Dry Fly on the San Juan River

I have said many times that the San Juan River is not a dry fly river. And for the most part this is true. I mean you can catch fish on the dry, but usually you have better luck nymphing. However there are times that this is reversed like this time. Usually its when the sky is overcast, and occasionally with light rain, you will get some epic hatches. I mean, there is always midges out and about, but not too many larger fish are going to spend the effort to move to a single tiny midge. However when small BWO hatches happen, or the midge hatch is so thick there are clusters of them on the surface, the fish will start coming to the surface. When you see this, you might have one of the best times of your life fishing! Throw on a small dry fly and have at it. A better combo than I had on this trip would have been a Griffiths knat dropped to the small matts midge. The matts midge is a great imitator of a single midge, and the Griffiths imitates clusters off midges. It would be nearly impossible to see the single matts midge though with a cast further than a couple feet, so the Griffiths or some other indicator type fly is needed.