Rio San Juan, "El Reposado Tour"

It was great to see friends and spend time with them and my family on the San Juan. The river fished well enough for us; we all caught fish. My best day was on Friday when I stopped counting fish. We fished the upper flats with very little competition with the river flowing at 500 CFS, more or less. On Saturday, we ventured to the lower flats. The lower flats area didn't have many anglers on it with the exception of the float guide trips that would frequently come by. I only hooked two fish during the morning but both were huge; I lost one before bringing it to the net - it turned and faced me and the hook just popped out, the second one (cutbow) went 19 inches with a thick body. The going pattern for us was the Chocolate Emerger in a #22.

The above photo is my son, J.J. He casted the nypmh, set the hook and reeled in the little trout all by himself. He has fished with a fly rod before and enjoys it.

We BBQ for our dinners. The first night we had rib eye steaks. The second night we ate Nilgai, Axis Deer and pheasant breasts. Both meals were superb.

Unfortunately, it had to come to an end. The gentlemen from Texas had to return home and I had to return to Albuquerque. Not before we had made plans for upcoming trips.

Old Vest

My Old vest is over 20 years old. It is faded and in a couple of places, a little worn. A few years back, a couple of zippers finally gave out and I started to price the new vests available. Some of the prices really surprised me. So, I decided to see if I can refurbish my old vest, or at least, give it a try. I called a couple of tailors to see how much they would charge to change the zippers out and got a few quotes. I started to do the math and the price wouldn't be too far from buying a new vest. Mind you, my mom was a seamstress in her life but at that moment she had too much going on in her life for me to ask her. So, I decided to do it myself. I bought some new heavy duty zippers and went to the task at hand. I remove the old zippers; but, I pinned the hem lines to keep it straight and true. Then, I tacked the zippers in place (after trimming them to fit) and sewed them in (remember my mom was a seamstress, so I got it from her). It worked perfectly. You can see in the photo that one of the zippers needs to be resown but is easy. Then, once I biked back to one of the streams in the local mountains. The access was closed to vehicles but I could use my mountain bike to get back there (I was doing an article for the Albuquerque Tribune on fishing it). Incidently, the fly fishing for browns on the spring creek was great. On the way out, the path I was following got too close to the edge of the slope and it gave way under me and my mountain bike. As I was falling down the slope, my landing net got caught on the bike's seat and got ripped off. My rod was in the tube bungeed to the bike, so it was safe. I sewed it back with a piece of demin; may change it one day for lighter material. Since that day, my wife makes me use a helmet when I ride.

One day, I may have to buy a new vest. I am somewhat traditional towards equipment like that but I do keep my options open. Hopefully, I can get a couple of more seasons out of it.