We spent Sunday afternoon through Monday morning (Clay has afternoon Spanish classes this week) on the Rio Pichi Leufu, which is about 1-1.5 hours outside of Bariloche in the Patagonian steppe (aka desert). It is a small, freestone river with many trout, although most of them are small by Patagonian standards. We rented a car for the first time since being in South America, and Clay got to experience driving in Argentina, i.e., road signs - including stop signs, traffic lights, and speed limit signs, if present - are mere suggestions. It was fun!
Setting up camp on Rio Pichi Leufu. This was a beautiful place to camp next to a deep, clear hole of water (with many trout of various sizes swimming around).
Esma tried out fly fishing for the first time. She´s a natural! Her cast is already prettier than Clay´s, and he´s been practicing for almost a year. She had trout on the line two times but failed to get them all the way in to the net both times. We´re hoping that next time she gets one all the way in so that we can take a picture of her first fly-caught fish.
First cast in Patagonian waters. There was a HUGE trout in this hole, but we couldn´t get him to bite.
Netting our first Patagonian trout.
Clay´s first Patagonian fish - a 10 inch brown trout.
A beatiful rainbow that wasn´t the biggest fish of the day but definitely the hardest fighting!
The biggest fish of the day - an 18 inch brown trout. He wasn´t too happy about me catching him. He kept biting the net, but finally let go long enough for us to let him go!
A final rainbow before sunset.
We spent Sunday afternoon through Monday morning (Clay has afternoon Spanish classes this week) on the Rio Pichi Leufu, which is about 1-1.5 hours outside of Bariloche in the Patagonian steppe (aka desert). It is a small, freestone river with many trout, although most of them are small by Patagonian standards. We rented a car for the first time since being in South America, and Clay got to experience driving in Argentina, i.e., road signs - including stop signs, traffic lights, and speed limit signs, if present - are mere suggestions. It was fun!
Setting up camp on Rio Pichi Leufu. This was a beautiful place to camp next to a deep, clear hole of water (with many trout of various sizes swimming around).
Esma tried out fly fishing for the first time. She´s a natural! Her cast is already prettier than Clay´s, and he´s been practicing for almost a year. She had trout on the line two times but failed to get them all the way in to the net both times. We´re hoping that next time she gets one all the way in so that we can take a picture of her first fly-caught fish.
First cast in Patagonian waters. There was a HUGE trout in this hole, but we couldn´t get him to bite.
Netting our first Patagonian trout.
Clay´s first Patagonian fish - a 10 inch brown trout.
A beatiful rainbow that wasn´t the biggest fish of the day but definitely the hardest fighting!
The biggest fish of the day - an 18 inch brown trout. He wasn´t too happy about me catching him. He kept biting the net, but finally let go long enough for us to let him go! 
A final rainbow before sunset. 
awesome pics! i'm going to Bariloche next week from California, and would love some tips on DIY fly fishing. (i do not want to spent $300/day for a guide.) any tips? the spot you're at here looks great, and it looks like they allow camping.
ReplyDeleteg.m., thanks for the comment. glad to hear you'll get to experience this part of the world and the fishing to be had here. we've found it fairly easy to DIY fly fish down here. rent a cars go for ~$40 a day plus gas (can get a much better deal if you rent for a 3 day period or longer). to get to the above river, head northeast out of bariloche on route 237 for just a few kilometers until you see the sign for route 23 (a dirt road). take that road for ~40 kilometers until you come to a bridge over the river. you can camp along the river here, and the fishing is not bad at all. i highly recommend the book, "Fly-fishing in Patagonia: A Trout Bum's Guide to Argentina" by Barrett Mattison & Evan Jones. the book was just released and is packed full of good info for DIY fly fishermen. i've exchanged emails with Barrett about the book, and he is a super-nice (and knowledgable) guy. in my opinion, the book is definitely worth the $25-30 they charge for it. they also have a blog (see link on our blog). let us know if you have questions!
ReplyDeletei leave saturday but will try to find the book. can you recommend a shop in Bariloche to buy/rent supplies and gear? i'll be bringing my rod and reel, but that's probably it. what should i expect to pay for gear rental?
ReplyDeletei really have no idea how much gear rental costs because we brought all that stuff with us (a pain to lug around for sure). a fellow fisherman we met down here has had trouble finding a place to rent gear, but i´ve heard there are several places that will rent gear. you can try at ¨Martin Pescador¨, a shop in downtown Bariloche - address is Rolando 257. if you fish at this latitude (bariloche) and north of here, you probably won´t need waders and boots this time of year; the water is cool but not so cold that you can´t wet wade.
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