Patagonia Flies ~ An Argentina Fly Fishing Resource

The season started out with lots of snow and cold weather producing some incredible fishing in Bariloche’s lake district with many big beautiful browns being caught on streamers stripped nice and slow using shooting heads of around 250 grams, and also many big fat brook trout. The rainbows are very healthy and seem to prefer more movement and faster stripping of the streamers and they love the brighter colored flies  such as hot pink and purple. The fishing in the rivers has been getting better everyday with warm sun producing mid day hatches and the fish have been becoming more and more aggressive.  The use of huge terrestrials and hoppers flies have been very productive on bringing some monster fish to the surface. Heres a nice brown caught by Gustavo Morales in mid November with Miguel  in one of our favorite lakes here in beautiful Patagonia. The fishing is on fire and only going to get better. For information on booking a trip contact miguelflyfishing@gmail.com

Patagonia is known for its beautiful fly fishing lodges and private water, but there are also endless places that you can go to if you have a car. Within the area one can easily access incredible lakes and rivers all within hours of Bariloche. For example the Rio Limay, Manso, Chimihuin, Malleo, Alumine, Carilfu, Correntoso just to name a few. If you are going fly fishing on your own, or exploring patagonia we are here to help you with the most essential part of your trip. For information and rates contact alex@patagoniaflies.com

Patagonia Flies wanted to thank everyone who joined us for our wonderful fly fishing day trips for dorado here one hour and half away from the big city of Buenos Aires. It really has been a great season and still going. More importantly it was a pleasure getting to meet fly fisherman from all over the world and show them a very unique fishery.  Thanks again and just remember if you are in Buenos Aires, either on business or pleasure, we can be on the water casting to beautiful dorado and be back that night.  For more information on dorado day trips contact alex@patagoniaflies.com

Here is the photo of the week. It seems like its going to be a great fall steelhead run in the Santa Cruz as Patagonia Flies dear friend Rodrigo Amadeo just sent us this photo of a beautiful steelhead fresh out of the Atlantic caught yesterday .  Nice work brother.

The Fall run is on. The big fish are finally in the Rio Limay as it was a particularlly dry year with very llittle rain in the last two months. The lake run browns wait near the mouth for higher water and strong winds to make their run down river. Here is beautiful example of a male lake run brown trout caught by Miguel Sanchez yesterday at the magic hour. These fish come out of Lago Nahuel Huapi, which is the huge lake that surrounds the city of Bariloche, and make there way down the Rio Limay to spawn. Nice work Miguel. 

The crew from Patagonia Flies has recently returned from a wonderful long trip to the Southern Patagonia learning new waters and designing new fly fishing programs.  One of the most amazing rivers we explored again was the Gallegos river with its omnipresent resident brown trout population and elusive sea runs one never knows what to expect at the end of their fly line.  It is a river that commands respect as the winds can blow all day and night making the water dirty and requiring the use of big bright flashy flies, or can be extremely crystal clear calling for the use of long leaders and small nymphs or big skating foam flies.  To create more difficulty lower down the river tide becomes extremely important in tactfully choosing your line weight and type of fly.  With this said, the Gallegos continuelly challanges the angler making it one of our favorite destinations.  We are now happy to introduce  a new guided trip each year to the Gallegos to spend more time on this beautiful river. The trip will be a ten day trip with the option to camp or stay in a hotel and both wade fishing and guided drift trip with a local guide of 28 years fishing the Gallegos. Get ready to crush some fresh sea runs. For more details and dates contact alex@patagoniaflies.com

If you are in Bariloche, Argentina or planning to go. Patagonia Flies is now offering day trips to all of the surrounding lakes and rivers. For more information contact miguelflyfishing @gmail.com 

If you are planning a fly fishing trip to Argentina Patagonia Flies highly recommends you go to fish for the treasured and sought after Atlantic Steelhead with Rodrigo Amadeo on the amazing glacial waters of the Rio Santa Cruz in southern Patagonia. It’s here where the last run of fresh Atlantc Ocean steelhead call home. “Solo queria  decirte ,en mi experiencia de muchos años sobre el rio santa cruz …. me  resta decir que es unos de los rios mas dificiles del mundo en la pesca con mosca de la unica especie de steelhead  del atlantico” – Rodrigo Amadeo  For information and reservations visit www.atlanticsteelhead.com.ar

Basic equipment for fly fishing the Rio Grande from my humble point of view. If fishing single handed fly rods (only recommended for very low wind to calm days) a #8  9’ to 10 ft would do the job. Casting distances are not big, but the fish are! I recommend single handed for easy days because when I fish with single handed rods on windy days, the good cast + accuracy ratio falls dramatically behind the easy casting of double handed rods. For double handed friends,  a rod between 12 ft #8 to 14ft #9-10 is enough for most of the situations. I found rods from 15ft and above, uncomfortable to hold in windy conditions and an overkill from the power point of view. Best is if you have a light double handed like 11’6” to 12’6”  #7-8 rigged with a floating or with light sink tip for nymphing or skating a nice green machine and a 13 to 14 ft  #9-10 for heavier stuff, windier situations or for delivering a heafty leech at dusk for the most thrilling fishing in Rio Grande. Lines? Lots of options, but the Rio Windcutter with its VersiTip version is a real workhorse. For high water conditions, a shooting system seems more suitable. Be ready to use 550 grains (or more!) sinking heads if waters turns murky after a heavy rain. Reels? Nothing special, just one big enough to hold the bulk of a double handed line. Tippet choice is very important for some. I think a clear winner among most of the  guides is Maxima Ultragreen. Extremely good for that kind of fishing. Carry from 8 to 15 pounds. Best those 220yards spools…Flies? Aside from the classical rio grande nymphs and rubber legs patterns, there are 2 flies I would add. First a big and nice streamer for fishing the magic hour. Leeches and Sunray Shadow-style tubes and among my best. Very difficult that I don’t start or end with one of those. Atlantic Salmon patterns like the classic Blue Charm to the more modern and exotic patterns like the icelandic Snaelda works well according the water conditions. If you have them, give them a try in the proper places. If you want to have fun, try to skate a fly on the surface! Warning! Not every pool is suitable for that, but your guide will let you know. Smaller Green Machine (#10 or so) or a riffle hitch tube (1 inch or so) gave me very happy memories. Bigger flies skated may move more fish to the surface but the fish seems to just follow or hit the fly. If you have been in that situation, try a smaller fly the next time. Clothing? The usual for cold weather. Heres a beautiful photo of the author Alejandro Martello with a monster sea run brown, he was a guide in Tierra del Fuego on the Rio Grande for many years and also Iceland. 

The photo of the week is of Patagonia Flies Wilfredo (Homero) Yaconis with his impressive giant rainbow caught in Southern Patagonia. Nice work on bringing that beast to hand for the team.