I lost a monster

I lost a MONSTER trout on the San Juan River
If you haven't ever fly fished the quality waters on the San Juan River in New Mexico, you are missing out. Trout are everywhere, and its difficult not to hook a few. The problem there though is that your best bet for hooking trout is with small midges in the 28-32 size verity. Also you need to use really light tippet like 6x. Flourocarbon is best. Because the river is fished quite heavily, the trout come accustom to knowing what is a fly, and what is not, so you need to fish really light. These are not small trout, and therefor its difficult to bring them in. The small hooks rip out of their mouths, and the light tippet snaps when you put any pressure on the fish. Fighting a large trout can take you 10-20 minutes before getting it in, and by that time you have lots of chances to loose them.

This trip was one of the more frustrating I have had on this river. I hooked 3 large trout, and lost all 3. One of those monsters was over 20". Frustrating indeed. However I did manage to land countless other smaller fish. It was a great day though even working through the frustrations.

I was using a rod I tied myself. The blank, and components were purchased from the "hook and the hackle". I find this rod to be excellent for the money, and a great streamer and larger nimphing rod. However it is a bit stiff for what I needed today, and the loss of 3 fish proved it. The rod always preforms well though, especially for casting. You can purchase this exact rod at http://store.hookhack.com/HH-Xi-FLY-ROD-KITS/products/1359/

The reel I was using is a Sage 2250, and the line was Rio Mainstream WF5F, a simple $40 fly line. You don't need much more then the mainstream line on this river due to not having to cast very far often.

I think I would have faired better with a 4wt fly rod that had a bit more bend to it. Less pressure on the fish, and less chance of ripping that hook right out of their mouths. I even bent a hook on one of the fish.