San Juan River, New Mexico

Upper Quality Waters, dam to Texas Hole

The Quality Waters run 3.75 miles from Navajo Dam down to the Crusher Hole day use area, all of it inside Navajo Lake State Park with parking lots and trails on both banks. The upper end below the dam (the Cable Hole, Upper Flats and the Braids) is the most technical water on the river: shallow, slow channels where fish sit in plain sight and eat size 22 midges. Simon Canyon on the north side is the walk-in access for the braids.

Texas Hole and the lower Quality Waters

Texas Hole, reached from the Texas Hole parking area off NM-511, is the deep pool where the Braids rejoin and the most crowded spot on the river; the drift boats launch here too. Below it the Lower Flats, the Kiddie Pool and the water down to Crusher Hole are faster and less pressured. The Quality Waters are catch and release, single barbless hook, artificial flies or lures, and no more than two flies on a line.

Below Crusher Hole

Below the Quality Waters the river is open to standard limits and bait down toward Aztec; local shops call it the Quantity Waters. Fish are more willing and smaller on average, though this reach holds a good share of the river's browns, and the lower river toward Aztec and Bloomfield is streamer water that gets thin when releases drop in winter.

Rainbow trout

Rainbows are the main event and the lodges at Navajo Dam quote 12,000 to 15,000 trout per mile in the Quality Waters. They live on midges, annelids and baetis, with PMDs in early summer and caddis in July and August, and they see enough flies that 6X and 7X tippet and tiny patterns are the norm. Fish measured in the twenties are a realistic goal on any day of the year.

Brown trout

Browns are a minority in the Quality Waters and become a larger share of the catch below Crusher Hole and in the lower river, where streamers on overcast days produce the largest of them. Early and late in the day is their time.

Season and regulations

The San Juan fishes all year because Navajo Dam releases cold water twelve months a year. The Bureau of Reclamation holds winter and spring releases near 300 cfs, summer flows often run 500 to 800 cfs, and spring flushing releases can go to 5,000 cfs for a few weeks in May or June. Fisheads and the other Navajo Dam shops call anything from 300 to 800 cfs good wading and floating water, and this page compares the Archuleta gauge, which sits just below the dam, to that range.

Navajo Dam to Crusher Hole (3.75 miles): catch and release, artificial fly or lure with a single barbless hook, maximum two flies per line. Below Crusher Hole the statewide 5 trout limit and any legal tackle apply. A New Mexico fishing license is required and Navajo Lake State Park day use fees may apply at the parking areas. Check the current New Mexico Department of Game and Fish regulations before you go.