san juan flies

[pacho 0]

HI everybody,

 

I want to start tying some flies for the san juan river. I will be there at the end of march or begining of april next year.

Does anybody has something to recommend?

What are UFO?

What are the WD40?

 

because this will be my first approach to trout IDO NOT HAVE A CLUE WHAT ARE MIDGES, CADDYS, MAYFLIES, ETC so I need recepies and if there´s a place step by step will be a lot better.

 

Thanks a lot

 

Pacho

[bart 0]

I haven't been on the San Juan for a couple years but I used to fish it every year. The San Juan is all about small flies for the most part, though a friend caught a HUGE rainbow on a chernobyl ant last year (that's a rather large fly). The San Juan gets a ton of pressure so hopefully you'll be going with a friend that knows the river. We always stay at Abe's (http://www.sanjuanriver.com/), visit their site for fly recomendations. They are just a really generic list of flies that WILL catch fish on most days. If you tye what the list for nymph's and dries on Abe's site you'll definately catch fish, but I'd bring your vise with you and tye at night in case you find that something else is hot (there's really nothing else to do there anyway - it's a smidge remote). The fish on this river are all well educated and I've done best on morning and evening midge hatches as well as the whole BWO life cycle. One fly that is not on the list is a scud, to me, this is a very important fly to have with you, reguardless of which trout stream you are on. Since this is your first step into the world of trout I'll try to break this down for you in simle terms. I'm purposefully leaving out the details because it can be rather overwhelming.

 

First off, to understand how to catch trout on the fly you have to understand what they eat, and therefore what you are trying to imitate with your fly. Trout are a cold water species that require excellent water quality; cold, oxygenated water full of insects is what they love. Tail water fisheries like the San Juan attract gobs of fly fisherman because the dam releases cold water at a consistent temp all year round, which allows the trout to thrive. Other rivers that do not have a damn releasing cold water into them tend to warm up during the summer which causes a reduction in oxygen, and in drought years causes fish to die. A significant portion of a trout's diet is bugs. Time has honored the Mayfly, Stonefly, and Caddis Fly as the most important. Though as I mentioned before I believe the scud should be added to this list. The main reason the scud doesn't make the list is because, being a freshwater shrimp, it never matures into a dry fly and the folks over on the other side of the atlantic thought it unsporting to catch a trout on anything other than a dry fly. Now on with a bugs life cycle.

 

When available, trout eat as many mayflies, stones, and caddis as possible because they are big, so it's important to understand the life cycle of these bugs. The EPA has a nice overview of the metamorphic life cycle of a bug, check it out here. So, overall there are 4 stages to an bugs life. As fly fisherman we try to imitate the 3 of the 4 different stages of the bugs life. Why only 3? Well basically because the eggs are too small. The insect spends most of it's life as a larvae, which is what the fly fishing world refers to as a nymph and more or less has a worm like resemblence (remember, I'm only speaking in general terms and you should learn about the specifics about each different bug you are imitating). When it's time for the bug to mature it morphs into a pupae, often times refered to as an emerger. At this phase the worm is growing it new body and wings. When all the environmental conditions are just right, the pupae let's go of the bottom and floats to the surface to dry it's wings and fly away to mate. The bugs are incredibly vulnerable at this phase as they just float down the river with no real control. The other thing that makes them vulnerable is that it is hard for them to break through the surface tension of the water to dry off their wings. The bugs vulnerability is good for trout because it makes them easier to get at. So, as fly fishmen we spend a lot of energy imitating these vulnerable bugs. At the point where they are trying to fly away and mate is the beginning of their adult phase. This is refered to as a dry fly and the bugs spend the least ammount of their life in this phase, usually less then 24 hours. As an adult the bugs fly away, mate, and then return to the river to lay their eggs... and then die in the water.

 

Most of the different patterns try to imitate a specific bug in a specific phase of their life. Let's look a common mayfly found in trout waters, the Blue Wing Olive (BWO). Here are imitiations for each phase

 

Larvae - Pheasant Tail

Pupae - RS2

Adult - BWO parachute

 

Now what about midges... simply put midges are smaller bugs then mayflies, stones, or caddis. Now that's not a scientific definition, but it's true and gets the important point across. MIDGES ARE SMALL! Midges are a seriously important part of a trout's diet because they hatch all year long. When you find yourself tying flies on size 22 or smaller hooks, your into midge land. And what a wonderful place it is! When trout have seen all my other flies, I can often times trick them with a TINY midge. I almost always fish midge droppers off my larger flies, reguardless of the stage. The exception is when I know exactly what the fish are keying in on.

 

For recipes check out the Fly Pattern Database on this site. It appears to be down at the moment, so here's another index of patterns from a local fly shop: http://www.frontrangeanglers.com/flypatternindex.htm

 

Hope this helps

 

bart

[pacho 0]

 

THANKS A LOT BART!!!!!

[Luke 0]

I'm with Bart, scuds and sow bugs are a important part of most tailwater trouts diet. I'll point you to a few of the patterns that I like for these little guys. Here's a sowbug, scud, sowbug, scud, scud, scud, scud, scud, scud, sowbug and scud. These are in no particular order. For colors, I like gray, tan and olive. I have used orange, pink and even purple, but I haven't had much luck with them (probably due to my lack of faith in the colors). As for sizes, I typically use from 18's to 22's.

 

As for the rest of your question, wd40 and UFO.

 

Good luck with the fishing.

[Graham 0]

The fly thats worked best for me on the SJ is very simple to tye. Size 22 curved scud hook, wraped with black thread, then a few wraps of very fine gold wire, and a little piece of white dental floss tyed on top for a wing or wing case. I found this fly worked will dead drifted in the current. When fishing slower water, like the Texas Hole, a full sink line and SJ worms worked great. I let it sink to the bottom, and very slowly worked my line back, almost like split shotting for bass. Can never be too slow, and an occasional rod tip twitch is worth trying. I love the SJ in April, not as crowded as other months.

[flytire 0]

Start here. These are good for the SJ

 

http://www.danica.com/flytier/nfrechette/nfrechette.htm

[stony 0]

We have a recent report from somebody who just fished the San Juan over the weekend on my website. I'll cut and paste it here.

 

Went on my yearly fly fishing trip to the San Juan River. This has got to be my favorite place to fly fish.

 

I got there Saturday about noon. It only took about 4 hours to get there, but that is flying. Started fishing by the Texas hole. Within 5 steps I fell off a finger that was about 2 1/2 feet deep into water that went up to my neck. This was in calm water that was about 5 feet off shore. The key is to stay on the light colored areas. Its crazy how these fingers can stay shallow far out near the middle and one wrong step and you will get soaked. The water ruined my cell phone which was going to take the pictures.

 

The fishing was outrageous. The fish averaged about 18 inches below the Texas hole and 19-20 above the Texas hole. This has got to be the heaven of fishing. Me and my buddy caught at leas 20-25 a day. Our arms were tired from these long fights with big fish.

 

Conditions: The water was running about 550cfs and was clearer than any river I have ever seen. It was so clear size 20, and 22 hooks were too big to fish. We were fishing size 24, and 26s.

 

Flies: Nymphs: 24,26 size midge pupa and emergers. The colors ranged from black, chocolate, and grey. In the mornings they keyed on creme color with a black head. The key was the size. The smaller the more strikes. Another good key is when tying these small size flies, you must use good strong hooks. The umpqua hooks were breaking at the hook bend. Only the Daiichi and DaiRiki were the strong hooks. We tied flies everyday midday to keep up with change of colors.

Drys: Griffith's gnats as small as you can get. and Adams as small as you can get. I got brave in the afternoons and tried a big ol grasshopper. My buddy told me I was crazy and all it would do is scare them. He was wrong. I caught about 6 fish every evening on the biggest ugly grasshopper I could find at the fly shops. I talked to a guy who said he was nailing big fish on a mouse pattern early and late in the day. He showed me a picture of a big trout that swallowed his mouse. Unfortunately the trout did not live.

 

Tackle: I fished a sage 5wt rod with 4wt line and a 9ft Rio 5x leader. The tippet was real important. We used 6x Orvis Mirage fluorocarbon. This is the best tippet you can buy. Stuff is really strong. Did not break off much.

 

There are so many fish in the San Juan if you haven't been you need to go. There were big fish all around, I would say every ten feet in most places. These fish are smart though. The smartest I have ever come across. You think fish don't pay attention to detail. These fish pay attention to detail to the 28 size of a fly. It was so good of fishing that I cant wait to go back.

 

If you need a good fly fishing fix the San Juan is the place to go. Plus they have the best green chili, cheese and bacon burgers. MMM.

[pacho 0]

 

 

Luke, Graham, Flytire & Stony, IF I EVER LAND A FISH WITH THESE FLIES THAT I AM TYING WILL BE BECAUSE OF YOU.

 

THANKS A LOT FOR YOUR HELP

 

Pacho

[flytire 0]

Heres some more. Scroll down til you find the "UFO" pattern for the San Juan

 

http://www.customflys.com/flyswaps_2002.html

 

http://www.danica.com/flytier/jbarela/jbarela.htm

[Bigtree 0]

Try this link I think you'll find all what you asked for.

San Juan Flys