timsfly

Well the food isn't the reason to go there anyway, last time I went to the juan I only went out and ate once, the rest of the time it was peanut butter and well mostly peanut butter sandwiches I've been out there over 30 times in about 25 years, and the fishing is still pretty good. I think the fish might have been bigger in the late 80's and the 90's but I might just be remembering big. I fished right up untill dark several nights and finished up at the top of the Texas hole throwing #2 woolybuggers and possum bugs I like I throw on Crane and Roaring river, and I did catch some fish, never got a hog doing that, but I have heard that they get some big trout night fishing. I think anytime is a good time to go fish the san juan, and there is easy fishing or very technical fishing what ever you desire. Just enjoy the trip

You haven't been there in awhile have you, the Sportsman's restaurant & bar really sucks now, food is nothing like it was 15 or 20 years ago. We used to really love the onion rings and all the burgers, but not hardly worth the time now.

The San Juan is very easy to fish, you can fish it just like any river, there are many many places where the trout stack up. I guess the easiest place to start would be the kiddy hole, just above the texas hole, the braids in this area are full of fish and are usually pretty easy to locate, the water in this area will rarly be above your knees, but there are lots of slick rocks and mud. I find for a dry I can usually pull fish up on a #18-#24 adams, or griffiths gnats of the same sizes. I use a lot of zebra midge type flies, I use two #24's in the riffles when the fish aren't rising, I tie them about 18" apart, and fish them just like you would at taney or R.R. just have to keep adjusting for water depth. I use a lot of chocolate emergers out there, #18's-#24's and RS2's in olive and brown are both pretty effective. I use a lot of 6X flourocarbon. for dries I use a lot of 6X standard tippet. Small egg patterns work sometimes this time of year, #20's and smaller are good.

What really happens in the mind of an individual when they start fishing, and collecting, and I don't mean just fly fishing, I think this all starts to happen really young in life, I was brought up in the junk mans way of thinking, now I don't mean this as bad, I mean this was great for a young boy to be raised like I was, I was taken to many different arenas of life, junk stores, flea markets, auctions just about any kind of place that had used junk, my parents were always going to places like this and so I was taken along for the ride. I learned so much and didn't even know I was learning things that would change my life when I was older, I got to where I could talk to just about anybody, wasn't to bashful, you couldn't be when you were trying to barter on a fishing reel or fishing pole, if you could just get the person to take a 1$ for the reel instead of 1.50 $ then I could save that .50 for something better down the road. Now my dad can talk people down on the price of an item, but my mom is 100 times better than him, and that is saying a lot. But I remember buying a stack of old outdoor magazines when I was about 11 and thinking I had hit the jackpot, the reading in those old magazines was like going off into a new world every time I would read about the cape buffalo hunting, the fishing in far away places, at that time places like colorado, wyoming and other western states were nothing but dreams for me. I read and reread those old mags and still have them to this day, I will never part with them, like an old good feeling pair of jeans, I won't get rid of them, someday I'll be reading one of those old mags and it will just go up in a poof of dust and be one with the universe again, but until then I'll keep reading. When I was just a young man I owned several rod s and reels, mostly old zebcos, and old fiberglass rods, but they were my prized possesions at the time, I cared for them like I do my high dollar rods today. As I got older, I was working more and had a bit more money, I remember mowing yards all one summer so I could afford to buy this 4 1/2 foot HMG Fenwick spinning rod, I had looked at this rod for over a year, and I still remember the day I got that rod, and I went to Roaring River the next day and caught so many trout on that little spinning rod, that may have been one of the turning points in my young life, because, I think from that day forward, I lived to buy the nicest rods I could afford, and then came fly fishing. I remember my first fly rod, it was an old eagle claw, bright yellow and all of 6' feet long, I guess here is where my obsessions with small rods started. I can remember going into the fly shop at the bottom of the Roaring River hill(now where the Devils Kitchen trail starts) and with my 5$ I could get 4 wooly worms, and leader or tippet, a soda and still have a few dollars left over, the owner of the shop, Gary Box was a big help, he always seemed to be willing to help and I was willing to listen and learn. I enjoyed fishing the park, it was where I could go and spend the day, when I was all of 12 years of age, you could spend the whole day at the park and fish and enjoy and you were wore out from fishing when your parents came down to pick you up after the got off work. I don't really remember catching that many trout, I know from time to time I would catch a mess and we would cook them when I got home, but even then I didn't really like eating them or cleaning them, so I was catching and releasing most of the time. Well from that old eagle claw fly rod, I graduated to a 7' Fenglass fly rod, and I was ruined, that rod was really nice and light, I belive it was a 5wt but it was so much lighter than my eagle claw, and I do remember that rod fondly, I lost that rod in a fire in the upstairs of the lodge at Roaring River, but I have since replaced it with a like rod. Everyday I look at forums, auctions, vintage tackle sites, I'm not sure why I do this, I started out collecting old lures and stuff when younger and then while working for Mr. Nickols at Roaring river for 13 years, I acquired many, many, many fly rods and reels, I got into collecting the Ari-T-Hart reels for awhile, until I had over 40 of them, I have since whittled that # back down to only 15 ATH reels, I had to sell some of them to buy other reels. I have since those early days at Roaring River acquired many many rods and reels and other fly fishing paraphernalia, I have lots of neat nets, boxes, chest fly boxes, old bamboo has just about ruined me, I have bought so much bamboo in the past few years, I think I may have a little problem, I figure I have about a rod a month habit right now, sometimes it is a rod a week, since I started collecting old vintage glass rods, as I'm sitting here typing this my phone dings and another auction ends and I have yet another nice rod to add to the pile, and old Herter's 5pc glass rod, made by Phillipson, I'll fish it a few times and set it with its brothers in one of the safes I have purchased just to keep the rods in, not worried about them being stolen and many are worth very little, more worried about fire, and my dogs chewing on them. I would like to know if this habit get better with age or gets worse, I guess if I live long enough I'll find out, but for now I just keep on buying and trying to buy rods and reels of my youth, I'll buy a rod now just because I wanted it when I was young and couldn't afford it and now, it is still kind of expensive, but I keep telling myself that I really should buy it and see what I missed out on when I was young. I am writing this because I was going to sell a few rods to make way for a few bamboos I have on order, or that I may acquire in the next few months, as I sat and counted rods, after I got up to 160 I quit counting because out of the 160, I could only find one or two that I really wanted to sell, and that really isn't worth the bother to just sell two rods, so I packed them all back in the safes and closed the doors and started looking on line to see if I could find a deal on another safe, after all it might be easier to just buy one more safe than try to start selling off my rods. Tim's Fly Shop Tim Homesley

Sorry wrong pic, that is a 5lber from friday, here is todays fish

Started out at Bennett today, didn't spend more than an hour there, had to run back to the shop for a customer, so I left, and fished Roaring River also, fishing was very good, caught 15 and Bennett and about 30 at R.R. had a lot of fun, caught everything at bennett on a pink egg, #16 When I got back to R.R. the mailman had just left me a 5' package I ordered this rod from a guy on one of the forums, and it was a hoot, I fished it all afternoon, it was a 10' 1wt. Very nice rod, it was built by him or a friend of his, one or the other, it is very soft, you have to set the hook, about 1/2 second before the fish hit. I did manage a nice 5lber on the 10' fly rod, and it was a hoot, I think I'll try the rod with an 0 or a 00 fly line next, anyway fishing was very good at R.R. today, and what I got to do at Bennett was pretty good, caught my fish at R.R. on a Caddis dry, #18 and on a apricot #18 egg pattern, 6X tippet on the egg, and 7X on the dries, caught this 5lb bow on the egg.

I've taken a few just nothing I felt like posting.

Cam jaw

It is a pedestal

Fished crane this morning, caught 13 mostly on #16 egg laying caddis and on sparkle duns, again in a # 16, but caught a few on a # 10 pheasant tail, tied in the sawyer style(no thread) Used a new Bamboo fly rod I just got in the mail yesterday, it is a 6' Sweetgrass Quad, very nice rod, I had it built with a 4wt and a 5wt tip, the rod is a two pc rod, if you are looking for a nice bamboo, look no further, these rods are sweet. I ordered the 7' quad this morning, again with a 4wt and a 5wt tip. Good caddis hatches today on crane, lots of fish were rising, mostly small fish, I think the biggest I caught today was about 12" saw a few that were bigger, did not see any spawning fish or sign that they were starting to spawn, but it should happen soon, there is some evedince of spawning in the park right in the middle if the town of Crane. I tried some bigger flies today, but the fish were really on the caddis, did catch a few on a #10 pheasant tail, and a few on a #10 olive gold ribbed hares ear, used 5x on the nymphs and 6X on the dries. Water is still low and we need rain, but the fish appeared to be doing very well.

I've got a Renzetti Traveler in the shop, I ordered it for a customer, and now he doesn't like it, so I told him I would sell it for him, and put the money towards the Dyna-king he wants now, he used the vise for maybe 3 weeks, and he will sell it for 159.00, the box is gone, but the vise looks to be new, he bought the vise for 189.00 or there abouts + tax It is a pedestal model It has a handle on the jaws, not the old style type, with the knobs Vise is sold now,thank you for looking

Yes those are great fish, kids day is always a blast and the hatchery is good about putting out some big fish like those big browns, they always stock plenty of big fish for the kids and the big kids the day after

Terry Beeson and I fished Bennett today we fished up near the hatchery, didn't see hardly anybody Fishing was very good I figured Terry and I caught well over 60 trout this morning, I had a couple of nice 17-18" trout and Terry caught a few nice trout, but most were10-12" I caught most of mine on #20 and smaller egg patterns, caught a few on zebra midges(20's) and a few on cream colored San Juan worms.

It isn't dry on the upper end, just the middle part where it always drys up, the trout are fine, but the water is very low, we do need rain.

Nice pics, thanks for sharing.

I don't know about all the parks, but here at R.R. they stock about 300 3-6 lb trout and several that are bigger and they have always stocked about 2000 to get us started and usually they stock again in Jan. with a thousand or so.

I'm tying #4 & #6 articulated blue, purple, white and orange bunny bugs and pine squirrel flies, very heavily weighted Steve you keep tying that traditional stuff, and I'll keep catcing the big uns.

There are a lot of good scud hooks on the market TMC 2487 & TMC 2457 are both hooks I tie on. Hard to say what my favorite hook would be, as different patterns require different diameter of hooks, thinner hook slower sink rate, heavier hook(thicker diameter) faster sink rate, as long as the hook is sharp and well made I'll use it. I use a lot of gamakatsu, and diachii hooks also.

Gordon Roller is your guy, he has refurbished a lot of bamboo and fiberglass rods for me, and customers of mine. He does some wonderful rods, I've got an old hidden fiberglass he just finished for me, and it looks like new Call him at 417-847-0139, leave a message or call after 6 p.m., he works days.

Just sight fishing.

Duane, I only caught 6 browns, the two big ones and the other 4 were all 12-14" all nice and fat, caught mostly rainbows.

I fished taney this morning, and the fishing was very good, caught a 6lb brown an hour or so after fishing and and nice suprise a 8lb brown just before I got ready to go this morning, caught them both on a San juan type worm(chamois) in a cream white color. Caught them both on my 6' bamboo that I had just bought a few days ago, and both on 6X floro. I caught fish on small buggers, scuds, san juans, egg patterns, and on small brown beetles, great day for me, it was a good day off.

Yes about the same way as Taney, see ya Friday

Come by the shop and I'll show you a Al's pellet fly, they work very well in the upper area.

Water is low and clear Power bait eggs for the kids, white, brown, and orange Good dry fly fishing right now, caddis, Adams, blue wing olives and griffiths gnats are all catching trout right now. 7X 9' leaders are best right now.