far out fishing
the travel blog for faroutfishingtrips.com (and other spiffy fishing stories)
Archive for March, 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.
