| We’d been planning this trip for over a year. I had tied flies until I could think of no more color/size/pattern/bead/rubber leg/tube combinations to wind on a hook. I couldn’t believe that one night I went to my tying desk and got settled in, got the tools arranged and sat there looking at the 100’s (literally) of flies I’d already tied and realized that I had spun my last fly for this trip. It was like losing a friend I had spent a lot of time with over the last year.
But now was the time to put together all of the equipment and clothes for nearly three weeks in Argentina and two solid weeks of fishing. When I say “we’d” been planning this trip I am referring to the group I traveled with to two very different fishing destinations; Esquel (Argentine Patagonia), and Rio Grande, in Tierra del Fuego. We fished brown, brook and rainbow trout in rivers, spring creeks and lakes in Esquel and Sea-Run Brown Trout in Tierra del Fuego. Each one was an unbelievably good destination. Both, back to back, are almost hard to take in.
As I have grown to appreciate, trips like this are as much about one’s fishing companions as it is the fish. And this excursion was no exception. Following a power point presentation to the Wenatchee Valley Fly Club, in Wenatchee, Washington (where I used to live), 4 friends and fishing partners called me and said that they wanted to join me on this adventure. At first it was only to Tierra del Fuego, but they thought (and rightly so) that since they were in Argentina anyway, lets try something in Patagonia. Perfect! I had heard a lot about the great fishing provided by Raul San Martin’s outfitter business, Ghia de Pesca, out of Esquel, Argentina. I made the arrangements with him to go there first, before Rio Grande. What a good move this was. Joining us on this first leg of the trip was a professional photographer and his brother who were at the beginning of a 3-month long adventure photographing, fishing and camping their way through South and Central America. It would take a book to relate every day of fishing so allow me to condense it some. Believe me, if you would like to hear more, just give me a call. For the first three days, our base camp was in the beautiful Los Alerces National Park at “El Aura” wilderness resort.
The word “camp” is used very loosely. El Aura is a luxury resort with 4 cabins with two bedrooms each. The food and service was outstanding. But, we were there for the fishing. Quite honestly, we could have stayed in tents and been happy. A few of us fished a tiny spring creek, El Canal, that was choked with downed logs and its banks were lined with brush and trees. There was no room for a back cast of any kind so getting a fly to a sighted fish required a bow and arrow or a roll cast, for the browns and bows up to 20” and longer. Didn’t get a lot of them, but each one was a rewarding challenge. Closer to its mouth where is empties into the much larger and fast-flowing Rio Rivadavia, the creek widened out and the banks were clear of trees and brush and more normal casting was possible. Due to heavy rainfall a few days earlier the creek overflowed into some weedy, grassy field areas. Fish were making their way into this area and I was able to stalk a few feeding fish in knee deep water and fish to them flats style. Catching them in this weed-choked environment was fun stuff! Those in our group who floated the Rio Rivadavia met us at the mouth of the creek for a wonderful lunch, after which, all of us were able to fish the lower, more spread-out creek mouth, casting to sighted fish in the 16 – 20 inch range with a few measuring even larger. The Rio Rivadavia was fast floating and a little slow fishing. It also was very high and, although crystal clear, presented difficult fishing conditions, but some nice fish were caught and all enjoyed the float. And this was just the first day. The next days saw us fishing the lakes and interconnecting
rivers of the park. We fished Lago Kruger and Verde, Rio Arrayanes
and Estrecho de Los Monstrous. Foam-bodied dries, Parachute Adams
and streamers were among the best of the patterns. It wasn’t
over-the-top-a-fish-a-cast type fishing. We had to work for the
fish, but that made it fun and interesting. The waters were crystal
clear and it was always fun watching the fish approach and take
the dries. We had two mostly cloudy days with some rain thrown in
for good measure. The fish were in the 15 – 18 inch range
with a few longer. All were hard fighting and the dry fly takes
in the gin clear waters were sometimes heart-stopping. |
After three days of fishing in the park, we packed up drove for about 1 1⁄2 hours to Esquel to stay at Cumbres Blancas Hosteria for the next three days of fishing. Where Los Alerces was forest and mountains, Esquel was more open and more arid with mountains surrounding the picturesque city. Here we fished Arroyo Pescado, Lago Willymanco and Rio Grande. Arroyo Pescado was a welcome relief from the cooler, wetter weather we had in the mountains. It was a dry, warm, sunny day with some strong winds (can’t have everything). This open-banked spring creek has a lot of fish in it- mostly rainbows -and they were willing to take a variety of patterns from smaller Para Adams to Wooly Buggers. It was very shallow and a lot of the angling was sight fishing to actively feeding trout. We all caught a lot of fish and had a great time. The fish ranged from about 12 to 20 inches. At times it was almost “gimme” fishing and other times demanded perfectly placed flies with no-drag presentations. Good variety! The next day was calm, bright and warm at Lago Willymanco; a private lake with very limited access. They grow the rainbows big here. We had boats for deeper water and also did some wade fishing in very clear, shallow, flats type water to some very persnickety, overweight rainbows. We were treated to an asado (Argentine-style grilled meats, beef and lamb) served with some of the best Malbec wines on earth. It was way too much and way too good. A little siesta afterward made this day just about perfect. Little mini leeches, scuds, and damsel nymphs were the tickets for fishing. The Rio Grande (locally known as Futaleufu – futa meaning big and leufu for river), on our last fishing day in this area, was fished from outboards that also served as drift boats as we made our way down-stream, alternately using the motor and then drifting and fishing certain stretches. This is big water (as its name suggests) and we caught several fish in the 14” – 17” range with one huge brown caught that was well over 24 “. Another fine day spent fishing with friends. We ended our stay with Raul and his guides, Alvaro and Jeronimo, joining us for dinner that night at the hotel (where the meals were delicious). We were by now used to the late dinner hours. We regularly ate dinner, now, at 11:00 PM – 12:30 AM, as is customary throughout Argentina.
Next was a long travel day, driving across Argentina to Trelew to catch a flight to Ushuaia (the southernmost city on Earth). It was interesting to watch the landscape change from mountains to the very arid, no-trees-in-sight-anywhere topography as we worked our way east across the country to its Atlantic coast. Ushuaia is a fun town with lots of shops, restaurants and hotels and is set on the coastline with rugged mountains surrounding it. Winter sports are big here and there is enough fly fishing around to support a small fly shop in the downtown area. I would have liked to have had another day here to see more of the surrounding area. We were picked up the next afternoon and driven to Despedida Lodge on the Rio Grande; home of the biggest escapement of sea-run brown trout on the planet. We hoped to make the acquaintance of some of them during the following week. And we were not disappointed. In a land that literally has no tress, it was somewhat of a surprise to find the lodge a log-built structure. But it did not seem out of place. On the contrary, it was right at home (like a house on the prairie) and was the perfect place to spend the next week. It houses a very limited number of anglers (6 plus myself as host of the group), has a homey atmosphere, superb service, great hosts, Danny and Ozzy, a superb collection of jazz and old rock and roll CDs, and one would be hard pressed to find more delicious meals and wine anywhere. Period.
Two more anglers joined our group, here. They fit right in. It was a great group of guys. Every evening we ate our late night dinners, laughed a lot at each other’s stories, picked up on a few different fishing techniques, listened to some great music and topped off each night with a single malt toasting another day on the river before getting to bed around 1:30 or 2:00 AM. I got right into the system there: Breakfast, guide pickup at 8:00AM, fish until 1:00, Lunch (a major meal), siesta until guide pickup again at 6:00 PM, fish until 11:00, Dinner (major, major meal) which was usually over about 1:00AM, sleep until breakfast. Repeat 5 more days. I am telling you, I liked it.
We got to fish every beat twice during the week. Beats with names like 33 (it is said that one guy, one day caught 33 sea-trout here), Middle, Tommy, and Arturo (probably the best producing beat with the biggest and most sea-trout caught from this pool). The river was running low and only a little off-color (you could barely see your wading boots when the water was crotch deep). The river temperatures were mostly in the low to upper 50’s. There were many bright fish in the water, but they were not overly eager to take our flies. We all caught several fish and many over 15 pounds (our group of 7 had 5 fish over 20 pounds), but I think everyone had at least one fishless day during the week. The major bite was just before sundown from about 9:00 to 11:00 PM. The air temps were in the 40’s to 60’s. No appreciable amount of rain fell while we were there. We had a few mostly calm days and a few days when the gale force flags were flying with the rest showing us mild to gusty breezes. In other words, NO EXCUSES! There were no days that we couldn’t fish with the utmost certainty of catching fish. Even the heavy winds posed more problems for walking than they did for fishing. And I think everyone is looking for bragging rights for toughing it out in the heaviest of winds. Luckily, it wasn’t cold.
Fishing techniques varied from floating lines and skating flies (several fish raised and a few caught this way) to using every type of sink tip line from 15’ type III, to 300 and 400 gr heads. We used and caught fish on smallish #8 EMB Rubberlegs, on mongo 4 – 6” tube flies (the biggest fish – 27 pounds! – was caught on a large black and red tube fly) and everything in between.
The evening sunset skies are breathtaking and
are almost worth the trip just to experience them. You don’t
just “see” them; you are a part of them. You are inside
them looking at the far edges 360 degrees around you. Then if you
add a fish or two in the mix, well……… I think
most of you know what I mean.
Comments
and questions are welcome. |
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