George’s report from Jan 5-12 2019: I just returned from our Jan. 2019 trip to Jurassic Lake Lodge. The fishing was awesome as usual, especially the first couple of days when we caught tons of huge fish at “The Boca” (the mouth of the Barrancoso River and Lago Strobel). The average size fish is a solid 5-7 pounds but we had a large number of fish over 10 pounds. It seemed like most of the big fish we were catching were in that 12-15 lb. class. My largest fish was about 18 pounds this year. Most of the time I was fishing in the lower two pools of the Barrancoso river, before it enters the lake. People loved the Aquarium pool, and it produced a lot of nice fish in the 10-13 lb. class. The lake itself was good at times and one day it was almost calm and that brought in big numbers of fish that formed a giant mass just off the river mouth. We were catching lots of nice fish on big dry flies like big beetles and Chubbies that afternoon. Several people got broken off by large fish there.
The Bay of Pigs, where we normally catch the largest fish, was good at times, especially in the afternoons when the wind wasn’t blowing too hard. Unfortunately on most afternoons the wind was producing big waves that made the fishing very difficult. We could see lots of giant sized fish out over the weed beds but farther out than we could cast in the conditions. We did catch a couple of 12-13 lb fish in the “Bay” but had to give up and go back over to the river, where it was easy to fish with the wind at our backs.
Those first two days, I was hooking fish on almost every cast! I love fishing the river since you can do a lot of good sight fishing there, and cast only to the really big fish. By doing that I really upped my average size to over 10 pounds. Most of our group liked using nymphs and even streamers like black or green wooly buggers in the main lake. In the river smaller nymphs like copper johns and silver johns were deadly as were most bead head nymphs. Bigger flies also worked well and could even be swung in the river.
We use heavy tippet most of the time and other than up in the Acquairum Pool, it is a mistake to use anything smaller than 1X Fluorocarbon. In the river I was using 01X Trout Hunter Fluorocarbon, which tests at about 18 pounds. This way I could use my 9 foot #9 Loomis NRX and really land the big fish quickly and get them back in the river unharmed.
The guides were a big help in netting the fish for us and then unhooking them. If they were huge, they would also weigh them. I think next year I’ll bring a net bag and a good accurate scale to weigh fish like I did two years ago. They don’t hurt the fish at all and quickly get very accurate weight.
The food was excellent as usual. Everyone enjoyed the cuisine with a nice mix of vegetable dishes, chicken, and of course no shortage of terrific grass fed beef! We are headed back next year (fishing days are going to be Jan 11-18th). We are also planning on an add-on trip to Captain Lodge (formerly known as Kui Noom). We will have more details on the exact travel dates, the fishing dates, and the 2020 prices up on our website soon. Or feel free call us anytime for more trip details… 1-406-222-7130.