San Juan River Trip Highlights

The San Juan River at Navajo Dam, NM

The fish were bigger

Flies were small

Working our tans

Zugbug got some airtime for his sponsor

Bring your combat waders

Shepard escaped our lens most of the time (witness protection?)

These are just a few initial highlights and are not the largest fish caught. While this trip was more about getting old friends on the river rather than shooting video or getting pictures, a lot of that happened. Zugbug will be putting in some serious time in the editing bay getting the footage ready for public consumption (bleeping out the audio on missed hook sets).

Provisions for next week's fishing

 

Picked up a couple of items for next week's fishing trip with Paisley, Zugbug, and Shep.

 

Gear: San Juan 2014 - Getting Small

A dozen flies with room for more.

Continuing on our theme focusing on gear for the upcoming FlyfishMagazine trip to the San Juan River in New Mexico, much research is being put into fly selection. Jeff Paisley, our staff tail water specialist, advised small flies, but I didn't realize just how small until I got in touch with Greg Sabin of http://www.sanjuanriverflies.com. His website let me know pretty quickly that my size 18-20 definition of small was a bit on the big size.

Greg put together a personalized assortment of nymphs ranging from size 22-28 coupled with a few traditional local flies. This should give me a leg up as long as I can figure out how to get them tied to the end of my leader (note to self get some magnifying lenses). He shipped them quickly and at a very fair price. Just so we are clear on the sizes, the photo above shows a dozen midges on the face of a dime with room for a few more.

Stay tuned for more gear features, including some innovative strike indicator options we will be testing on the river.

Extra points if you picked up on the vague Steve Martin reference.

 

Gear: San Juan River Trip 2014

Over the next few weeks I will be sharing a few gear selections for our Spring trip to fish the San Juan. We will be meeting up with a few members of the original FlyfishMagazine crew and since we haven't seen these guys in a few years, one of the first things we will be doing will likely be lighting up a celebratory cigar

Chris Rohr @rohr_chris of The Scandinavian Tobacco group provided us with the smokes pictured above. As if the premium names ( Punch, Partagas etc.) aren't enough to get your attention, these come in unique water proof packaging that will keep the cigars inside fresh for up to two years with no humidor needed. Look for these fine cigars at retailers across the country and watch for more gear highlights here. -long ashes