This week we had 6 guests in the lodge, all of them had already been to Villa Maria many times. They were: Mike, Bill, Dave and Phillip from USA, Jonathan from UK and Gilbert from Belgium.

The fishing was very good during the week. The weather was very nice, sunny and not too windy. Fortunately, the second half of the week we had overcast days which are much better for fishing. The river was low and clear and the temperature of the water was very good, around 12/14 degrees. We caught 95 fish and hooked 136. The average fish p/day p/person was 2,6. Although we are still catching silver and fresh fish, we started to catch more colored fish which means the fall is coming and the fish are preparing to spawn.

It was a very special week for me, last Friday we went fishing with the guide for a couple of hours before the warm up session and I caught a huge 33,5 lbs seatrout! A really monster fish, very fresh, silver chrome! Everything in that fish was perfect, the conditions, the color, the shape the size! It was my biggest seatrout ever and the biggest fish ever caught in Villa Maria Lodge, the previous record was 32 lbs. I used a Z-Axis 12´,9´´ #8, a Rio shooting head S3/S4 with 6 feet of T14 in the tip. As a fly I used a “Martello leech” a very effective patter tied by my friend Ale Martello who is guiding this season in Villa Maria. Apart from this fish, Phillip caught a beautiful 27 pounder male with an intermediate line and a very small fly, well done Phil!

River Conditions: The river was low and clear during the week. The water temperature was good, between 9 to 14 degree Celsius.

Fishing Techniques and flies: We fished with Skaggit lines and Type 8 tips. There were a few pools were we used intermediate tips. Regarding flies, we used mostly leeches, rubber legs and tube flies.

Fish:

- We caught 95 fish and hooked 136 during the week.
- Average fish per rod: 2,6 fish p/rod p/day.
- Biggest fish: 33,5 and 27 pounds.
- The average weight was 10,2 pounds.
- We caught 13 fish over 15 lbs and 11 fish over 20 lbs during the week.
- Biggest of week: Alejandro Bianchetti (33,5 lbs) and Phillip Young (27 lbs)
- Top Rod; Dave Mc Leod with 21 fish.

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---------- Post added at 12:11 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:07 PM ----------

In our seventh week at Kau Tapen we welcomed a group of guests who have been coming to our lodge for more than 15 years. All of them came from the United States.

As usual we started our week with the warm up session, on the afternoon of the day in which our clients arrived. Our guests really appreciate this extra session as no other lodge in the Rio Grande offers it. It’s a perfect chance to try their new tackle, and practice their casting after a long time without fishing before the real fishing week starts and most of the times they even catch a couple of fish.

We had a pretty good week despite the “strange” weather. We had no wind! And it was actually warm and sunny, which is absolutely uncommon in the Rio Grande. We felt like we were fishing anywhere else but in Tierra del Fuego!

We landed 120 fish out of 154 fish hooked. Some of them were really nice fish. This was too a better week in terms of numbers and average fish/day/rod comparing to last season.
We used floating lines, intermediate and slow sinking leaders and long leader as the water was quite still due to the lack of wind. We got a good number of fish on prince nymph, green machine and collie dog.

We also went to the Menendez a couple of times and fished very well. In two hours we caught a 19, 16 and 5 pounder on a single handed rod 8 weight. It was great fun and enjoyed some fantastic fights. When the conditions are right, the Menendez offers great opportunities and the fishing can be very interesting. In other words, I’d dare say that it can be more technical sometimes comparing to the main river. And the excitement of catching a huge fish in a small stream like the Menendez is priceless.

As usual our guests were very happy with the high quality of the food and the service offered at the lodge. The guides team also deserves a special mention!

We look forward to having you here enjoying the great lodging, human and fishing experience that Kau Tapen offers!

Hope to see you soon,

Cheers,

By Jean Baptiste Vidal Fishing Manager Kau Tapen lodge.

Some numbers:
- 120 fish caught hooked 154!
- Average fish per rod: 2,24
- 8 fish above 15 pounds
- 2 fish above 20 pounds.
- Biggest fish: 23 pounds
- Biggest fish of the week was caught by Richard S. from U.S.A..
- Top rod: John D. from U.S.A. with 21 fish.

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---------- Post added at 12:15 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:11 PM ----------

We had some very good days of fishing and some others a bit slow. The changes in the fishing can basically be attributed to the changing temperatures. Some days were extremely hot and the water reached the 19 degrees Celsius. However, most of the catches came when the temperature dropped to 14 degrees Celsius.

Fortunately, we still had a lot of action, with many resident brown trout and also many sea trout. We hooked a total of 45 sea trout, but we only landed 31. The average weight was 11,4 lbs!!, Seven of the fish were between 15 and 20 pounds, and two were above 20 pounds, and we also caught 167 resident brown trout between 3 to 7 pounds in the main river and 109 brown trout in the spring creek Gallegos Chico between that ranged the 2 to 5 pounds.

I would like to thank the guests this week for choosing our lodge. We hope to enjoy their company again and share some more memorable moments in the future.

Tight lines!!!! Gastón

River Conditions: The water level started an inch above normal level and then it started dropping slowly.

Water temperature: between 12ºC and 19 ºC.

Water clarity: Very Clear .

Water level: Only two inches below normal level.

Fishing Conditions: Fishing was tough some days, and very good some others. We caught very nice fish and we ended with an average weight of 11,4 lbs.

We caught 31 sea trout , 9 fish bigger than 15 pounds, we lost 14 sea trout and we also caught lot of resident browns in the main river (167 fish) and the Gallegos chico river (109 fish).

Fly lines used: We used only floating lines (AFS line, PowerSpey Versitip and Skagit Heads) with intermediate tips, floating tips and sometimes and long leader or slow sinking tip depending the pool or water temperature, in the beginning of the week.

Fishing Techniques: The water was flowing fast enough that simply jigging or stripping the line slowly imparted plenty of action.

Flies Used: We used different nymphs with rubber legs during the day and Small streamers at sunset. But the queen of flies during the week was the EMB, which we kept using at any time, with very good results.

Fish: Big fish of the week was 23 pounds, caught by Didier Convers from France. During the week we caught 31 fish . The average weight was 11. 4 pounds.

Conditions of the fish: Most of the fish this week were very fresh an only two turning or Dark.

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This eighth week at Kau Tapen we welcomed a group of new faces and only one angler that had already been to our lodge many times before: Giovanni. He told us great stories about some of the pools in the Rio Grande which had been named after Italian friends of his who had come to Kau Tapen in the past, such us Roberto and Gianmario.

Five of the anglers this week were Russians, 2 Americans, 1 from New Zealand, 1 from United Kingdom and 1 Italian.

All these lucky anglers were responsible for breaking many records of 2011 season. This week was the best in many ways:

- The best week in number of catches, landing 197 fish and with 247 fish hooked.

- The best in average fish per rod per day, with 3,2 fish.

- The biggest fish of the season was also caught this week, being a beautiful 26 pounder very bright just coming from the sea (caught by Marc from U.S.A)

- The best day of the season with 62 fish landed and 83 fish hooked!

The weather was quite nice and not too windy. The water temperature was around 10 °C in average and the fish were on the take.

Our guests were delighted with the action that this week in the Rio Grande was saving for them.

Right now, there are a lot of fish in the river as they are coming up and holding in the pools to get ready to spawn. On Tuesday, we proved that there are fish showing and moving all over the place. It was really exciting (for the guides as well), to find ourselves netting so many fish!

Apart from the fantastic fishing, we were also able to enjoy a great atmosphere at the lodge as our guests got along perfectly well and had lots of fun exchanging stories, laughing and talking as old friends and despite the fact that each of them came from such different cultures.

We fished mostly floating line with intermediate tips and sometimes slow sinking tips. The best flies of the week were the Green machine and the prince nymph even if we got fish on Collie Dogs, rubber legs, and others patterns.

Both our guests and Kau Tapen staff were extremely grateful with the great time that we all had. It’s very rewarding to read their comments in the forms that they filled in before leaving the lodge saying how much they enjoyed their week and remarking the high quality of the service and attention provided by all Kau Tapen staff and guides.

Thanks for another great week!

Cheers,

By Jean Baptiste Vidal Fishing Manager Kau Tapen lodge.

In terms of numbers:

197 fish caught hooked 247!

Average fish per rod: 3,20

17 fish above 15 pounds

4 fish above 20 pounds.

Biggest fish: 26 pounds

Biggest fish of the week was caught by Marc from U.S.A.

Top rod: Dmitry from Russia with 35 fish.

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---------- Post added at 12:08 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:04 PM ----------

Unusual weather conditions for Southern Patagonia made the fishing slow this week. It’s hard to believe that within the last 28 fishing days, 18 of them had no wind and the winds of the other days came from the North West and East quadrants, bringing high temperatures and turning fish activity hard to predict.

On the other hand, while the ideal water temperature for Sea Trout is between 7ºC and 13ºC, this season it ranged the 12 and 22ºC.

Despite these unusual weather conditions, we hooked a total of 25 sea trout, landing only 15 of them. The biggest fish of the week was a 21 pounder, caught by Jeremy Pemberton from Uk. We also had 3 fish over 15 lbs. The average weight of the last ten had been 9,0 lbs but this week it went up to 10,2 lbs. So taking all the conditions into account, we can say that we had a very successful week. We also caught 67 resident browns trout between 3 and 7 pounds in the main river and 24 brown trout in the Gallegos Chico ranging the 2 to 5 pounds. The Gallegos Chico is considered by many anglers one of the best spring creeks in South America.

The river paid all the effort put into learning spey casting and after a lot of hard work our guests started catching sea trout. I would like to thank all our guests for choosing our lodge. We hope to enjoy again the beautiful moments of last week in the future.

Tight lines!!!!

Gaston Guglielminetti

River Conditions: The water level was three inches below the normal level and dropping slowly every day.

Water temperature: between 12ºC and 22 ºC.

Water clarity: Very Clear.

Fishing Conditions: Fishing was tough some days, and good during others due to climate changes. We caught very nice fish and we ended with an average weight of 10,2 lbs!!!!. We caught 15 sea trout: 3 of them bigger than 15 pounds. We lost 10 sea trout and we also caught lot of resident browns in the main river (67 fish) and the Gallegos Chico river (24 fish).

Fly lines used: We used only floating lines (AFS lines and Skagit Heads) with intermediate tips, floating tips and sometimes and long leader

Fishing Techniques: The water was flowing enough so simply jigging or stripping the line slowly imparted plenty of action.

Flies Used: We used different nymphs with rubber legs during the day and Small streamers at sunset. Best flies this week were EMB, ***** Creek, Sunrise shadow occasionally leech or Wooly ******

Fish: Big fish of the week was 21 pounds, caught by Jeremy Pemberton from UK. During the week we caught 15 fish . The average weight was 10,2 pounds.

Conditions of the fish: Most of the fish this week were very fresh and only two turning or Dark.

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---------- Post added at 12:11 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:08 PM ----------

This week we had 6 guests from USA who had already been to Villa Maria many times in the past: Dave W, Jay, Dave B, Mark, Brad and Jim. Once again, the trip exceeded their expectations and they left the lodge having enjoyed the fishing, the food, the service and the hospitality.

We can’t deny that the fishing was a bit tough during the week. The weather was sunny and not too windy and the river was low and clear. However, anglers and guides had to work very hard to get fish. We caught 61 fish and hooked 89. The average fish p/day p/person was 1,75. Although we are still catching silver and fresh fish, we started to catch more colored fish which means the fall is coming and the fish are preparing to spawn.

We had high tides this week, so we are expecting fresh fish and hopefully they will be big. Some rain in the mountains would also be welcomed so that the river rises a few inches!

River Conditions: The River was very low and clear during the week. The water temperature was good, ranging the 9 to 14 degree Celsius.

Fishing Techniques and flies: We fished with Skaggit lines with type 3 and type 8 tips. There were a few pools where we used intermediate and floating tips. We had a couple of fish that rose to skating flies. In what comes to flies, we used mostly small rubber legs, green machines, tube flies and leeches late in the evening.

Fish:

We caught 61 fish and hooked 89.

Average fish per rod: 1,7 fish p/rod p/day.

The average weight was 10,75 pounds.

We caught 14 fish over 15 lbs and 6 fish over 20 lbs during the week.

Biggest fish of the week was 24 pounder caught by Brad Freeburg.

Top Rod; Brad Freeburg with 14 fish.

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