Having just returned from my trip to Argentina and Chile, and having taken over 1,500 photos! I thought that I'd share a few with you.
The first part of the trip was for Golden Dorado and Piranha up in Northern Argentina. It really was a fabulous place, so much wildlife and the people, food, wine etc. were fantastic. Dorado are awesome fighters, a great species to catch on a fly-rod. Didn't get any huge fish, but I was more than happy with what I did land. Any salmonoid that can bite through 20lbs, 49 strand stainless steel wire has my utmost respect and undivided attention! I hooked 19 on the first day, landing just 4! There’s me thinking sea-trout were bad. I fished in 2 very different areas and with 2 different lodges, both of which offered and provided something very different. The first was on the Pirana river and its tributaries. Wow, what a river. When faced with the river, which was in flood, typical, I told the guide; “this is the biggest river I’ve ever seen” to which he replied; “what you see in front of you is an island, the main channel is the other side of that”! Supposedly it was 15km wide where we were fishing! A bit far to wade across. Even with the high flows (a flood means a different thing on a river of this immensity) the fishing was pretty good and the guide put me over fish, my fault for being a numty and not landing them.
The second lodge was in the Iberian Marshlands, a spectacular place, very rich in wildlife with nature popping out of every crevice – never seen so many partridges! The fishing here was some 150km from the Brazilian border, and the river was at summer levels. The fishing was first class in the morning and the evenings. The river was rife with piranha, which soon lose their appeal. 2 flies = one piranha, and after taking around 15 minutes to dress each fly before the trip you soon learn to lift the fly out of the water once it gets into dead water. However, piranha, once you managed to get one hooked, are superb fighters with a very dogged fight, much like that of a trevally.
The temperature was a warming 30-35 degrees, which made a pleasant change from the cold and wet weather I left at home. Mosquitoes were few and far between, thank god. The food, wine, and company were superb. I will be back for more of that! Here are some photos from the first leg of the trip.
The next leg of the trip took my down to Tierra Del Fuego - both the Chilean and Argentinean sections. Firstly we fished on a little river I know in Argentina and I knew held reasonable levels of; brown, rainbow, sea-trout, and brook-charr. We fished for half a day and caught 12 sea-trout, with the largest of the day, a fish of around 15lbs, parting company with me. Great start to the trip nevertheless. We also had residents up to around 3lbs. Here are some shots from that one:
To be continued....
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Argentina/Chile trip February 2007
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