A near and dear friend spent some time in southern CO recently. He’s the kind of guy that would travel from Dallas to wherever you needed help building a guest house, as long as you promised him some fishing. In this case he was in southern CO visiting a friend that, well, needed help building a guest house. Being that he is a friend of the Hatchless bunch, a very good friend, more like a brother of mine, I promised I’d share his reports from while he was there.

First couple of days… Built a guest house… BlAhBlaHblAH.

Here’s his reports, daily as requested, since we’re too lazy to get off the Au Sable and go elsewhere regardless of when and where else we’re invited.

Day 1.

Fished the east fork of the San Juan last night.  Very cool stretch of river. Lots of riffles and big boulders with deep holes and runs.  Saw some fish but couldn’t catch the rotten pricks.  The water temp is pretty high and all the streams are pretty low so it sucks. I had one hook up on a cone head green crystal bugger which proved that the fish are dumb but stealth is key.  The water is extremely clear so after that lesson I resorted to casting to the holes from about 50 feet to keep from spooking fish.  Tried a hopper dropper for a bit… nada. My T-130 is shot. Going line shopping later.

I have some pictures I’ll send when the wifey gets here with my phone cable.  Not enough cell signal here to send them from my phone.

Day 2.

Fished the Blanco yesterday during and after a rain.  The water where we fished was warmer than the east fork and all mucked up from the rain.  I had two slashers but otherwise nothing so we left at about 4 pm.  I called my buddy Jeff who was out here for 2 months and said he fished every river and reservoir in a 100 mile radius.  He gave me a few places to try and the one we chose was Big Meadows reservoir spillway.  It was over Wolf creek pass. We went through the second tunnel and took the first left which heads up to the camp ground and reservoir.  It is a pretty big body of water and the spillway this time of year is shallow and weedy but we caught fish on little tiny streamers and a dries. Good times.

Day 3.

Going to fish the upper Chama tomorrow which the dude at High Desert Angler in Santa Fe told us was “the place to go”.  Gonna be a 2 mile hike at about 12k elevation to get to the head of the river but I’m sure it will be worth it.

I bought an  SA 5 wt floating line that I used today and I love it.  Feels a lot like the salt water lines we used while we were down in FL. Sure beats hucking the sink tip for a change.

Day 4

Fished the Navajo today. Same stretch we fished last year about 5 miles from Marc’s house. Very cool little river with a small camp site right on the water that you can drive up to.  Had a good rain yesterday but the Navajo was still really clear, not crystal but still pretty clear.  Caught the first 14″ brown on a small olive bugger with no bead head. About a #8 hook in a riffle about 2′ deep.   Fished around the corner and changed bugs to a bead head crystal/olive bugger size #6 and rolled a big rainbow.  Ten minuets later I changed to a # 12 gray & red soft hackle and caught another 12″ rainbow. Then it started raining and we decided to head out.

Day 5. (???)

Fished the Chama yesterday. Edited by me. Too much info to put on the internets…

Day 6.

On our last day we went to the hot springs in Pagossa to soak for awhile  A must do while in town.  Afterwards the girls went shopping and Marc and I went fishing in the main branch of the San Juan right in down town.  It is rumored to be good fishing there. Hard to believe. Warm water and lots of pressure should say otherwise but the sources were right.  Most of the river in this area has been improved for fish habitat and seems pretty artificial.  All the boulders are strategically placed and the holes are deep.  We went in behind the malt shop and really didn’t have to move to far to find the fish.  We only had about an hour to fish before meeting up with the family for dinner and the normal afternoon rain but I’m glad we went.  I bet when the water is a little cooler it is a great place to fish.   My buddy Jeff said he had a couple of 100 fish days there.  When I talked to the guy at “Let it Fly ” fly shop he said it is pretty common to get a bunch and some good sizes out of there.  Stockers for sure but also some holdovers and natives to be had.

It was a great trip.  We fished almost every day except the day we built the guest house and the day we went to the airport to pick up the family.  I may go in july or september next year to get some colder water.  I never took my waders out of the bag.  I really like the Simms wading shoes I bought.  http://www.simmsfishing.com/site/Riprap_shoe.html?id=tbDCzCSD:64.202.228.19#

They don’t let rocks in under your feet and have really good traction, not too bad for hiking in either.

Thats the report. Here’s a few pics from the trip. I’d do captions but I don’t know what is what.