fun time fishing
anything and everything connected to a life of fishing
May 20, 2008 at 1:58 am · Filed under Argentina Fishing
hey, everyone. been a while since i posted. we’re pretty much out of fishing season here, so i’m doing a lot of work in Buenos Aires for the upcoming fishing season.
had some visitors this week. my good friends Frank Butler and Ken Korth who came with some other friends from San Antonio to visit and do some hunting for dove, perdiz and ducks. last week we went to Frank’s ranch in Tucuman, in northwestern Argentina. the rainy season had ended and it had been quite cold recently, but we decided to take a day and go fish for Dorado after a ridiculous day of dove shooting the previous day.
it was a super long-ass day. 2.5 hour drive to get to the town of Las Lajitas, then 45 minutes on dirt roads into private property to access the Rio Dorado. then quite a bit of hiking. the Rio Dorado is a gorgeous stream that runs into the Rio Bermejo. we met up with Sebastian Zavila, a guide from Salta who runs a company called Fly Fishing Salta.
we had perfect weather and decent flows. air temperature was in the mid 70’s all day, not a cloud in the sky, and the river was running about 100 cfs. fishing was a bit slow and the Dorado were not particularly active, but we did manage to hook some fish. all in all, Frank and i hooked about 7-8 fish in the 2-3 pound range. here’s a photo of Sebastian with a 5-pounder i caught. i jumped a fish of 8-10 pounds, and Frank lost a monster fish of 12-14 pounds…all in water that was no deeper than 3-5 feet in most places that held fish. amazing quality of fish in a tiny river this small. but, this was one of the most slippery rivers i’d ever waded in, was like walking on 1000 bars of wet soap. and the biting flies destroyed me. still itching almost a week later from all the bug bites. cheers. joey. photos © Joey Lin 2008
May 2, 2008 at 12:33 am · Filed under Argentina Fishing
hey, guys. i’m stuck here in Buenos Aires, fall is upon us and the fishing season is winding down here in Argentina. my business partner, who helps run Yahapé Fly Fishing, ran up to Corrientes to fish with my buddies Ramiro Badessich and Ricardo “Pinti” Pinto, guides for that operation up there on the upper Rio Paraná. this is a photo from yesterday. it was really cold, as a strong front passed thru, so fishing was slow as far as numbers, but they were moving really big fish.
Pinti says the best time for big fish this time of year is right when the weather starts getting cold, but before winter sets in. this fish is somewhere in the 18+ pound range. they hooked a few other fish in the 20+ pound range as well. if you want to book a trip, call me or email me at joey@faroutfishingtrips.com and i’ll hook you up. photo © Sebastian Casado ‘08. see ya.
April 19, 2008 at 4:04 pm · Filed under Argentina Fishing
ok, so the second half of my trip. i left Irigoyen and headed for Rio Grande where i had to meet up with some clients of mine that flew in. this was Bennett Dorrance and some friends, all super nice guys. we had originally booked Kau Tapen Lodge, but because of schedule conflicts, had to move to Toon Ken Lodge further up river. again, the fishing was a bit slow, the water was 1 degree celsius, and i was stuck guideless to fish the river. but this was a business trip for me to visit Toon Ken (haven’t been since they rebuilt the lodge a few years ago), and to visit some guide friends over at Kau Tapen.
there were some fish caught in the 3 days the group was there, but not many by either lodge in this particular week. some rain had brought some fresh fish into the lower river, but not too many up where we were. Bob Anderson got a 15 pounder and a 12 pounder, and the rest of the guys caught some smaller resident fish. i didn’t do so well. the photos are of the upper Rio Grande. there’s my friend Barrett Mattison with a 16 pound sea trout (hen) caught by an Argentine client. the sheep photo is on the Estancia San Julio on the way back to Toon Ken. i couldn’t decide which photo i liked best, so i put up this version. but CLICK HERE to see an alternate version. i like them both.
food and lodging were excellent at Toon Ken. the highlight of the trip for me was going with the group to Ushuaia (where Bennett had to park the plane), and eating centolla (king crab) and taking the flight back to Buenos Aires. Bennett was kind enough to invite me on his Dessault Falcon, an impressive private jet. never been on a private plane like this one. was the smoothest plane ride i’ve ever been on. was amazing how quickly and easily it climbed to 43,000 feet, our cruising altitude. photos © Joey Lin 2008, cheers!
April 14, 2008 at 6:41 pm · Filed under Argentina Fishing
so i just got back from Tierra del Fuego. for those of you who don’t know, it’s the island tip of South America. was headed down for a couple of reasons. one was to check out my friends’ new fishing operation for sea run brown trout on the Irigoyen.
this was a spectacular location, not the typical imagery of sea trout fishing on the Rio Grande. it’s a small river that meanders through forests. there are beavers and dead fall all over the river, which makes for quite an interesting setting to catch these monster fish (they were consistently catching them up to 24 pounds this past season). i got really lazy and didn’t take too many photos of the river itself.
the trip to get there was particularly brutal. we had a flight delay, then a 3.5 hour full flight to Ushuaia (southern most city in the world, jumping off point to Antarctica), then about a 5 hour car ride to the lodge on a private estancia in the middle of nowhere.
fishing was not so great since it was early April and the fish were just in the middle of the spawn. the water was also super cold, like 1 degree celsius during the day. i happened to be there for only a few days to check out the lodge/logistics and was with a group of 4 guests i didn’t know, so i really wasn’t left with much water to play in. anyway, here are a few photos from the area before i headed off to Rio Grande with a group of mine. more details on that later. photos © Joey Lin, 2008.
April 5, 2008 at 2:15 pm · Filed under Argentina Fishing
guys, this is a quick post. it’s been about 3 weeks since we went on our exploratory fishing trip. i shot this photo of my sandals in the river. these are made by Keen, and supposedly are made for water, but i use them here in the city in Buenos Aires and in the water when i wet-wade.
let me tell you, i love these sandals/shoes, but they absolutely suck on wet rock. wish they would make them with 5-10 sticky rubber or something. my last day of exploring, i took a nasty fall in the river and landed sideways, busting my knee and my ribs. 3 weeks later, my ribs still hurt when i cough or sneeze. it’s getting better, but i think i might have cracked something.
anyway, i like the photo, so i thought i’d share it. photo © Joey Lin 2008
April 2, 2008 at 6:01 pm · Filed under Argentina Fishing
ok, this isn’t really from this past week, more like 10 days ago. this is another creek that we had always known about, but never fished it. not much really to say about this creek, except that it had great pool-run structure. lots of healthy fat rainbows in the 18-20 inch range with a few 22 inchers. the bigger fish were holding in very shallow water (1-2 feet), and mixed in were some really big browns in the 3-5+ pound range. i went with Katy and Garrett. this was to be our last day of exploratory fishing before Garrett had to head back to Chile.
the big browns were particularly difficult, as almost nobody goes up here where we were fishing. this is truly New Zealand style fishing. a lot of the day was spent sight fishing to these fish. the browns would spook if you looked at them too long, even when we were fully hidden. big wild browns just have a 6th sense, that’s what makes fishing for them so much fun. for the most part of the day, we were fishing small to medium size dry flies (caddis or an attractor mayfly in about #14 average size). i had quite a bit of success trailing a #18-#20 pheasant tail nymph about 12 inches off of a small dry, some big fish were taking it, including this brown pictured here. photos © Joey Lin and Garrett Sullivan 2008.
March 27, 2008 at 6:21 pm · Filed under Argentina Fishing
hey, guys. it’s been a pretty busy couple of weeks here. had a few days in Buenos Aires to get some office work done before i had to come back here to Northern Patagonia to assist with some filming for a DVD for our Northern Patagonia Fishing Club. the weather had changed, we had a full moon and a cold front that came through, so it made the fishing a bit weird, but we managed.
these photos are in no particular order. but after the video guys left, i finally got to spend time fishing with my good friend and guide Katy Melo. he’s been busy all season, so we haven’t been able to actually fish together. i’ve been on some trips with clients helping spot fish, etc, but we haven’t been able to do any exploratory fishing.
we are blessed in this part of Aluminé with a lot of water that is totally in plain sight and under-utilized. part of my job now is to optimize our fishing program. i brought along another friend, Garrett Sullivan, who guides in Colorado in the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, and in Alaska. he was down here doing some R & D in Chile for some guys who want to start an operation. hell of an angler, so he came along to help us check some stuff out.
i’m not going to name any rivers here since there are a lot of eyes watching what we are doing. people think they know what we are fishing with our clients, but we’ll keep them guessing. we have a mix of public waters and some private access to some creeks that are barely on the map, that i’m pretty sure nobody ever fishes…. Read the rest of this entry »
March 6, 2008 at 9:23 pm · Filed under Argentina Fishing
guys, i’m at Pira Lodge now, where i used to guide. came down to spend a few days here to see the Iberá Marsh one last time this season and to visit my friend Noel, who is the manager here. we go back a long time since the first year of the lodge, he was always my favorite guide before i started guiding here.
right now the water is getting low again, it hasn’t rained in 2 months. i’m also here checking out some new Sage bass rods. i think they are marketed kind of funny, they should be the Sage Dorado Rods. just look at the colors and tell me they aren’t the perfect rods for dorado fishing???
the photo is of a 6 pound dorado taken from the Rio Corrientes near the lodge. was a great day of fishing, we came down to the river on a rare day off with Emiliano the chef, Carolina the lodge hostess and Felipe and Vincente, 2 of the guides. i caught one of 10 pounds, and jumped and lost another in the 7-8 pound range and caught a few smaller ones.
this is one of the gauchos in the area, fishing with a hand line. i didn’t take a picture of my 10 pounder since they were nearby, and didn’t want to draw attention to the fact that i was catching fish. right now with low water, there is access to the river’s edge from all around. in normal water levels, the river banks are flooded, but now they are dry and people graze their cows. the birdlife is still as amazing as ever here, at least 100 species visible each time we go out. photos © Joey Lin 2008
March 5, 2008 at 5:21 pm · Filed under Argentina Fishing
here are some photos from last week on the upper Rio Paraná. i was with a group of anglers from Colorado who came down to do a Patagonia trout fishing and northern Argentina dorado fishing combo. we were at Estancia Atalaya, fishing with Yahapé Fly Fishing. there were 4 of us total (Hayden Thompson, Ricki Krietemeier and David Graham). also, this visit was special for me to go visit my good buddy, Ramiro Badessich. he came to guide with us at Pira Lodge several years ago and turned into one hell of a fine fishing guide.
we were only there for about 3 days, and had really bad weather, wind and rain. seems some sort of low pressure system was spinning between Corrientes and Buenos Aires, giving us rain and a strange wind from the southwest, which is rare this time of year. despite all that, the dorado fishing was outstanding. we had days where we were hooking lots of fish, generally in the 4-5 pound range with some fish in the 7-10 pound range. lots of Pira Pitá, which is a fish that is related to a dorado (pictured here). also, there were a lot of Pacú following the fly, and a couple caught. will post a picture of a Pacú later when i get a chance.
on the last day, it got windy again and the fishing seemed to turn off, but i landed a nice fish of about 7-8 pounds and lost one at the very end of about 14+ pound range?? David Graham lost a fish that could have gone 20 pounds. all in all, was a great few days of dorado fishing before i sent them off to San Martin de los Andes to fish for trout. the kids are locals that help the guides launch the boats each day. photos ©Joey Lin 2008. cheers.
March 3, 2008 at 7:19 pm · Filed under Argentina Fishing
here are a couple of more photos from Patty’s most recent visit to Aluminé. this was in a creek we’d not like to name. there were 3 of us. Katy, Patty and myself. this involved a lot of sight fishing in a very New Zealand-like way. the water is getting rather low right now, so we had to contend with a lot of algae. spent a lot of the day hanging up in algae, either the fly or the tippet knots. Patty lost several big browns to the algae. luckily, they just came off the hook, no break-offs. i hate leaving flies in fish!
the day was spent hiking up quite a bit (3+ miles?), and tricky wading in awkard-sized slippery boulders, but all in all, was a fantastic day. Patty said she had never hooked such big browns in such small water (this is a very tiny creek at the moment). almost all the fish (mostly browns) were hooked on big dry flies. several of the fish we caught were between 19-22 inches and fat, although Patty lost one that may have gone even bigger. photos ©Joey Lin, 2008. cheers.
Next entries »
