NoLuck

Been on the river four hours or so. Caught about a dozen fish. Biggest 2 were legit 20" fish. No browns yet though. Cheers!!

No... Thank you! Didn't see your post there tippet.

Well I made it here. Time to drop off equipment and head to the river to check it out.

Thanks dgames. Looks like I may be able to fish a couple of weekend days at least. Maybe even a few evenings. How far down river from the dam is trout fishing waters that are able to be waded?? I'm also debating going out and getting a guide for a half day or so.

Yeah I noticed that Wayne . I guess the got more insurance money from the burnt down cabin than they needed. Enough to rip up about a dozen parking spots for fisherman and build more revenue building cabins. Sooner or later it's gonna be all cabins and sidewalk. Pathetic really. I can think of a hundred other places to put that money other than more cabins.

Have fish a white thread jig or a John deere mini jig under a float in the water that kinda swirls next to the ramp. He shouldn't have to cast much.

Someplace nobody has mentioned is the new handicap ramp just below the dam. It has plenty of room for someone to fish.

Thanks Phil and Jeff. I guess I'll load up some fly fishing gear when I head out. I'd like to keep it as light as possible gear wise. Buy flies when I get there so I have some local stuff.

There are 2 or 3 handicap piers in Zone 1 that they can fish with ease.

Thanks for the info guys. Hey Jeff, did you try fishing TBH midges at all and did they work. Also what weight rod should I take?? 5wt?? What types of wading could you do without needing a boat??

Anyone familiar with the Farmington NM area and the San Juan River. I'll be out there for a couple weeks starting on the 26th of July. If I have a little spare time I'd like to try to catch a few trout. Is it worth my time to try it out or is it just to crowded??

I sure wish they would get a bunch of rain down there. The stream is low and slow with crystal clear water. Using 7x tippet is not my favorite thing to do. I have been down fishing the last 3 weekends and it has rained just about every trip at some point. Just not enough to effect the water level and clarity. So tie up small stuff for this year fellers. Bring your 7x tippet and light hook setting skills to protect it also. Looks like its not gonna change much.

Nice report. It also reminds me I need to stop there for a day on my way down to my camper at Bennnett., now I just need to remember to bring my extra waders home which is what they were intended for in the first place. Doh!!!

Have fun Jerry. Take the wife up to see Charlie to talk fishing. J/K that will get you in trouble. Watch out for the ticks and chiggers,they are bad this year. They are even in the short grass and weeds around my camper this year. Got me some stuff to spray with the garden hose this weekend. Hopefully that will get rid of those nasty pesky critters. My ankles are tore up from me scratching. On the fishing end. Standard black zebra midges worked pretty well last weekend. There was also some pretty good late afternoon hatches. I caught a few on EHC's. Have fun and good luck.

Sorry guys. No report from Charlie either. He was too busy to get a lecture , I mean report from. Fish size has already went back down from what I saw. News needs to travel faster so people don't think the early summer reports of bigger fish will continue all summer. But from the looks of the crowds fishing, it hasn't hurt business much. The place was a zoo even in late evening Sunday. There were still some of the bigger fish around to see with all the gin clear water and low flow. Watched a few people fishing zone 2 with soft plastic worms too. Amazing!! Blatant disregard for rules. According to a local shops online report of the meeting things are just perfect. Even mentioned how much food it takes to feed a fish till its release size. Trying to give us all a guilt trip I guess.

Ruthead, Bennett is still a decent place. It just needs some consistency. On the bigger side I mean. I still believe that the fishing is secondary nowadays. I thought we would see a fish cleaning station way before more cabins were built. Guess I was wrong.

Heck a grand would be cheap. I'm pretty well set for another year or so, Pat.

I guess I'll have to drop in and chat with Charlie.

That wrench or people have a short memory. The fish sizes have been decent for the last month or so. Therefore people don't care as much. Least we soon forget. Things will be right back to status quo if people don't care enough to represent theirselves. But when people like me work a lot it's tough to get away to those meeting to voice your concerns.

Yeah what he said!! I'm tied up at a shut down job.

What was what?? It is what it is.

It's a variation of F-C's lightning bug with a tungsten bead in size 18 or 20. I tie it myself after a lot of experimenting. Kinda the less is more approach.

Made it down Friday around 4:30 to the camper and got my gear together and made it to the stream around 5:30. Fished zone 1 for an hour and a half. Crowd wasn't bad at all. Caught quite a few fish on various midges of differing colors. Seemed like you could catch 4-5 fish on one color and you had to change it up. I called it an evening and went up to visit Brittsnbirds in CG5 for a bit. Saturday morning I decided to sleep in a bit and let the crowd die down a bit. Made it down to fish for a while around 10 or so. Fishing was pretty spotty so we went and had brunch. I didn't fish anymore due to the storms and such,plus I had a killer headache and tryed to rest it away all day. Sunday morning I made it down around 9:45 and fished Z 2 . I fished from the first bluff all the way up to the bridge catching fish mostly on rusty midges with either a copper bead or a black nickel bead. Again the crowds were not too bad until around 11:00am. When the people started flowing in a packed out back to the camper. Went back to fish late afternoon in Zone1 and hammered fish all the way till about 8:15. It really cleared out of people around 5pm. Lots of space to fish. For those that know me I was fishing my go to fly. Caught near 50 fish from 5-8pm. I fished from the gauge house all the way down to the 3rd handicap access catching fish the whole way. Fish size was decent. Not the sizes I saw a couple weeks ago but decent enough to keep you happy. A lot of the smaller fish I caught must have been in the stream for a while. Their fins had nice sharp edges with white tips from sitting on top of the vegetation or stream bottom. You could tell they weren't the usual beat up raceway released fish. All in all a good trip even with the wet weather. Hopefully we can all get together in August and chat it up and talk fishing.

Wish I could make that meeting but I am supposed to be in Wisconsin on that date I am pretty sure. I just hope that the people that frequent Bennett regularly are represented instead of the once a year trippers. But even they should be heard from as well. The funny thing is that I can almost see it in my mind how it is going to go down. If you go laker let us know how and what was discussed.

Glad you got down there Jerry. I'll be down Friday evening after work. Don't forget to put in for your vacation in late August. LOL be careful with that though. Cause I think a vacation from retirement is going back to work for a week.