A good friend of mine informed me that the area around The San Juan River is a COVID-19 hot-spot right now so on June 8th I’ll be heading back to the Driftless Area for a two-week fishing/relaxing trip. It’s less than a four-hour drive to a beautiful area. Fly fisherman from Montana fish there in May and June.
Going back to The San Juan River in August
I had several trips planned for this spring and summer that I’ve canceled because the main intent of these trips was to visit friends. Can’t really do that these days. Going on a trout fishing trip is almost automatically a self-quarantine trip. Just won’t go to restaurants, fly shops, museums, etc.. I’m too old to get this virus. Damn shame cause Georgia O’Keeffe’s home, which is now a museum is about an hour and a half from my campsite. You have to make a reservation well in advance to take a tour. Maybe I’ll do that if possible.
August 20th I’ll head out to Navajo Dam NM and The San Juan River for 12 days of fishing. Better than sitting in my condo. New Mexico State Park Campgrounds are a great deal. My site has a concrete pad, concrete picnic table with an overhead, water, and electricity for $14 a night. I stayed at that same site in September of 2018.
My trailer is in the center.
Photos of Still Life 1
Thursday, Sept 5, 2019
Another fine day in a beautiful area catching some beautiful brown trout. Nothing big but that’s ok.
This was the biggest fish I landed. I think there were two I had on briefly that may have been bigger. They hit a big barbless hopper. They were jumpers and threw the hook.
Caught one trout and lost one fishing a hopper in these riffles.
Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2019
Fished the Timber-Coulee today and did ok. Maybe 10 strikes. Caught 5 little browns. They loved a nymph called an Orange Coulee Scud I bought at The Driftless Angler in June. Then a tree loved it. So after finishing fishing I went to The Driftless Angler. Very nice and helpful guy. He said “yeah tie a Chernobyl Hopper on and then tie an arms length piece of 5X tippet to the bend of the hook. Tie the Orange Coulee Scud to the tippet as a dropper. You’ll catch fish all day”. There were a lot of big hoppers about and I saw what looked like a dragonfly hatch. Don’t know if it works that way with dragonflies.
We shall see about the fishing.
Fall isn’t too far off. Very comfortable fishing in waders wearing a fly vest. Never broke a sweat. Forecast for the next 8 days looking perfect, highs in mid 70s, lows in mid 50s , and partly sunny.
Fly patterns used to have pretty dull names such as an Adams or a Light Cahill or a Gold Ribbed Hare’s Ear.
Today some smart ass tiers come up with much better names such as a Chernobyl Ant or a Home Invader.
I may have mentioned this some time ago.
Tuesday September 3, 2019
No phone signal but there is a little park building about 100 yards away that has WiFi I can connect to. Haven’t seen anyone in the building.
The grill was a retirement gift from work. Works out great. No mess.
In the distance on the right is the building that has hot showers and cold toilets. In the distance on the left is my nearest neighbor’s trailer. He stopped by. He’s been coming here to fish for 20 years.
August 29, 2019
Labor Day I’ll be starting an 11 day trout fishing and relaxation trip to the Driftless Area.
I won’t be updating this blog anymore. Usually I have a weak signal. At times I spend an hour or two creating and posting. Perhaps at the end of a trip I’ll post the whole trip.
Tuesday, August 22nd, 2019
Left Cornucopia and drove mostly west to Superior Wisconsin where I had lunch with an old workmate I hadn’t seen in around 10 years and then headed home.
Monday, August 21st, 2019
Drove west along the shoreline to Cornucopia, Wisconsin where I visited a friend I went to college with from 1970 to 1972. Hadn’t seen him in 46 years.
Sunday, August 20, 2019
This morning I started driving west and northwest along the Upper Peninsula Lake Superior Shoreline passing through Munising, Marquette, Houghton, and Copper Harbor.
Found a beautiful private campground facing west on the shore of Lake Superior called Sunset Bay Campground.
