Argentina / Chile 2009 trip report...

Teifi-Terrorist · #1 (**permalink**) 14-04-2009, 01:44 PM

Yes, it’s that time of year again that I get to torture you all with some fish porn from S.America! For those that may be offended turn away now, explicit material follows!

It was a mere 7 week trip this time, which took me from the Northern reaches of Argentina through to the cold and desolate Southern climbs of Tierra-Del-Fuego. It seemed that I had timed the journey right, for once, with rumours of the fishing being on-song.

The adventure started down in Tierra Del Fuego, but certainly not as most fishing trips start on the island. I was invited to dj in the town of Rio Grande on the Saturday I arrived, never being one to miss an opportunity I gladly accepted. Excellent club, but with people only arriving at around 2am and my set being at 4am it was a late start the following afternoon for my journey to the river.

The fishing journey started in Chile, back on the Rio Grande. Following a largely disappointing trip last year with low catches and an extremely low river I was slightly nervous about what to expect. The river turned out to be low and clear once again, but there was some 2 inches of freshwater in the system that must of got the fish moving, or so I hoped. Thankfully it had, and in the first afternoon’s fishing I got stuck into a good number of sea-trout, some of which eluded their close-up shots with some spectacular long range releases, as the fresh sea-trout so often will. However, some did make it to the gravel, including my biggest sea-trout to date, a magnificent specimen weighing in at 25lbs! A lot of fun on the single hander, especially when my reel decided to drop off the rod half way through the fight!! The next couple of days were spent exploring some of the lakes within easy reach of the lodge, finishing the day off with a couple of hours on the river – the key period. Here are some further shots from this leg of the journey:

The big girl:

Playing with a reel in one hand the rod in the other!!!

Some shots from the lakes:

Fishing the outflows from one of the lakes. A fish that was later to snap me off after ripping into the backing, jumping a few times, but eventually couldn’t budge it on 12lbs leader!

Teifi-Terrorist · #2 (**permalink**) 14-04-2009, 01:45 PM

It was then off to Lago Strobel (Jurassic Lake) and the leviathan rainbows I’d heard so much about. Following an extremely bumpy ride over a ‘road’ meandering through volcanic rubble, we settled down at Laguna Verde lodge, a new lodge for the area, and the only hard-standing lodge for the lake. The lodge boasted fishing at another dozen or so lakes as well as a river, which really wet the appetite. The first day was spent at Strobel. Strobel is a big lake with crystal clear water, and when the wind doesn’t blow, which isn’t often, sight fishing is the order of the day and some amazing catches can be achieved. Beyond that it was blind fishing, and that is what faced us for the majority of the week. The fish were there, and there in good numbers, but it was a shame to be constantly blind fishing for them. The average size was amazing – we were told to expect an average of around 10lbs, and they weren’t far off the mark with most fish being in the 8-14lbs bracket, and boy did some of them fight. Oddly, some would just wallow and give the best fight under the rod tip, whereas others, especially those that took on a steelhead look to them, tore off to the horizon, with some taking way over 50metres of backing. Here are some pictures of the lake fish, you will note the difference in colourations etc. almost appearing as different strains.

It didn’t take long for my attention to be drawn to the river, which was a short drive away via the quad bike. I sure am glad that I did go and see it, it was truly amazing. It wasn’t a particularly big river, as the photos will indicate, but it was stuffed with fish – if you wanted to catch a hundred it would not be hard. But these were the 10-14 inch fish, which, although being fun at first, soon lost their novelty. We then started to sight fish the larger fish, many of which are lake fish that enter the river to spawn. We managed to get fish up to 12lbs doing this, and I can assure you that a 12lbs fish in such a small river is an amazing fight! They just went crazy. I was amazed at the size of the flies used to tempt them too, we would often be using 4-6 inch leech patterns, normally utilised for steelhead fishing. We did, however, get fish up to around 6lbs on the dries, but they wanted them skated – dead-drifted flies were largely ignored. Here are some pics from the river:

Teifi-Terrorist · #3 (**permalink**) 14-04-2009, 01:46 PM

Following on from Strobel and Estancia Laguna Verde we ventured back down to Tierra Del Fuego, and a little known river called the Irigoyen. The Irigoyen is about half the size of the Grande (if not less), running within a wooded valley, that offers amazing protection from the winds the Grande is renowned for. Indeed, for a river that was relatively close to the Grande, and yet further South, it was amazing how much the terrain has changed. This was sea-trout fishing with a difference. This wasn’t cast to the horizon and keep working through the pools until you intercept the fish. The fish on the Irigoyen use cover, and use it well. In the daytime the fish were all huddled up under fallen trees where you had to risk a fly to get a fish. This was precision casting, and you had to think about every cast in order to stand a chance of getting a fish. Indeed, great thought and care had to be taken prior to casting, because you had to work out where you would try and land the fish once hooked and where you would need to keep it away from to prevent it from getting snagged etc. the adrenaline rush of all this going on at the same time was amazing, and the pressure exerted on the rod, nylon etc. at times was incredible – I really did think a rod would snap under such strain. At times it was hit and hold, if you let it take a foot of line you would lose it round a root, get it out of the obstruction then you had a fight and could enjoy the battle a little more. I didn’t get snapped on any fish during the week, nor did any snag me, but I did pull out of a few. Come night fall and all those fish sulking under the fallen trees would come out to play, much like our sea-trout, dropping into the tails etc. becoming easy to target. This was the time for sunrays and big leech patterns (5 inches long), and boy was there some amazing action.

The average size of the fish in the Irigoyen was amazing! I have never seen a system like it. Until my last day’s fishing my smallest landed fish was 10lbs, with a couple of fish in the 4lbs and 8lbs bracket on the last day bringing down the average. My first 2 fish of the trip on my first morning were 20lbs and 15lbs. Truly amazing and a freak of nature. Here are some shots from there:

Teifi-Terrorist · #4 (**permalink**) 14-04-2009, 01:47 PM

We also targeted a little known species but an incredibly sporting species named Robalo during the stay at the Irigoyen. They are a bass/mullet type fish that enters the estuary. They take the fly avidly and even the small guys go like stink! They’re a strange looking fish, but provided great sport, especially on bright, sunny days when the river fishing may not have been that good. We did pick up some smaller ‘school’ sea-trout in the estuary too, which were great fun. Here are some shots from there.

It was then on to the lower Grande, Kau-Tapen and Villa Maria waters. After the Irigoyen experience the Grande seemed quite daunting! But it was nice to be able to be able to play a fish out in relative safety. Fishing had been slow the week before with cold weather and fluctuating river temperatures. However, we arrived at camp faced with some unusually warm weather and a good forecast ahead, which rose the river temperature and certainly made the fish more active.

There’s no doubting the Grande as the king of the sea-trout rivers, the amount of big fish and the sheer numbers of fish in general was amazing to see. Some days you would see very few and start to question your judgement, but when they were on and when they were moving it really was a sight to remember. A decent push of fresh fish had begun and they were starting to materialise across most of the holding pools in good numbers – these not only made for fresh, taking fish but they also stirred up some of the fish that had been in the system for a while into a taking or aggressive mood. Some days were incredible where between 2 rods you would get some 15-20 fish a day, then some day you would only pick up 3-4 fish each, which in its own is good fishing! I did manage to get a 22lbs fish as darkness fell one evening, which really made my week, as I’m sure you can imagine. Here are some shots from the week:

This was the end of the fishing and it was back to Buenos-Aires to catch a short flight to Cordoba for some dove shooting. I understand that shooting may not be everyone’s cup of tea, especially on a fishing forum, so will keep the details to a minimum and will just include the following shots, which include no major detail.

Well, that’s the end of the trip, hope you enjoyed the report and the images and thanks for making it this far through the report without falling asleep!!

TT.