San Juan - 7/14 -7/21

[PowellBride]

Spent 10 wonderful days on the SJ avoiding Crocs and Zombies, also fighting gnats and spiders. Not sure which is more dangerous!

Fishing was good, especially for the heat of July, though wit was too hot to fish more than a few hours each day. We easily readily caught 20+ SMB & LMB per person in 1-2 hours every day. Fished from Cha to just below the Big Bend. Both SMB & LMB were generally lager and fatter than in years past. We each caught a few NICE LMB that were just plain fun to reel in (plus a couple more that got away). No Stripper fishing, we saw several slurps but no full blown boils.

Also our first play trip with the new Ranger. Gotta say its nice and I am spoiled!

Not a lot of boats for the SJ, but those wake creating monsters were in abundance for the boats that were in the area. We spotted Trash Tracker heading up river late on the 20th, then spotted their camp while fishing the bay outside Piute on Saturday. Planned to go say hello and introduce ourselves, but got chased in by rain and winds

 

[Docker]

Some nice fish. And a purdy boat!

 

[Tiff Mapel]

Nice fish! I never caught anything, and had one bite. We beached in Piute Bay on what we called "Burro Beach." Lots of burros when we arrived. Sorry we missed you! We were in that spot all week, and left it on Weds. morning. Had our share of wind, rain, thunder, and lightning. And lots of trash. We had a great six days on the Juan. Stayed in Padre Bay on Weds. evening. Crazy busy with lots of boats and traffic, and saw fireworks in both Padre Canyon, and Kane Wash. I really like the peace, serenity, and solitude of the San Juan.

Tiff

 

[PowellBride]

Nice fish! I never caught anything, and had one bite. We beached in Piute Bay on what we called "Burro Beach." Lots of burros when we arrived. Sorry we missed you! We were in that spot all week, and left it on Weds. morning. Had our share of wind, rain, thunder, and lightning. And lots of trash. We had a great six days on the Juan. Stayed in Padre Bay on Weds. evening. Crazy busy with lots of boats and traffic, and saw fireworks in both Padre Canyon, and Kane Wash. I really like the peace, serenity, and solitude of the San Juan.

Tiff

Now Tiff - There is no peace, serenity or solitude on the SJ - Zoombies and Crocs spoil all that!!

We could see the Trash Tracker on Burro beach from where we were fishing on Saturday, I even packed Margs to share. Stupid wind and lightening. Unfortunately we had to head up river first thing on Sunday morning. Maybe next time.

 

[DQDanny]

sooo...PowellBride & company......how was your ice supply during your trip. I believe you mentioned you tried some solar & a freezer? Were there iced cocktails every evening after a hot afternoon?

 

[PowellBride]

Considering it was 103+ everyday, we’re pretty pleased. We managed to make about 30 lbs of ice a day (our goal was 40lbs). Used the ice to cool beverages in the boat coolers on the two speedboats and prechill beverages and Margs for cocktail hour in a cooler on the front deck. We are short a few solar panels ( next springs project) but used the generator to supplement charging the batteries for 1/2 hr in the morning and 1/2 hr before bed.

I think one of our issues is the sun exposure on the freezer on the top deck. Need to see if we can create some shade around the freezer. Tried wrapping it with reflectix, but that didn’t let the freezer expell the heat it creates. I’m also wondering if we have an issue with the cooler being too large. The 4 trays we are using to create the 1.7lb cubes only fill 1/2 of the cooler. I’m wondering if we’d have more luck if we started with 4 to 6 blocks of ice to keep the freezer mostly full.

The cubes we did get were SOLID, a nice change from what we get from Aramark.