Internet blurb about the legendary Bob Pelzl: "Bob has taught fly fishing and Fly tying for over thirty years. He has been a demonstration tier at the Federation of Fly Fishers (FFF) International Conclaves ,has published articles in "fly Fishing the West" and "Fly Fisherman" magazines, and teaches fly tying for th Los Pinos Fly Shop in Albuquerque. He and his wife Beverly have taught fly fishing for the Gary Borger Schools at Vermejo Park Ranch and the Los Pinos Fly Shop, and have conducted clinics for organizations such as She Fishes and New Mexico Trout. Bob is also a FFF Certified Casting instructor. He is retired from the Air Force Research laboratory where he worked as a mathematician."

San Juan River Report (by Jay Walden @ Abe's Flyshop):
01/20/13

While thinking about this week's topic for the fishing report, I was reminded of a story about a local guide that has a reputation for speaking his mind and telling everyone (including his clients) exactly--"how it is." The story goes, that after enduring his client's excessive false casting for about as long as he could take, he told the client to "put it in the water--there's no fish up there!" Kind of reminds me of another story about the time I was fishing here with a much more experienced fisherman than myself and he yelled downriver, inquiring as to whether I was catching any fish. After I replied "no", he asked if I could see any fish there. When I replied "no" once again, he asked me-- "then why are you fishing there?" That question's profound, simple wisdom, still sticks with me today and no doubt, has changed the way I fish and, I think, has made me a more effective fisherman. On tailwaters such as the San Juan, where the fish are plentiful and the water clarity generally very good, I'm a firm believer that you can increase your catch rates considerably, if you learn to sharpen your skills in "sight fishing." Sure, there's instances where the light may be bad, or the water may be off color, or there's a far bank you want to cover that you can't get close enough to observe fish, or the run may be too deep to see fish holding in deeper water; but for the most part, if you work a little bit on your ability to see fish, you can increase your chance in the "catching" part of the game, just by eliminating the part of the equation that has you fishing where there are no fish. For starters, it pays "to look before you leap" and take the time to really look at and "into" the water, before you start to wade. Stand still at the edge, or on the bank and thoroughly examine the water, allowing your eyes to adjust to the light and observe the contours of the bottom, the rocks, the sand, the vegetation, the swirls made by the current on the surface, concentrating on anything that has the outline, or part of an outline, that resembles a fish. Learn to look for movement--rocks and sticks generally don't swim--and train your eyes to spot just a fin, a tail, a shadow on the bottom, a spot of silver, a stripe of red, or for the white of the inside of a mouth, of a feeding trout. Invest in a good pair of polarized glasses--you'll be surprised at the difference in the number of fish you'll be able to spot, by the reduced glare from a quality pair of shades. Next, it won't do you a lot of good if you're spotting fish in water that makes for very difficult, or impossible presentation of your fly. Look around--can you make a backcast, here? Is there proper current to get a drift? My philosophy for the San Juan is that since there are so many fish in so many accessible places and they are generally easily approached, I won't waste my time looking for them in really tough spots, unless I happen to spot one that is truly remarkable, in such a place. Finally, work on positioning yourself in the most advantageous spot possible, to work your fish. Most fish here aren't that spooky and you can get pretty close to them and improve your odds, by putting yourself in a spot that requires a shorter cast, thus easier line management. Keep your eyes on the fish as you move into position. This is important because looking away for just a second may cause you to lose your fish, due to a change in your sight perspective caused by your repositioning and you want to get close, but not too close. Pick out that one fish and lock on the radar, observe his depth, the speed of the current, and any quirks of the drift, and adjust your weight and indicator, accordingly. Make your cast without taking your eyes off the fish and observe what happens. If he moves when your flies approach, or you see the tell-tell white of the inside of his mouth, lift the rod tip. Learn to watch the indicator at the same time as watching the fish, it won't always move, but a change in speed, or slight tick, may indicate a take. Often as not, the movement of the fish will be your guide, rather than the indicator. If nothing happens, cast a few more times before adjusting your weight, or indicator, and in the words of the great Lefty Kreh- "The last thing to change, is the fly." As for fishing conditions this week, expect some very cold weather, with water levels of about 350 cfs and visibility of about 2 feet or so. Effective fly choices include egg patterns, red and cream larva, and the usual assortment of midge pupa, emergers, and dries in sizes 24 to 28. Leeches and buggers are working; as well, and are especially effective when trailed with midge larva patterns. If you would like to book a guided trip, need accommodations, or more info, give us a call at 505-632-2194.       

12/11/12:

One of the guides here in the shop commented that my fishing reports always seem to reflect the good parts of fishing and seem to leave out those parts like falling in the river, or snagging your fly in the willows. In an effort to be fair to all, I must admit that I have and continue to have, my fair share of run-ins with Murphy's Laws Of The River. You know, those axioms of fly-fishing like:  You've finally figured what they're taking, but you just broke off the last one in your box, on that last fish. No matter where you decide to cross the river, the last two steps to the far bank are always over your waders. Your worst tangle of the entire day will come when there are rising fish all around you and it's just a slight bit too dark to re-tie. That one final falsecast will always land in the top of the highest tree around. And always, no matter how calm it is, the wind will always, always start blowing, when the hatch starts and you tie on a dry fly. There are oh so many more, but due to the brevity of this article, I'll limit them to the few mentioned above. Now that we've gotten that out of the way, let's talk about San Juan fishing for this up coming week. For starters, it's going to get cold, especially during the first part of the week. The kind of cold that calls for knocking ice out of your guides, cold. The kind of cold that makes you wonder if maybe there is something more important you need to take care of, rather than fish on that particular day. Fortunately for me, I have a Scots-Irish heritage, which means I am stubborn and probably won't come up with a reason not to go out. It also means I like to have a little drink now and then, but I'm just too cheap to buy it, for myself. Anyway, you can expect to see the midge activity pick up around 10:30 or so and you can have some good results on small midge dry patterns for a few hours. The late evening midge hatches we were seeing when the weather was a bit warmer, don't seem to be as prevalent as before and the fish that are rising during that time seem to be few and really spread out. The BWOs haven't really been out in numbers lately, but with the change in weather we are expecting that could possibly change, so bring some comparaduns, or sparkle duns it you decide to come out. When you are not seeing surface activity, red and cream larva are good choices for you nymph rigs and grey and chocolate foam wings are working, as well. I did have to work a little harder than I have been accustomed to for my fish this past week, but I would still rate the experience as good to very good, overall. The water level is still around the mid 300 cfs level and the clarity is still very good, with no lake turnover yet. This translates to some slow moving currents in lots of parts of the river and makes the fish somewhat picky eaters, due to the fact they have a long time to look at your offerings, so I've gone to 7x for my dries, and it seems to have helped. You do need to be on your game for the ones that you can coerce to eat, because just like a good soufflé, they won't rise twice. Well, looks like I need to go digging through the closet for some more layers, Monday will be here before you know it. Hope you can make it out and if you need to book a guided trip, room accommodations, or more info, give us a call at 505-632-2194. A special shout-out to Clayton Gist who was out again this week from Tennessee, it's always a pleasure swapping stories with you.         

Gunnison River Fishing Report

General Information:

Fishing Conditions (out of 10): 4

Date: 12-8-12—12-9/12

Watershed: Gunnison River (Black Canyon—Ute Trail/Park).

Time/Time on Water:         Day 1: 1245-345pm; Day 2: 9-11am.

Weather Conditions:

         a) Temp—Day 1—Sunny, cool but warm; Day 2—cold.

         b) Sky—Clear, Sunny, then cloudy

         c) Wind—Yes, heavy to moderate at times

         d) Precip—Snow overnight.

H20:

a)   Temp—cold.

b)   Flow—Lower Gunnison at Delta, CO ~444 cfs.

c)   Clarity—Clear (greenish color).

d)   Runoff—None.    

Hatch: Midges (pm) day 1, small mayflies, and some type of caddis/butterfly/moth looking critter late PM (only saw 1).

Directions: “Ute Trailhead off of Peach Valley Rd. Ute Trail General description: Long winding trail from the ridge into the Gorge, then along the river. Type of trip: Out-and-back day or overnight hike. Distance: 4.5 miles from ridge to river Plus up to 3.5 miles of accessible river. Elevation Drop: 1,200 ft. Difficulty: Moderate to difficult. Grades are not steep but it is uphill most of the way. Maps: Trails Illustrated Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park/Gunnison Gorge Recreation Area or USGS “Black Ridge”

Options: Camp for up to 2 nights at one of the 4 designated hiker campsites. You can hike along the river all the way up to the Bobcat Trail if you’re willing to climb over the rock formation across from Buttermilk Rapids. Start point: Take Peach Valley Rd. to Ute Trail turn off. Immediately after passing the BLM sign take the road to the left and follow it up to the ridge. This access road is 2.4 miles over rough dirt and rock and dead ends at the trailhead. A 4-wheel drive vehicle strongly recommended. It’s impassable when wet. Facilities: shaded picnic table, grill, outhouse, fee & trail information signs, trail register & fee pay slot.

The grade is not too steep and the path is clear and easy to follow as you descend through mountain mahogany, sage, juniper, pinyon, and prickly pear cacti. As you descend into the gorge, you’re literally walking down through the geological ages, starting with the most recent softer sedimentary deposits at the ridgeline down to the oldest, the dark, hard metamorphic rock at river level. The trail continues to drop down and parallels the river passing a teepee (in summer, a BLM ranger station) almost to Buttermilk rapid. The Utes used this trail to migrate from their winter camping ground along the Gunnison and Uncompaghre rivers to the high country of the West Elk Mountains for the spring and summer months. For those sure of foot and unaffected by heights, the river is accessible all the way up stream to Bobcat Trail by passing over the rock formation across from Buttermilk rapid.”

Flies/Equipment: 3 fly nymph set up with heavy split shot and bobber indicator on long heavy leader (6wt). Red SJ Worm, BH Princes 12-16, PT’s 16-18, streamers (black wolly buggers/purple leeches). 

Fish (# Hookups/Landed): Total 3/7. KS 1/3 Matt 2/4 (2 browns, first at 14 inches, 2^nd smaller around 11-12 inches.   

Detailed Synopsis:

         Saw lots of Juniper trees (berries), prickly-pear cacti, and yucca. Similar terrain to RG Gorge.  4.5 mile hike (9 mi round trip to campsite #20) from rim to river.  Met Kile at Intercept Lot at 7am Saturday morning.  We decided there would be more room in his truck, especially with all the gear and the two dogs. We drove through Redstone than over McClure Pass, going past the turn for Dean’s Place (Bar ZX Ranch) on the left before getting to Paonia Reservoir (which was mostly dried up).  Then go through small seedy coal mining town called Somerset (est. 1896).  Stopped at the Hotchkiss City Market for some food/drinks. Originally we planned on shooting birds (pheasant/grouse?) but we decided to just fish instead.  Go almost all the way to Delta, CO, and turn off near Olathe to get on Peach Valley Rd (which has access to 4 hiking trails down to river: Ute, Duncan, Bobcat, and Chukar.  Parked at the top of small saddle at nice BLM parking lot on long steep and bumpy dirt road.  Payed $10 camping fee/per person/per night, loaded up the backpacks with clothes, fishing gear, food, and water filter.  Took about 1.5 hours to hike down to river.  It is a long, slow gradual decent with 2 flat top mesas inbetween, with a few steep switchbacks mixed in for fun. Saw 1 older guy running down there on trail, and 1 party of 3 day hikers/fishers on our way out.  There were reel makers for Ross Reels out of Montrose, CO.  Told us about a really good “secret spot” to fish.  This was the classic looking island/boulder pool/run that we stopped and looked at on our way down (See Map 1, Below). Had to walk down a drainage/valley (no trail) to access it on foot, or wade across the river to get there from above. The small trio consisted of an older gentleman (talkative one), older woman, and a younger 30 yr old gentleman and 2 dogs.  He told us that the fishing has been really good down there lately, and that he regularly catches big Lake Trout, Kokanee Salmon, 2 lb Brookies, as well as healthy populations of Brown and Rainbow Trout.

This remote section of the river consists of long smooth runs, shallow riffles over gravel and stone river bottom, wide deep pools with cliffs vertical cliffs dropping in, strong backeddies, large boulder strewn pockets, and slow waist deep flats at the tail ends of pools.  Wading is difficult due to the nature of the river consisting of large, slippery river rocks and boulders, frigid cold knee to chest deep water, and fast and swift currents.  Casting presents another challenge altogether.  We were throwing 6 weight, 9 foot rods with heavy nymph rigs and big black wooly buggers.  Banks were typically lined with tall grass and vegetation. Casts needed to be long 30-50+ feet of line in order to hit the seams or soft spots that might hold fish.  Due to the volume and velocity of water you couldn’t get much closer than this so longer casts were required in order to present the fly effectively.   

Cool fly-tying tutorial website:
http://molecularworkshop.com/tying/pl/q_tying.pl

Realistic Flies:
http://johanput.nl/

Formula for estimating a trout's weight: 
(length x girth x girth)/900

According to production fly tier AK Best, "You don't really know how to tie a fly until you've tied a hundred dozen." One secret to making the BWO ride flush in the surface film is to raise the tail just slightly from the plane of the hook shank. Do this by building up a slight thread bump at the tail above the hook barb. It helps to flatten the thread slightly by twirling the bobbin counter-clockwise to undo the natural twist in tying thread (http://globalflyfisher.com/tiebetter/bwos/).  Essentially fly tying is, "the art of attaching feathers, fur, wool, and silk to a tiny hook to create artificial lures that imitate insects, a skill easily mastered by anyone who can peel a grape blindfolded with a pair of tweezers and a butter knife while wearing oven mitts."  "It's not that I find fishing so important, it's just that I find all other endeavors of Man equally unimportant... And not nearly as much fun!" Robert Traver, Anatomy of a Fisherman.

Flies for sale

Professional, locally-tied trout flies for $2.25 per fly (plus shipping). Ask about custom designed flies. Matt can be reached through email at mattrosett@gmail.com or by phone at 505-506-7051.

Lots of people ask me if I sell flies I tie.  Sometime I have done so in the past, but the question keeps coming up, so I decided to set up a website selling hand-crafted locally tied- flies. Currently, I can do a small range of flies in different sizes and colors, but this will be expanded in the future. If you have any special requests, please don’t hesitate to contact me with type of flies you want. All flies are tied on the highest quality hooks with the best materials available. 

                     Shouldn't have eaten the Brassie               Army of caddis emergers