The San Juan River, particularly the tailwater fishery in the first 15 miles or so below Navajo Dam in extreme northwestern New Mexico, would by most accounts make the top ten of "destination" fly fishing locales nationwide. Even today, when its fishery is, by common opinion, not what it was a few short years ago, and its management beset by controversy. I got a taste of the fishing possibilities, and an earful on the management debates, on a recent trip to Farmington.
First, the State Game Commission at the Farmington meeting May 29 prohibited the use of more than two flies in the "quality waters" of the San Juan - the first four miles below the dam where bait is already prohibited and single, barbless hooks are the rule. Some anglers, and guides, had taken to stringing out two or three or more dropper flies and the result, many felt, was the unnecessary snagging and injury of trophy trout almost all of which are scheduled for release in that section.
That was the easy part. I got the bigger picture of management debate the next day when Oscar Simpson of the National Wildlife Federation and I went fishing with guides Larry Johnson and T.J. Massey of Soaring Eagle Lodge, plus Marc Wethington.of New Mexico Game & Fish.
We put in near "Texas Hole" dispersed between two drift boats and began to drift, fish, and talk our way downstream. The main issues, I learned from Johnson, are flow rates and erosion leading to sediment loading of the riverbed. "The Bureau of Reclamation (BoR)," Johnson said, "manages the release from Navajo Lake to satisfy water users downstream — the Navajo, irrigators and others. We (fishermen) aren't water rights holders so we're at the bottom of the list....we don't get much attention." Wethington said releases were also timed and controlled by requirements of two endangered fish in waters downstream too warm for trout - the Colorado pikeminnnow and the razorback sucker. Their requirements, at least as the BoR interprets them, can also lead to low flows. "When they (BoR) raises or lowers the release from one extreme to the other, that's bad for the (trout) fishery," Johnson said. The low extreme, a 250 cfs minimum, depletes habitat and kills fish though Johnson said that in his opinion such low flows "have not been prolonged." Erosion into the stream, all agreed, has multiplied with the increase in oil and gas development in the nearby uplands, mostly on BLM land. At Simon Canyon, where we stopped for lunch, I was told of one recent storm event "that sent a load of run-off down the wash where it ended up a wall of silt that went clear across the river." Heavy siltation affects the river's insect population. A 2002 Game & Fish study said, "There are approximately 100,000 bugs per square meter on the river, " the main reason the San Juan's browns and rainbows average about 16 inches per catch, are thick-bodied and muscular, and not uncommonly reach 20-inches-plus. One indication of the fishery decline due to siltation problems, loss of bugs, and effects of ill-timed water releases was offered by Wethington. "At the peak (about 2002)," Wethington said, "there were 70 to 80 guides working this section of the San Juan. Now there are 30 to 40." Stronger comments regarding BoR priorities and BLM oil and gas management came from Andreas Novak, a Farmington angler who has fly fished from the river's bank two or three times a week since 1983. Novak said he has been "stunned" by the number of oil and gas developments, and attendant roads, that have been put in over recent years. "It's led to erosion like never before," he said. "Most of the fish now are above Rex Smith Wash (the first major drainage below the dam), and where I used to fish the whole four miles of the quality waters, now I just fish the first mile and a half." Novak has seen far too much of 250 cfs minimum flows to suit him. "A flow rate of 250 to 350 cfs for six months in the middle of the winter equals a fish kill," he said. "Similar flow rates have been documented from 2002 through 2006. The BoR program is "horde and dump'; they manage the water for what they call "present and future projects', like the (proposed) Navajo Project and Desert Rock coal fired plant which include provisions for water out of Navajo Lake. Yet air quality in San Juan County is already 6th worst in the nation, right up there with big cities like L.A. (Los Angeles). I'd like to see a minimal flow of at least 750 cfs, 1000 cfs would be better, with a 5000 cfs maximum in the spring which I believe is a good thing for the fishery." Is the glass half full (Johnson) or half empty (Novak)? Regardless, 5000 cfs is just what Oscar and I contended with that day. "Tough fishing," Johnson said, as he tied on a #18 San Juan worm and even smaller #24 midge dropper, tiny flies in my experience that imitate some of the San Juan's food base. "Why would a trophy trout bother?" I thought. Yet our strike indicators kept dipping under. Oscar, who claims he is no fly fisherman, landed two rainbows and a brown in the 15 to 16 inch range. I hooked three myself, lost two (one at the net) before finally landing a roughly 16-inch rainbow that was easily the heaviest trout at that length I've ever seen. T.J. handled the net quite nicely. A few days after we left, Johnson reported a client had just caught a 27-inch brown that went 9 lbs. Since the browns in the San Juan, unlike the rainbows, are naturally reproducing, this was a special catch. "The San Juan is still good," Johnson said. "It could be better. I'd like to get a small group together, including guides, local anglers, Game & Fish, State Parks and a few others. If we could come to agreement on what the San Juan needs, we could then go to BoR and BLM as a unified force and maybe influence some changes for the better." "Good idea," I said, though fundamental change for wildlife and recreation will always be tough so long as the water rights are reserved for the consumptive users. I'd say the trout of the San Juan are worth more than a new power plant any day. But we have a hundred years of law and tradition to overcome before instream flows equal consumptive uses of our rivers. A new paradigm is needed in western states water management. For more information on fishing the San Juan, have a look at Larry Johnson's website at: www.soaringeaglelodge.net. Original Source : http://www.lcsun-news.com/ci_9611904?source=most_emailed
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