Day 3

The day was warm and sunny and most of all, less wind.  Finally!  The temperature is predicted to reach 80 degree. When Travis and Gabriel came to our motel to pick us up, I've realized that they brought two boats.  One for us to fish with and the other to carry our camping gear.  Our plan is to drift down the Chimehuin river for next two day.

Our supply vessel

I guess it is safe to say that the chimehuin is the most famous and celebrated Patagonian river where stories of the monster trout are derived from. We were to drift down approximately 40km of it’s 53 km trhough miles of valleys  of Junin and ultimately dumps it’s water to the collon cura river.

Patty and I were excited just the fact that the weather was nice and warm.   The river looked a lot like the Collon Cura but smaller in scale.   Abundance of willow trees  provided plenty of protection to whoever inhabits this river.

Off the bet, Gabriel said “ Today is going to be a great day.  It is hopper kind of day!”   Immediately we’ve noticed a lot of hoppers are flying all around us and some were trying to cross the river.  Ones who couldn’t across the river, gave us quite a show as trout were waiting with big splash.

Patty immediately hook a decent size rainbow even before I was able to begin my first cast. After many "woos" and "ahhhs", she landed a beautiful rainbow.

After that, what I would like to call stupid fishing, began. In the state, we don't get to fish with a large hopper pattern as much due to type of water we fish so you can imagine how exciting we were to see large trout without any hesitation take the hopper fly.  Quite a spectacle.

We've passed through and fished many cut banks, pocket waters, riffles, shallow waters, deep waters and eddy created by willow trees and realized "holy crap! this water is infested with trout!"  It is amazing how these wild trout can sustain so well in this water in such impressive numbers. Mecca of fly fishing indeed...

When we arrived to our camping spot, everything was already setup for us by Travis.  It is a large island with plenty of protection from the elements. We had a amazing Argentinean bbq along with many drinks.  We spent hours talking about fishing and also made fun of each other as we paired up against each other.  Travis and I, representing Americans and Patty and Gabriel, obviously Argentinian representation.   

Slow cooked asado.  Mmmmmm.

This is our first camping/fishing trip together.  I was a little worried that this kind of experience might be too rough for Patty but she enjoyed the experience as much as I have.  Although Patty complained that her entire upper body is sore from fighting fish all day, she truly enjoyed what the Chimehuin had to offer for us .  We felt alseep while listening to sounds of river, birds and some unknown grunts.