I received a letter from my friend Charles today. He’s been travelling in Argentina with his lovely wife Patty, and it looks like he’s got her properly hooked into fly fishing ;-) Thanks for the note and photos Charles & Patty!
Hey YH,
Didn’t have much time to write about the trip as I need to catch up on my work. Anyway, here is the some description of our first two days of the trip. I will send you the rest of the fishing trip log as I write them – Charles.
Day 1
It is a short two hours plane ride to Bariloche from Buenos Aires . Besides the fact that our flight got cancelled and had to wait for a couple of hours in Buenos Aires and having to deal with very unpleasant counter person at the airport, nothing is getting to me. Usually, things like bad service and flight screw up will irritate me tremendously but thought of fishing for a week to come is putting me in trance which I never experienced before.
As soon as we landed, we were warmly greeted by the lodge manager Sharon Green. A young, attractive and very energetic person. The lodge is located at township of Rio Manso of Rio Negro Province which is located 64 kilometer SW from the city of Bariloche . To get to the Rio Manso, you will have to drive through the Nanuel Huapi national park. Due to the road condition of the national park being narrow and unstable, there are time restrictions of when you can enter and leave the national park. The lack of proper fund from the government, the park is being managed with bear minimum budget which is not enough to keep the road in safe condition, after an hour and an half of driving through ruff and unpaved road, yet very scenic, we finally arrived at the lodge around 5:30pm. We were greeted by the lodge personnel who consists of two chefs, a concierge, two guides, four house keepers and a very friendly cat who will follow you everywhere. One of the guide approached us and asked “would you like to go fishing once you settled in?” “No, I would like to go right now and I will unpack later”. So off we went.
An inflatable drift boat was already rigged on the trailer and ready to depart. Patty wasn’t too happy about the weather as it was very windy, cold and raining. She was afraid that she might not be able fish with me the whole time. So I ignored her.
Along with the guide name Javier, we went straight to the Lake Hess . The lake is located directly in front of the lodge about 100 meters. Upon launching our boat, we immediately started to fish. The bottom structure of the lake is somewhat similar to the Adirondack lakes which are also created by the glaciers. Very shallow at the shore line but gets very deep soon after. Because of this reason, Javier suggested fast sinking line with a very large streamer attached at the end. We spent about 3 hours and had a couple of nibbles but no hook up. I started to panic thinking I’m in Patagonia and can’t hook up a fish. Javier explained that there are too much of the barometric pressure changes happening which prevents all the fish to be inactive in their feeding. So we decided to retire for the day. When we returned to the lodge everything was ready for us. Snacks, wine, and warm fire place. At this point, I am not a happy camper but the feeling soon subsided due to a few glasses of wine and amazing scenery. Tomorrow I will catch fish.
Patty wasn’t optimistic at all at this point.
Day 2:
We woke up around 7am. When I opened the curtain in the room, I realized that it is going to be a beautiful day as sun was already up and no patches of cloud to be seen. When we went downstairs we were immediately greeted by Sharon who informed us that two parties who supposed to come in today cancelled their trip so we will have the lodge all to ourselves for entire week. During our breakfast, another guide named Facundo informed us that we will be fishing at the Lake Mascardi and Lake Los Moscos and the interconnecting river for both lakes which is located approx. 10 kilometers away from the lodge.
It is such a comparison from yesterday in terms of weather. 29 Celsius is forecasted for the afternoon so we packed light. Once we got to the Lake Mascardi , we found a sixteen feet Carolina skiff with 30 hp Honda engine anchored. . I guess they do allow motor boat to be driven through these waters. The lake was calm as glass. The water is so clear you can literally see every movement in the water. The southern parts of the lake contains a lot of flat water area with vegetation growing underwater. Perfect spot to do some dry fly fishing. Facundo said that dragon flies started to laying their eggs in the water and advise that we should use dragon fly fly. Within 5 minutes into the fishing trip, my skepticism from the day before disappeared really fast when an acrobatic rainbow trout decide to take on my dragonfly fly. 22 inches, a beautiful trout. As I turned around to gloat I found patty with her rod struggling with her first fish ever with the fly rod. After careful coaching of Facundo, she was able to bring in 21 inch Brook trout. She screamed so loud smiling ear to ear. I guess she will be fishing with me after all. It was pretty much non-stop fishing for next 14 hours. We covered every fishing holes in those lakes and able to catch approx 20 fish collectively. “I think I can get into fly fishing” said Patty with a grin.
to be continued….
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