Animas Lunch Report – 3/20/17 – Spring Lasted 4 Minutes
These dudes are ready to kill stuff.
It’s been a fairly busy past 3 months…which is how long it has been since my last Animas Lunch Report. Late winter fishing on the Animas was quite good. Spring fishing was pretty good too, at least all 4 minutes of spring that we had. Today happens to be the first day of Spring, yet the past week or so has felt more like summer. Hell, even the Durango beach was loaded with swim suit clad sunbathers this past weekend. We are not too worried though, April snowstorms tend to do some weird things.
This little heat wave coupled with our absolutely stellar snowpack has made for an interesting…if somewhat nonexistent spring season. Flows just flirted with 1500 cfs today and it seems runoff has begun a little soon on the Animas. It may not last though, the forecast is calling for lower temps with a chance of rain and snow later this week. Hopefully that will open up a nice little streamer chuck n’ strip float window for us. Keep an eye on the flows, and give us a call if you want to get in on this action.
A lot of our SWCO rivers will be experiencing this early flush, so finding fish can be tough right now. That being said, the San Juan River Quality Waters are fishing quite well. The water clarity is a little off, but fish are on the feed when you find them. Standard black midge pupa and annelids are the go-to fare. You may even find fish rising to BWOs below Texas Hole. Our lower elevation lakes are also opening up considerably, and pike fishing is in full swing. Heck, if you can find em, carp are chowing down if you are game for the golden bone of the mountain stillwaters.
Finally, Rob and I were fortunate enough to spend some time in Florida at the beginning of March searching for salty swimmers with our friend Captian Jamie Allen. We will have a full report up soon from our excursion, but this photo pretty much sums up the trip nicely. Oh yeah, and make sure you are coming to our Spring Fly Fishing Festival at the end of the month, and that you have picked up your Fly Fishing Film Tour Tickets in the shop.
