best in the United States, however its not quite like some of these rivers you see in New Zealand. There are lots of people, and its not so remote and secluded feeling. However its a great river still none the less. The rod I was using is a TFO Lefty Kreh Professional Series II which is a bit more moderate action then the rod I was using in the first video of this series.. The reel I was using is a Sage 2250, and the line was Rio Mainstream WF5F, a simple $40 fly line. You don't need much more then the mainstream line on this river due to not having to cast very far to often.

If you haven't ever fly fished the quality waters on the San Juan River in New Mexico, you are missing out. Trout are everywhere, and its difficult not to hook a few. The problem there though is that your best bet for hooking trout is with small midges in the 28-32 size verity. Also you need to use really light tippet like 6x. Flourocarbon is best. Because the river is fished quite heavily, the trout come accustom to knowing what is a fly, and what is not, so you need to fish really light. These are not small trout, and therefor its difficult to bring them in. The small hooks rip out of their mouths, and the light tippet snaps when you put any pressure on the fish. Fighting a large trout can take you 10-20 minutes before getting it in, and by that time you have lots of chances to loose them. The rod I was using is a TFO Lefty Kreh Professional Series II which is a bit more moderate action then the last rod I was using. However it didnt seem to help much with bringing the larger sized trout in on these tiny nymphs. I tried very hard not to put much pressure on the fish when fighting, however I still lost them. The reel I was using is a Sage 2250, and the line was Rio Mainstream WF5F, a simple $40 fly line. You don't need much more then the mainstream line on this river due to not having to cast very far to often. I hooked 4 good sized trout, and one was well over 20". In fact, the one I lost due to it wrapping around "big rock" was easily 22-24". I just could not put enough pressure on him to steer him clear of the rock.