San Juan River
Fish fluorocarbon tippets at the end of your mono-filament leader when nymph fishing. 5X to the first fly and 6X to the dropper. This will produce more strikes as the fish can't see the fluorocarbon.
Fishing 22 to 24 midges in the slower waters has been great, Fish light weight ( a number 6 or smaller ) with your strike indicator 2 or 3 feet above the weight. You don't want to be on the bottom when you are midge fishing.
We are finding lots of baetis, especially on cloudy afternoons. Baetis live in fast water so look for them in the riffles at the top of holes and at the bottom of holes in the tail out. Fish are eating gray, olive and brown nymphs in these places, it just depends on the day so have them all. You may have the chance to see fish on top during this time. A parachute Adams or comparadun should do the job. The may flies are green and are about size 22. Use dark colored wings as the fish are turning away from white wings. If you can't see this try a marker fly about 12 inches above the baetis. You should fish mono-filament tippets when fishing on the surface as fluorocarbon sinks.
Change back to midges when the fish stop eating your may flies.
Try some bunny leaches if all else fails. Dead drift them like the rest of your nymphs. Fish are eating them for moss! They will shake the drifting moss to get the bugs out.
All this goes out the door when fishing streamers. Get them on the bottom and fish 1X fluorocarbon.
Fishead (fish-head) n. A person who spends all their time thinking about, dreaming about, or in the pursuit of fish.
Woolly Bugger | Brown, Black, Natura | 8, 14 | Buy from Orvis.com |
Lynch's Double Dot Egg | Orange Blood Dot | 18 | Buy from Orvis.com |
Griffith's Gnat | Black, Olive | 18 | Buy from Orvis.com |
Rojo Midge | Gray, Olive, Brown, | 20 to 22 | Buy from Orvis.com |
Rosenbauer Parachute Beetle | Black | 10 to 24 | Buy from Orvis.com |
Cartoon Hopper | Gray, Olive, Brown flash! | 6 and 8 | Buy from Orvis.com |