Argentina Fishing Report

February 2008 with James

Every year in January and February we head to Patagonia in search of Bigorrnia - which is castellano slang - similar to our Lunker. Literally it translates anvil, which is fitting term once you feel the weight of these fish during your grin-and-grip photo opp. The fishing buzz we got from this trip was so strong, it should carry us through the next 3 years of work. I can't wait until we get our coffee table book printed up - man did we catch some hogs! This year's book is definitely going to be hard to beat, but it will be fun tryin...

This year was my 4th trip down to Argentina and I can honestly say the fishing continues to surpass my expectations. Despite the worries of a drought cycle and a low water year, the fishing just keeps getting better and better. Part of this success may be due to experience, since each year we figure out a few new tricks on how to get Bigorrnia in the net. In the end however, I think the biggest factors towards outstanding fishing are private water, low fishing pressure, and the practice of catch and release. I'm confident that Argentina will be a special place to fish for decades to come - definitely something to cross off on your bucket list!

The Rivadavia was great as usual. It has always been one of my favorite rivers to photograph, but this year the fishing was better than I have ever seen it. From the Boca to the first riffle we threw 300 grain sinking lines and dredged the middle of the river with small green streamers. We caught several nice rainbows on the swing and slow strips, they probably averaged about 16 inches. The first riffle was stacked with fish feeding on midges in 1-3 feet of running water. A size #18 Zebra Midge ended up being the best fly here, although a size #2 Olive Burgin Bugger caught the biggest fish. I tried to get the fly as far under the bamboo and Alerces trees as I could, through a stack mend over the rapids, and walked the dog down stream with a jigging the fly with the tip of my rod every 6 feet or so. Before I knew it, Bigorrnia came flying out the shade and ripped into my fly, "Fish on!" After a good fight Marcos landed him in the net and measured him at 23 inches. After a quick photo session the big brown bolted out of my underwater tail grip. What a way to start the trip! "OK Marcos - I'm rowing!"

The 1st day on the Chubut was on fire. Jeff and Travis caught 6 fish around 20" before lunch, including one really nice brown. Jeff had tied up some deadly flies - which we all gazed at his filled to the brim boxes with fly envy. Jeff's Black Ops JJ's were pulling fish to the boat at a high rate of speed, as were his olive pancora patterns. Gary and I cleaned as the caboose - often teasing the other boats with a fish on, "Hey, you guys forgot something!" Brent worked his magic with hoppers again and caught a lot of big fish on the 3rd day after lunch. I went through a wide variety of dries, nymphs, and buggers but sooner than later reverted back to my old favorite - the Tungsten Cone Ultra Yuk Bug. Man is that fly deadly down there!

It surprised me how well the 3rd day of the float fished. Normally it is our slowest day of the trip, but this year it was on fire. Right after lunch Gary and Travis started laying into big fish, including two 19 and 19.5 inch rainbows. Perfect timing too, since it was right in front of our boat. Dave got our raft back in the game though, as we "pick pocketed" the boys in front with another 19 inch rainbow. As it turns out, Brent had one of the best hopper days he's ever had in his life!!! Finally the guides had to make up some time and start rowing down stream (due to the lower water levels). We still kept are flies on however, and caught several other nice fish before the take out.

The food was absolutely outstanding this year. It was always top notch, but this year camping Chef Evo (who stayed with our group for the rest of the trip) took gourmet to a whole new level. From the juicy campfire grilled beef to the chocolate dripped brownie with a split strawberry garnish our food was served on plates that looked like they belonged in a 5 star hotel rather than the side of the river. The icing on the cake this year was the live guitar that the guides busted out around the campfire. A couple of us lit up cigars as we waited for the dark side of the moon to complete it's full lunar eclipse. When Marcos saw Travis grab a rod, he even went as far to row him down the river in search of the moon driven big brown. Travis did have a couple hits and we all yelled from the shore before enjoying the reddish tones of the full eclipse. We all agreed as someone said, "Life is good."

We had some awesome sight fishing on the Gualjaina this year. The day we fished the heaviest hatch was a small PMD mayfly - about a size 22. We also got out the screen and kicked up some of the weeds and rocks. We found several small mayfly nymphs, tiny worms (SJW here we go), leeches, and cased caddis. We pulled off a divide and conquer plan and spread out along the creek. We caught a few fish on hoppers and beetles, and a few nice fish on nymphs, but in the end it was hard not to revert back to the ultra yuk bug. My best streamer was a little tan and brown home invader that Doug tied up for the trip. Although the fish were small (12-14 inches) they were literally fighting for it! The boys down stream caught some larger browns. I caught a beautiful 18 inch brown but it got away before I could dig out my camera. That night we went back to the Elvira for a wonderful asado (Argentine BBQ lamb).

The next day we fished Arroyo Pescado. We knew we were going to have some challenging fish since the weeds were up and a lot of the fish moved over to the "owners" side of the creek. Gary and Dave solved that problem quickly enough with some long bombs and buggers. It was amazing how much difference there was between the fish on the other side of the creek verses the closer side. The fish up close would roll their eyes at a scud, even on 4X while the friendly feeders on the other side were almost in a frenzy at the splash of a bugger. That morning before lunch we had hooked 26 fish over 20 inches and had landed 17 of them! None looked to be under 4 pounds with the biggest weighing 6 pounds.

I kept running back and forth between Jeff an Travis taking pictures of all their hogs. As soon as we would be ready to get the underwater release shot, I'd hear in the distance, "FISH ON!!!" After lunch Guille and I went with Brent to find some more big dogs and try to fool them with the Bamboo rod that Brent made. We tied on a size 4 black lead eye bugger and the 3rd cast into the pool and 23 inch brown came rocketing out of the weeds and smashed Brent's fly. Henry had the big high def video camera out, and got some good shots of our paparazzi mayhem. "Hold the head more towards us, hold it more perpendicular, big smile now, who's the man?" Click, click, click ... Click. Brent was holding up that big spotted beautiful brown and said, "Yeah, wood is good." Indeed it is! Brent caught more big fish on his own hand split bamboo rods than I ever thought was possible. Oh, and did I mention he machines his own reels too!?

Brent really put the heat on once we got to Lago Tres. Bam, Bam Bam - he caught 3 huge fish all in about 45 minutes. The first two rainbows were absolute pigs, but once again the brown was the most impressive. All definitely qualified as bigorrnia. All were caught on a large stone fly nymph - which I think the fish were taking for a large dragonfly nymph. After I saw Brent catch the 3rd massive fish, that was enough to make me switch. I had a couple monsters on, but in the end they gave me the head shake. Marcos yelled, "Oh man that was big! You shouldn't horse them in so hard like that!" You better believe I made a mental note on that for next year! Meanwhile Jeff, Gary, Dave, and Travis were mopping up the floor with more big fish. The morning was pleasantly calm, the afternoon a bit windy. Once the light got lower, the JJ special started working. We had to get back to our lakeside cabins for another asado but I would have stayed out there until dark for another shark.

The guys need to do a little filming on the Rio Pico for their promotional video. I think they got the footage the needed - plus some! Jeff nailed a 23 inch brown in front of the camera. Travis stuck numerous fish while the camera was rolling for those ultimate shots with the cast, the strike, and the jump. We didn't catch a ton of fish this year, but the ones we caught were certainly quality over quantity. We saw one really old brown that was sun bathing in the middle of a pool surround by willows and smaller rainbows. This alligator looking brown was so long that he made a 12 inch rainbow swimming by look like a small fry or minnow. We wanted him bad, but he didn't get that big by being stupid. Each time we tried to get him he somehow became aware of our presence and went down deep. We came back to the pool 4 or 5 times to see if we could convince him to play, but he was obviously on to us. If he's still around next year, he's toast!

Our Limay trip was packed full of 20 to 23 inch fish. One day Travis landed 21 to the hand and Jeff landed 19. These fish fought harder than any fish on the trip. You know when you mistake a 20 inch rainbow for a 30 inch brown, you are playing with some powerful fish. In the end, we never caught the big ones. They call them Sapallos up there (Sa-pah-jyos) which means "pumpkins." While we never got our hands on the Grand Pumpkin we certainly had fun trying. Brent stuck with the wood is good theory and proved to us streamer fisherman that hoppers can catch just as many fish as a tungsten conehead.