Da Juan- Day 4

Our day started early once again, met our new friend Noah from Georgia and Luke. Luke drove in the night before but the first we had fished with him. We headed up to the old C&R section. Saw a nice 20" bow on the trail by the willows, guess he got stranded, bummer, nice fish. Fishing was Ok for everyone but Mike and Neal. They both smoked 'em. Neal was on freaking fire fishing some semi slack water with a small hopper, was just sick!! Noah got into a few nice fish. Mike was out in the middle in pretty good water and silently smoked fish after fish. Some people hollar or grunt or something, but not Mike, he is the silent assassin! Hotter than hell out there as soon as you step out of the water, but not too bad when you are thigh deep in 42 degree water. Bugs were present, but not like it should be. I think the the high flows, fast ramp up and ramp down will effect the bugs for awhile. Around 4:30 we headed back to camp for the meal we had all been looking forward to. Now dont' get me wrong, I am not complaining about ribeyes, venison burgers, elk tenderloin or elk sausage, but that night was deep fried turkey and ranch beans with some amazing salsa mixed in. Phil, you should have your cooking show on the Food Network, I'd watch it.

All in all it was an amazing trip with some amazing anglers and amazing people. I am blessed to have such good friends and I made several new ones. The only friends I will not welcome back into my camp are the freaking raccoons that played havoc with our food stuffs all weekend long. Next time I will have a wrist rocket, pellet gun, paint ball or something to ward off those evil little suckers. Juan trip 2012 cannot get hear soon enough. Next up------Pyramid Lake in March. Booyah!!!!

Da Juan- Day 3

Day three found us on the main channel again. Neal and Denis were meeting up with us today. We flogged the water for a few hours and picked up a few fish, but fishing was tough. We concluded that the fast drop in flows threw the fish off their game. Still don't think they have worked back into their normal areas. Around noon, we decided to try the lower river so we parked at the gas well lot. When we got to the water, Denis and I took the south channel and the rest headed to the north channel. Denis is a hell of stick and I learned a lot from him. He is on the Irish National Fly fishing team, so needless to say, I was a little intimidated. After fishing for 5 minutes that all went away. He is so warm and gracious that their was no reason to feel intimidated. We took turns as well fished up the channel. He caught a nice 18" bow, the first he tried for. I took my turn and caught a nice brown, and so on and so forth. We laughed and ribbed eachother as we fished our way up. We were asking eachother tons of questions so I think we both learned a lot. After what seemed like an hour we ended up in the lower flats. Actually it had been 3 hours. We looked around for the rest of the group and they were gone. We walked back to the car and headed back to camp. Another 4 star meal was in the works. Elk tenderloin and elk jalapeno sausage and fried taters were on tap. Another fantastic day with friends on the San Juan. As you can see from the photos, we had the luck of the Irish with us!!! Denis, you are the man!

Da Juan- Day two

Daylight came early and we were out of the rack, drinking coffee and on the road by 6:30. Today it was, Mike, Phil, Jim and I again. Jim went out in the toon while the 3 of us floated. Phil rowed his ass for us and never gave up the sticks, good thing as I suck on the oars. The Texas Hole was packed with boats so we just headed on down. Again, the fishing was off and on, but we had a great time and caught some fish. Mike had the hot hand early and I, well, never really got the hand at all. We stopped a few times and anchored with similar success. We were out of the boat by 3:30. We headed back to camp to regroup and to see if we could figure these darn fish out. A couple of us went and fished the main channel and Mike and Jim drove to aztec to buy some burgers since the damn racoons ate a bunch of our food the night before, thieving bastidges. Around 6 we headed back to camp and we sat around camp and yucked it up and decided to cook us some grub. Elk sausage, elk burgers were the ticket after a long day on the water. Coming soon, day three!

Da Juan June 22, part 1

Holy cow, what a trip! Met some new folks and fished with old friends, that is what a fishing trip is all about. Mike and I arrived around 2:30 and met up with Phil and Jim, set up camp and went fishing. Fished around the Texas Hole and main channel. Tried one of my favorite spots and it was not happening. Caught a few but the fish were few and far between. Phil and I headed up to my favorite spot on the river, Ochoa riffle. Not always a great fishing location, but holds a special meaning for me. I named it that after my best friend, Ed Ochoa passed away and that was a place he and I used to fish a lot when there were a ton of fish in that section. But I digress! As Phil and I were walking up I was reminiscing about Ed, it brought back a ton of memories. We started off a the bottom of Ochoa and finally spotted a fish, Phil ran a couple by him and then wham, down goes the indicator. He fought him for a few minutes and then he popped off. Nice fish, nice fight, nothing to show for it but a nice memory. The rest of the time was all about memories as we only spotted one more fish and he spooked after one cast. We headed back down the main channel and then headed back to camp. We sat around and shot the bull for an hour or two and then started the grill. Mike had brought some awesome looking ribeyes, Jim cooked up some tators and we were set for the evening. Man, that was some good dead cow. We sat around the campfire shooting the bull about where we were going to fish, what flies we were going use and made up a bunch of bs. You know how us fisherman are! Any way, day one was in the books and we all had a great day and even better evening. I'm going to break this this down by day so stay tuned. Nothing in way of photos for day one, but if anyone sends any to me, I'll add them later. Day two thru 4 will have photos, dont' worry.

San Juan

I am headed to the San Juan on the 22nd, returning home on the 26th. The big flush ended yesterday and the river got a good old fashioned, well needed, cleaning. Meeting some old friends at the river and meeting some new ones as well. Will post a report upon my return and will post some pictures from Camp Juan.