Best fly fishing in all of NM is in the quality water below the dam of Navajo Reservoir.
San Juan:
I can say I've fished it a few times, and caught some big trout on tiny flies. None of them had much in the way of lips though. Well exercised fish. One can wander about and hear 4 or 5 languages spoken in a matter of minutes. I lean toward more of a wilderness experience.
I hear you. Back in the mid 90's Spiney Mountain Reservoir was a paradise to fish here in CO. But then it became like fishing in a bowl of Cheerios with a few power boats to evade. The "Dream Stream" below that was great also until it was "discovered" and literally bus loads of fisherman were brought in. One of the last days I fished it was during what was locally called the "humpy hatch" you could catch 30-40 fish a day on a size 16 humpy. Then a couple of bus loads of guides and fisherman showed up and lined the banks for about a 1/4 of a mile all short line nymph fishing right next to one another.
I find much more fun in small streams fishing for browns, brookies and cuts. When I do take to lake fishing it's usually for warm water fish much less crowded and warm water fish aren't to finicky.
