Fly fishing Argentina - Kau Tapen, Rio Grande Hosted trip report

During the last week of January a group of our clients fished the superb lodge of Kau Tapen located on the Rio Grande in Tierra Del Fuego, Argentina. This river is famous for it's large numbers of big sea trout. The 5 anglers on this week led by Sean Clarke of Farlows, Pall Mall all managed good numbers of fish. Gary Crossley finished with the biggest fish of the week at 19 lbs. You can read the lodge managers report below…..

Week 25th January - 1st February, 2014

When a week passes like the one we just had I appreciate all the more the events and experiences that no doubt I and the guests will recount for years to come. Stories at the guide cabin can go back years recounting in intricate detail individual fish, flies, guests, etc.

Guiding late into the evening here can be very special, referred to by many as the “magic hour” your guiding takes on a whole new perspective, as the light fades your senses change from visual to acoustic. You find yourself at times in an almost trance like state gazing into the darkness, head tilted slightly and ears intently cocked for any tell tail sounds of action. To the trained ear it is possible to discern a good cast from a bad one, instruction at this hour is futile so as a guide you persistently want to hear the running line tap the reel, closely followed by a deft plop as the fly land close to the far bank. Fishing close to the surface the initial take is unmistakeable, a crisp surge of water churning, one must wait for the clutch on the reel to click before you can be sure of a solid hook set, an elated guest may also confirm the same with one of the many hook up phrases “fish on” “ oh ya baby” etc. etc. The next matter of interest is the size of the specimen hooked usually denoted by the splash following a jump, once the reel begins to click for the second time it is time to call your charges to the bank while you dash for the net.

Our guests experience the best week of the season so far and managed to hook into an impressive 229 trout of which 166 were landed. Some of the better session in terms of numbers include Ron Clark’s Tuesday total of 8 fish, at 77 Ron with a group of American friends William Stoney, William Alford and Harvey Bender reminisced on how they had met and times they had spent together in Alaska over a period of 12 years, with many valuable memories had together this in William Alford’s words was their “final hurrah”. William Bush and David Blazes complete novices with the double hander slowly got to grips with the task at hand and each accounted for a total of 19 fish. Our friend from Ponoi, Francois Bocard made a welcome return to the Rio Grande after a 15 year absence. The Muirhead’s joined us from the UK, Linda a non-angler embraced the tranquillity of the lodge and got through an endless number of books as well as taking walks to and from the river while her husband Sandy got to work on the river, an astute angler he finished the week as our top rod with a total of 24 fish and received a new sage “method” single handed rod for his efforts. Gary Crossley joined us for the second season in a row and said that his desire to catch the “Big One” was the main motivating factor for his return, never one to panic Gary’s patience throughout the week paid off by landing the biggest fish of the week on his last session. ( 19lbs)

With extremely high tides at the weekend and a forecast of mainly overcast conditions throughout the beginning of next week hopes are high that we can continue to produce some of the best memories possible for our guests. Those who left this week certainly have shedloads.

Total rod catch: 166
Total hooked: 229
Biggest: 19lbs
Average weight: 7lbs

Regards
Matthew Solon

FOR MORINFORMATION ON FLY FISHING FOR SEA TROUT IN ARGENTINA PLEASE CONTACT US ON +44 (0) 1621743 711 OR EMAIL: enquiries@flyodyssey.co.uk OR VISIT OUR WEBSITE: www.flyodyssey.co.uk

Argentina Golden Dorado: Small streams and clear water

There is only a small number of operations that offer small, clear water stream fishing for Golden Dorado. Bolivia is one country that has received much publicity over the past few seasons. There is a location in the Salta provience of Argentina that also offers sublime clear water fishing for Dorado. The tributaries of the mighty Juramento river offer first class opportunities of big Golden Dorado in a small clear stream environment at certain times of year. Check out some of the following images from a recent trip on one of these tributaries.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT FLY ODYSSEY AT +44 (0) 1621743711
OR EMAIL: enquiries@flyodyssey.co.uk    www.flyodyssey.co.uk

TRIP REPORT: Dorado, Rio Juremento, Argentina

Recently Toby Coe while on a business trip to Brazil took a few days off to visit the Rio Juramento river in the Salta provence of Argentina. He filed this report below. You can view Toby Coe's photography at his WEBSITE.

I would love to have returned from Argentina with tales (and pictures) of monster dorado and broken rods, however the reality was that I have never travelled so far for so few fish! Three days on the Rio Juramento and one day on the Rio Dorado gave up only one fish from six strikes. The guides, however, were almost as wound up as me however and explained several times that this was very, very unusual. Guys coming over to fish with them normally get 10-20 strikes a day from which they typically land 2-3 dorado.

They weren't sure exactly what had caused the fishing to be quite so bad. Although the weather was quite cold, it hadn't got cold enough to change the water temperature enough (I don't think) to cause the fish to stop feeding. Sometimes trips just don't all go according to plan I guess!

On the plus side, the set-up down there is great. The guides have the fishing down to a tee. Fishing the Juramento from drift boats is similar to casting big streamers for trout on some of the western rivers of the US and Canada, just harder work! The flies they use are big and casting them all day on an 8 wt gets pretty tiring. Plus you lose a LOT of flies to the trees, branches and other structure that you are casting at. I would love to catch this river on a good day though, when 20 strikes from dorado in a day is more than possible. My guides best trip with clients was with a father and son team, who had 96 strikes in two days!

By the way, I say 'strikes' as actually hooking a dorado is somewhat tricky. That first hit is so fast and their mouths so hard that often the hook doesn't take hold. Combine that with the almost inevitable jumps that follow as soon as you try to set the hook and you quickly see why about 1 dorado is landed for every 5-6 strikes.

For those that like their small stream fishing, the Rio Dorado is an absolute gem. A crystal-clear mountain stream about 60-100 ft wide, running through tropical rainforest, it offers something completely different to the Juramento. I think this is where Todd Meon and Brian O'Keefe filmed the short movie in the current edition of Catch Magazine.

I'd definitely recommend the place for someone keen on getting into dorado, just make sure you take a lot of big flies and make sure you're happy casting them without a lot of effort as you'll be doing it all day! I think timing is critical as well. The guides were emphatic that October to mid-November is the time to be there as the dorado are feeding hard prior to the spawning period.


Image 01: That's a lot of baitfish! Keep in mind that this photo was taking from about 200 ft up, on the top of the dam and the fish in the picture are all around a couple of feet long.


Image 02: A typical fly for the Juramento


Image 03: Guide Marcello fishing a typical pool on the Rio Dorado


Image 04: Finally! Marcello and I were somewhat exultant when we finally landed this fish.