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Argentina Fishing ReportJanuary 2008
Fred Schmitz setting the bar high with a monster brown that our guide Pata weighed at 5.7 kilos (12.5 pounds)...
Every year in January and February we head south to Argentina in search of large trout. This year was even better than the last - it seams like the fish just keep getting bigger and bigger down there in Patagonia!
The Chubut was fun as usual. The 1st day was by far the best as the river was low and very clear. Great hatches of insects too- both caddis and mayflies. Good spinner falls in the mornings, a tan spinner about a 14. The best fishing was on yuk bugs and wooly buggers as usual. Our last day on the chubut was especially good for everyone! Larger fish on the average for everyone and in pretty good numbers too. We all fished dry flies like caddis, trudes, hoppers, etc. on the Chubut with a lot of success. I caught larger fish on drys than on streamers, including a couple that were in the 21-22 inch class. The Gualjaina was awesome! Unbelievable dry fly fishing in the morning on a heavy Pseudo hatch (tiny blue wing olives, about 22's) We fished the middle channels about 4 mi or so below the ranch. They have a new road that gets you in there The first channel was much clearer than the others and the dry fly fishing was incredible, first on this Psuedo hatch and spinner fall for about 2 hours, and then on hoppers and crickets the rest of the day. We did go down to where all the channels joined up and fished some streamers, and yuk bugs and did catch several larger fish, up to say 20 inches, but the dry fly fishing was so good, we went back up in the afternoon. The fish are all 14-17" with a few 18's and a couple of 19's. They were going crazy when you laid a smaller hopper or beetle on them. They were spooky tough, so you had to be careful with your approach and throw long. It almost always worked better to cast across the grass, standing just beyond their view. Fishing from the side or slightly downstream helps with getting a better drift. Everyone caught a pile of nice fish on drys. We were all pretty well fished out at the end of the day!
Then onto the Arroyo Pescado. The good spring pond where all the springs came up was really weeded up so I knew that area was going to be tough. I started on the upper section and caught a handful of fat fish on sparkle scuds, anatomay nymphs, damsel nymphs, small olive multi-colored buggers. Since the spring water was crystal clear, and I was fishing mostly small nymphs, I fished 4X most of the time. I had a brown that got away that was probably 23 inches but landed most of the other fish on 4X. Going any smaller was impossible. I did cheat a little on the big rainbow and stuck on 3X when I saw how big and fat that fish was. I knew that if I hooked it, I would be in for a fight. My technique was to put all the pressure on them I possibly could with 4X, keep them up high, thrashing around in the surface of the weeds and slowly working them in. The weeds definitely won a few battles. The nicest fish of the day was a hog rainbow that fell for a damsel nymph. The fish measured 27 inches long and 16 inches in girth. It reminded me of the monster rainbows we catch out of Moraine Creek in Alaska.
Our weather has been bluebird, every day. At times almost too nice. I was hoping for some cloud cover to move in. Lago 3 started out good but then the wind came up and we had whitecaps all the rest of the day. The fish were really not on their normal bite either, so it was difficult fishing. I caught only 4-5 fish but one was a brown of about 7 lb. (25 inches). Rick caught a nice brown that day too. Gary caught a few good rainbows but Chuck caught two big browns. The one before lunch was 23 inches - a personal all time big fish, but then after lunch he nailed a 25 incher, another personal best! He was happy and we had several toasts that night before dinner with some fine Malbec wine.
The Rio Pico river was a blast. The best fishing I've had there for sure. The Pampas was low and nice and clear so most of the guys went over there and pounded them. They caught several fat browns and rainbows. Gary and I fished the spring creek most of the day. Gary got in great hole, (the one across the bridge and down stream about 20 yards or so) and he stayed there a long time, and pounded out a bunch of big fish. He had on one huge brown but it finally cleaned him out on the willows. It is fun planning your attack on these fish. The best part is that even if you spook one, another fish will show up out of nowhere to take it's place. I worked my way up the creek a bit further and caught several really nice fish including one hog brown on a dry hopper pattern.
Our Limay trip was fun. We got lucky since they lowered the river again before we fished it and the level was quite low all three days. Low being 200-250 cubic METERS per second, so to get cubic feet per second you have to multiply by 30! So it was running about 6500 CFS. This river is about two or three times as big as the Missouri. But at a normal level it runs 400-500 CMS, which is 15,000 cfs. When the Yellowstone flooded in '97 it was only 17,000 cfs! Last week they raised the Limay it to 1400 CMS which would have made it nearly impossible to fish, but fortunately they dropped it back down a few days before we started fishing. Every time Buenos Aires needs electrical power they jack it up, since this huge reservoir is one of their primary sources of power for 26 million people!
The Limay Medio was sure a beautiful river and crystal clear even though it was running so much water. As we suspected there were not that many big browns in the river at this time but at least we got one of the big boys we were after. Fred Schmitz was fishing with me the 2nd day and we were fishing some very heavy water along one of those cliff banks where there are a lot of big rocks in the water. Fred was using a big #2 conehead olive krystalflash bugger with a strong hook. Willy, one of our guides had tied the fly. Another one of his clients dubbed it the "Slammer". We found out why. Fred threw a cast near the bank, and a big brown chased it out and gulped it. I had him rigged with 01X tippet, so Fred was set for the big battle and didn't have to worry too much about this fish breaking off. The big fish didn't take any long runs but put up a good fight in the heavy water. Luckily we were in the driftboat and just kept the fish coming along with us as we rowed for shallower water on the far bank and away from the rocks where the brute lived. We were all relieved when Fred cleared all the line he had stripped back in when the fish ran back at him. Both our guide Pata any myself were yelling at Fred to get all that running line reeled back onto his Tibor and play the big fish off the reel. Fred got the situation in hand and finally Pata had the big brown in the net. I said, "Now that's what we came 5500 miles to see!" A double digit brown trout.
Other than that fish of Fred's we caught quite a few smaller rainbows and browns that would be considered "the big ones" on any other river. Several we caught on drys like hoppers. I got two browns of about 4 lb., several rainbows in the 20-24inch range and had one nice brown on that would have been say 7-8 pounds, but he got right off. I could see how big that one was since I was standing on top of the cooler in the back of Willy's cataraft. Both of the guides we had, Pata and Willy were excellent. Gary hooked a big fish that last day too, and fought it for several minutes. No one ever saw the fish but it was big. Finally the fish just simply got off and Gary got his streamer back. We were fishing with barbless hooks (as is the regulation here) and often these big fish find a way to torque a big streamer out of their mouth. Even when you keep the pressure on, things happen. Any big headshake or cartwheel and they are gone. Gary did land a bunh of nice fish on drys that day though, so he was happy. The nice thing about this river is that even the "dinks" are photo fish. We caught only a few fish that were under 18 inches, and it seemed like the average rainbows were in that 18-22 inch class with some larger. Rick also caught some beautiful fish on dry flies including a 24 inch brown, on a Dave's Hopper.
On our last day, We drifted over a huge brown in a deep tail out of a pool. Both Rick and I got a good look at this fish as it spooked and moved underneath the boat headed upstream in about 10 feet of water. It was obviously a big brown that looked to be in the 36-40 inch class! We never got a cast off tough since we were fishing our flies closer to the bank. Quickly the big fish was gone. I looked back at Rick, and said, "Did you see that?" We were both speechless for a few moments. Seeing that fish alone was enough for Rick and I to make plans to re-book for next year! From what Pata tells me, there are many more big browns in the Limay starting in February, but then even more in March when they start running up out of the huge reservoir El Choconto spawn. I'd like to fish it again then, as seeing those brute browns in their spawning tuxedos would be an incredible experience. Well, that's my report. My night flight on Delta leaves BA tomorrow night at 10:30 PM and it's a nine an a half hour flight to Atlanta. I'm ready for some rest after two weeks of fishing, and I'll surely be dreaming of those monster Limay browns, beef tenderloin cooked to perfection over the coals of our campfire, and all that wonderful Malbec wine we used to wash it down.
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Related Links: Archived Fishing Reports
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