The fishing gear in the trunk of our pickup. The freind’s 4×4, Zurdo and Bruno, full of food, fly fishing gear, booze and camping gear. Ready to fight with trouts after hours of tracks in the heart of the Andean pre-cordillera.

What a amazing landscape! It gives you a kind of indescribable feeling of freedom. It’s like in the movies, but better!

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We landed in a small wood, just to be sheltered from the sun and especially from the wind. In Patagonia, it is a crazy thing… You can have galeforce! It’s true that when you arrive for the first time you say to yourself:

“What the hell is this?!”

It is 5 p.m., we drove 8 hours… 2 hours of road and 6 hours of track. We are well exhausted, but when we saw the river we had to get going  to set up the camp, to jump in our waders and throw flies as big as a flip-flop. Clearwaters, a decor as in  a cowboy movie in the wild wide West with a difference, willows that border the river.!

The first contact with the river is not very nice, small trout less than a foot. Not what we had in our dreams. Being tired doesnt really help, fishing is not really a success, we take revenge on the canteen at the meal!

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Waking up was a little complicated… between the wind and a kind of symphony of snoring of a rare violence, the night was short. The good part is we didnt take the chance to get the visit of a wild creature we made so much noise snoring!

Breakfast Well loaded with breakfast, we’re ready to go! Lunch is not going to be a major break in our day, coldcuts, cheese, bread, enough to survive in a hostile environment! Ah and a little water too…

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Fishing begins, we slipt in two groups. We have VHF radios in case of a problem, and especially to be able to take the piss at each other from afar.

We fish like good pupils… Clean drifts, small dry flies, small nymphs… But it gets really boring! Not a fish at the rendezvous! And then, the local, Bruno, starts to take out the big streamers… The kind of thing you use for Dorado, big as a bird. We watch him fishing and its not something we are used to… Not really light! It is heavy, very heavy! Its streamer goes down to the bottom… Than, BIM ! An amazing take! He gallops downstream, falls down a couple of times on the slippery pebbles, but without ever lowering his arm and the rod… great art! Fortunately the guy knows a little bit about the area… he is in 1X… “ I’m going to fish a little light this morning” , and we thought we were heavy with our 5X.

First beautiful fish after 50 meters of run downstream… A bow of nearly 2 feet caught by the tail m’ ladies! We had a good laugh to see it running and wallowing!

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We continue, and than the river begins to wake up… But always on streamers.Radion talk: Guys, put the biggest thing you have, and you scrape the bottom!

And then there is always a nice one hanging around… This one was for Séb !

“Oh f@*k!” Those were the first words out of our mouths… And while we were doing that, Erik was doing his too… double dose of laughter! It was not really the moment of fine fishing, but we had a good laugh!

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On another river, I had heard about some nice dry fishing. Exactly what we were looking for after our fine fishing of the day before. We arrive after half an hour of track on the edges of a river of 45 meters wide, with a super clear water.

No hatch on sight… But after all, we are in full summer, it is more than 87° in the shade and waters are low. I think about a sentence that an Argentinian friend told me about his vision on couples and fidelity in Argentina: “In Rome, do as the Romans do”…

So I might as well apply it to fishing. I tied a kind of Sedge at least as big as me on a point in 3X and I fish the water. Three casts later, I was shaken by a bow of more than a foot which came out of “nowhere”. On almost all the day, we fish after fish,  dry, nymph or in tandem. We will have made a nice quantity with specimens of all sizes.

All good things must come to an end… unfortunately. We came back home with a mind full of memories. But one thing is sure, we will go back next year!

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If you are looking for adventure and you dream of fly fishing in a part of Patagonia Argentina where “almost” nobody goes in a good atmosphere with Mouching sauce, or simply if you want information, it’s here : Globe-Truiteur .

Credits : Nicolas Latorre and Baptiste Conquet