The flow never ramped back up to 500cfs as advertised. In fact, it stayed low (around 300cfs) for our whole trip. We arrived in the afternoon of 11/14 and left in the morning of 11/19.

For the most part, the fishing was at or below average in my experience. There were bugs emerging, but it wasn’t the OH WOW hatch I was expecting. So, midge larvae, pupae, etc… ruled the character of the fishing. There were a few baetis in the afternoon, but it wasn’t what I’d call enough for the fish to key on.

Even so, all of us caught fish, and Bill Elk, probably the least experienced of us all, caught THE fish fo the trip - a 21” Rainbow - but of course nobody saw it but him. Typical fish story, I suppose.

We rented a place called the Octogon Inn right in the small community of Navajo Dam on the river. It was opulent compared to the normal camping we do there. I highly recommend a stay there, especially if the weather is a bit harsh.

Speaking of the weather, it was pretty cold in the mornings, but it warmed up quickly enough that we were quite comfortable on the water all day long. I’d say low 20s in the morning all the way into the high 50s during the day.

The one thing I think I’d say about the San Juan now is that there is a pretty heavy load of Didymo in the river. Normally, I don’t see as much as I did this trip. Might have something to do with the low flows. I’d love to see a flush of about 2 days to see if that would eliminate so much snot on the rocks.

Of the 5 of us fishing on this trip, 4 of us were throwing Coast to Coast made rods. Get yourself one - SOON!