Patagonia.

Why travel to the other end of the world to catch fish?

The journey to Southern Patagonia is a long haul; firstly one has to go to Buenos Aires, which takes about fourteen hours from the UK and then a short internal flight of three hours south to Rio Gallegos. The stop off in the vibrant city of Buenos Aires is both restful and interesting; also in February it is late summer there with temperatures of around 25˚C. The city has some fabulous meat restaurants, which are with the best in the world but are also by British standards very reasonable.

There are really only two rivers in Patagonia that have a serious sea trout run, the Rio Gallegos which is on the mainland and the Rio Grande which is the other side of the Straits of Magellan on Tierra del Fuego. The sea trout are large, numerous and aggressive fish and can reach upwards of 25lb. This is the only place in the world where this is still possible today.

The rivers are also full of brown trout of up to around eight pounds, which can be quite a handful on light tackle. The sea trout are not an indigenous species in Argentina but were introduced in the 1930's utilising eyed ova shipped in from the UK. Although the river does hold enough invertebrate life, a few species of Upwings and a lot of Caddis to sustain a healthy brown trout population, it seems fortunate that this has not stopped a large number of browns from taking advantage of the rich feeding grounds in the Atlantic.

I have been lucky enough to travel to Argentina with Illtyd Griffiths taking a group to Rio Gallegos the last few years. Not only is this part of the world “big sky country” but also the warmth and hospitality from the local people makes it very welcoming. The group for the last two years has included mostly anglers who have not fished there before and many have been brave enough to come very much on their own but the groups seem to “gel” together so quickly and the camaraderie is spontaneous. The group this year included people from the UK, Austria and Italy and fortunately for us most do speak English!
We stayed at the Loop camp on the Buitreras Estancia and were treated like royalty, it is a very slick, efficient and professionally run outfit with all the essential facilities and comforts you will ever need. The food was excellent and the free drinks are very welcome at the end of a “hard day”.

I particularly like the daily routine, 7.30am breakfast was served and fishing by 8 am, it was then back to the estancia for a rather large lunch (the main meal of the day although the food when one returns after the evening session is also substantial) and a chance to break ones’ thirst at 1.30pm. The dilemma is then; do you go fishing again before the next session from 5pm until around 10.30pm or have a siesta to recuperate? Everyone chose the latter, although there is as always a bit of casting and friendly instruction happening on the lawn in front of the lodge.

The local guides Claudio, Diego, Juan Manuel, Hernan and last but not least Pollo are true professionals and really know their stuff, it is sometimes nice to change roles and be the “guided” rather than the guide, although I still insist on tying my own knots! Strangely I must admit this role reversal is something I found a little difficult to begin with but now I rather like it – Illtyd did warn me of this as he had the same early misgivings.
All the guides know the 40km of double bank fishing very well. The river is split into four beats – the anglers working in pairs with one guide move down a beat every session, whereas the guides move beats only on a weekly rotation.

The first thing one notices when travelling to the beats in four wheel drives is the enormity of the view which is quite stunning and is rarely caught fully on a photograph. There are plains as far as the eye can see interspersed with rocky outcrops and cliff faces. The other thing one notices is the plethora of wildlife which does not seem to be as nervous of man as in this country, from the beautiful flamingos amongst many exotic birds and the mammals including guanacos, skunks and thousands of hares and foxes.

The river conditions during the last week of February 2008 were unusual and quite difficult; four day’s of hot clear blue skies and windless (amazing for this part of the world), along with low warm water followed by high winds from the North. Then a mild flood from the Andes region that brought weed problems with it that made the fishing a little challenging. Even though the conditions were poor, we did catch our fair share of sea trout, the biggest weighing in at twenty pounds. This year the conditions were better, more normal and cooler water heights with sufficient wind to keep the water surface ruffled. This subsequently doubled the number of fish caught with an impressive average of 9.3lb with the biggest weighing in at an outstanding 21lb. Eight rods on thirty miles of river is pretty much under-fished, so the pools are on the whole well rested.

The wind speed can get a bit brisk; the area is renowned for it, on the whole the prevailing wind is a westerly downstream direction and the average angler soon becomes accustomed to it. In general the wind here can be treated as a friend when it blows from the West as it aids casting and gives vital cover for the angler. The sea trout really do respond well on this river to a westerly which similar to here at home is much better than from elsewhere. As in the UK, east and north winds can make the fishing a little difficult, but not impossible. Make no mistake, this is not shooting fish in a barrel; you do have to work for them.

Nothing special about the tackle and equipment; breathable waders with Aquastealth boots, a windproof fleece, wading jacket, hat, sun glasses and clear glasses for the evenings. Essential rods are a 9’ 6”-10’ 7/8 weight middle-fast tip action rod. For when the wind picks up on the wider pools or in high water a double-handed rod of around 12-13’ for an 8/9 weight is adequate and will deal with most wind situations. A must is a very reliable large arbor reel, sound backing and plenty of it.
 
There is no need to fish the fly that deep on this river system as on the Rio Grande, where the use of fast sinking Teeny lines are often advised by the guides. Floating lines in high summer and intermediate or sink lines for most situations encountered. I favour standard intermediate weight forward lines (with floating running line) or shooting heads AFTM 8 on my single rod set up and a shooting head for my double handed rod. The latter allows ease at “working” the fly back – these fish tend to take a worked fly better than dead drift. The wading is very easy on a gravel bottom hence no need for special soles although lightweight boots are always advisable. The guides will put anglers into pools that will suit their ability, to ensure all the team get a really good chance of fish.

 Last year I fished with a floating line plus various densities of sink tip attachments and a full intermediate glass line on both single and double-handed rods. Although that set-up proved to be quite successful, I was still left wanting for something extra in certain pools, so this year the system was altered a little.

The Rio Gallegos has many varied and interesting pools; some are narrow with the fast water under a cut bank where a short cast is required, and it is necessitates one to retrieve the fly fairly close in, as fish tend to follow.
There are also big wide-open pools with even flows where a long cast of thirty yards plus is an advantage, and again the fly needs to be worked to within eight yards of where you are stood. A certain amount of fly-casting ability is required to deal with the conditions, but the average angler will still cope pretty well.
A floating line with a light sink tip is perfect for most of the fishing situations until the wind really picks up (which is often the time when the fishing gets better). The problem is that the wind speed affects the surface of the water and drags the fly-line and control of the speed of the fly is somewhat lost.
I found that by using a full intermediate to get below the surface drag gave more control in a high wind, but where the running line also sank proved to be very troublesome, after the retrieve had been made the running line became a chore to get it out of the water and organise it for the next cast. Because of the nature of the retrieve it was difficult to loop up as you can when salmon fishing, a stripping basket was tried by one of the group without much success due to the wind blowing the line out of the basket.

This year equipped with shooting head outfits made the fishing a lot more efficient and enjoyable and we also tried intermediate lines with a floating running line, which was also successful. The fly could now be worked fairly close in and still have enough weight in the shorter head of fly-line to make a cast. The running lines were full floating and easily managed and the bonus is that only two reels are required. The floating heads and sink-tips worked fine in the lighter breezes and the intermediate heads got below the surface drag when the wind blew. As with all shooting heads, long tapered leaders are essential to give the anchorage for Spey-casts and good turnover. The leader set-up was a 13’ salmon tapered leader with a 3’ tippet of 15lbs b.s for the lighter flies a total of 16’. For heavier flies weighted with lead or beads like the Stoneflies, it could be shortened to 12’ to achieve presentation. The leader set up was similar for both the single and two-handed rods. The whole set-up from running line to tippet was a loop to loop making everything instantly interchangeable.
 
Fluorocarbon of between 10-20 pound B.S, 13’ salmon tapered leaders and a selection of large and medium size nymphs, woolly buggers, various rubber legged flies and some salmon hair wing flies like Stoat Tails are all that is needed along with some tube flies if very high water is encountered.

The attachment of these flies is the Rapala knot that has a permanent loop to give extra movement.

As with the majority of sea trout fishing after the cast has been made, some form of retrieve is necessary to induce a take. Deadline swings in the current will take the odd fish here and there, but to appeal to their aggressive nature some form of movement is required. This may be from a constant twitch to very short strips of four inches for the stonefly/nymph types of fly, or a longer strip and figure of eight for the rubber-legged types such as the Yuk Bug or hair wings.
Bite detection is not as subtle as one would like, watching the fly-line for any abnormal movement, the use of coloured braided loops to make things more obvious, or the occasional pluck does not exist down there. Usually the first indication there may be a fish interested, is a huge bow wave heading toward the end of the fly-line followed by the feeling that the fly has attached itself to a runaway train.

The reel, which is set to a pretty good tension, begins to rapidly spin, you are palming the knuckle-rapping rim, the line is burning your fingers, and the rod is impossible to keep up at any safe angle due to the pressure. As the backing knot attached to fly-line hits every guide on the rod, then disappears out of the tip ring and out of sight; the fish leaves the surface like a Polaris missile, crashes down displacing a lot of water, again and again, you begin to wonder if it will ever stop! With the conditions, location and the stamp of fish to be encountered, this is extreme fishing.