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Fishing Chronicles From Under the Southern Cross/Patagonia |
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 Eric with Leopard Brown March 14, 2000 The
Chronicles Continue………… We are having a great time down here developing what we think to be one of the best outfitting strategies available. Combining jet sledding, drifting, walking and horseback riding to and on various rivers, lakes and sounds we have designed an incredibly diversified and interesting fishing program. We have not been without errors, but continue to grow and chalk up experience. This last week I spent a couple of special ˝ days on the Rio Petrohue and the Rio Puelo in our Northern location. I was privileged to fish with Dottie and Edward Donald Thomas. Edward was the 1990 winner of the Nobel Prize for his fortitude, advancement and lifelong commitment to the concept of Bone Marrow Transplants for Leukemia Patients. His integrity and ideas are the reason that 20,000 operations a year are performed for people with this disease. Wow, what a special experience to listen to a man who has impacted so many lives. His wife Dottie is such a charming, witty and enjoyable person and also very knowledgeable about the process for which the award was given because for 57 years they have been married and for a majority of that time his and their focus was directed to the cause. She can also fish quite well. In fact they both are fishers! On the drive back from Rio Puelo, I was blessed with the ability to ask them questions and to hear their thoughts and feelings on life. The two are very simple, intelligent and poignant people. They talked of full tux affairs, seminars, lectures, board of directors and the like. They also talked of the way they met as undergrads in a snow ball fight. They spoke highly of their three children and how proud they were of their lives, accomplishments, families etc. At one point during their early years they actually had their whole family working together in the Clinic; mom, dad, two sons and their daughter. They talked of the vegetable gardens and animals on their small farm. Don and Dottie said they have been asked many times, “When was it that you saw the light about the process that enabled you to win the Nobel prize?” Their response was and is, “It took twenty plus years of hard intensive labor.” There never was a single moment that they saw the light, simply years and years of commitment! The same week that the Thomas’s were at Yankeeway, so were the Pigott's and Krengell’s. After being at the North location, The Pigott’s, Krengel’s and Thomas’s headed down to our South Location , where they have been experiencing some great fishing as well. It was very hard for Carol Krengel to leave our North location because she basically had the best two days of fishing she has ever had, with Chris on the Puelo river. The stats for one day were very nice with 6 fish over 20 inches and one being a 26” Rainbow. The other day (guides day out) on our home river in the North, the Petrohue, we did what we call the power float and caught large numbers of trout. Many jewels as well as about 10 fish over 19”. The Petrohue is shaping up for our Fall Season. Our home river at El Patagon has been producing large numbers of fish daily. Numbers of the “Jewels of Chile” as well as a trophy brown here and there. We should begin to see more of those trophy browns as Fall progresses. One of the most incredible and continuing phenomena's that continues for me is the never tiring sight of Volcano Osorno. Every day the sunset offers a different look at an incredible mountain. The hues of pink and more are never the same and are a photographers dream. As I was driving to the main lodge the other day I kicked myself for not having my camera because there were two rainbows next to each other, near the volcano. They were more brilliant and defined then I had ever seen. We
spent another day on River X, and had a completely wonderful experience.
Although we didn’t catch many big fish, we did manage to land large numbers
of Jewels and one 24” Brown trout that bent the seven weight to the cork.
The brown ate a Mouse pattern. The last time we were at River X I had
about the same size Brown trout basically Kick My ___ using my five weight
and a mouse. The moral of the story is, when using mice, use a large rod
because big trout eat mice!
The Chronicles will continue………..soon. Preview of up coming chronicles. As I sit in Punta Arenas, I realize that the terrain that surrounds me is muy sympatico , because it reminds me a bit of home. I just finished an incredible dinner at Parrilla Los Ganaderos; Up to now, my favorite place to eat in Chile. I ate with Edmundo F and his brother Harry. Edmndo works for the Trilium Corporation and is the administrator/curator for the EIS statement for the 265,000 hectar estancia in Tierra Del Fuego, Chile. My anticipations are high because I will soon be canvassing the estancia with cana and mosca in hand. The Rio Grande, Rio Blanco, Lago Escondido etc......................
March
1, 2000 We have seen some great fishing, great scenery and some awesome weather. We have also experienced some adverse conditions with both the weather and the fishing. All in all, it has been exciting, nonetheless. During the month of January, the fishing in our North location is jaded by the black flies, a complete nuisance that basically renders one unfishable. The positive side is that the black flies are only present for the first three weeks of January, and only in the North. Recently we experienced some abnormal weather for the summer months and most of our rivers and creeks increased in volume dramatically as well as losing quite a bit of clarity. The beautiful thing is that once the rains subside these rivers and creeks return to their normal state so quickly it is truly unbelievable. The months of November and December provided some awesome fishing in both our South and North locations. We could almost bank on a Trophy Resident Brown every three days. We were able to use both surface flies and streamers for these browns. One preferred method to fish for these carnivorous trout is with mice. I remember one day when the fisherman in the back of the boat made a cast with his woolybugger to the bank using a sink tip. It was a beautiful cast towards some riverside structure. He was retrieving the fly and about 6 strips into the presentation a nice 23inch brown made his presence known. The angler kept stripping and the fish followed all the way to the edge of the boat. The fisherman had no more room to strip and by this point also had "Buck Fever" because it is a bit unnerving when a shark like brown is ensuing. At this point, the brown backed away from the boat approximately 20 feet, "still wanting to eat". The fisherman in the back of the boat was in a state of squander, so the fisherman in front who was using a mouse, placed his fly three to four feet in front of the trout and the brown so graciously moved up to it and sipped like a Mayfly. This certainly is not the standard style that brown trout eat mice because the fly usually tends to be mauled as opposed to sipped; Anyhow, we say, "Another Day in Paradise and every meal is a banquet!" During the second and third weeks of Jan. we did a bit of exploration with a Cessna 206, on floats. The goal was to fly and research the possibilities of bringing our own planes down from the North. Dale Depreist, our commander and chief flew down with Pat Martin, one of the top Alaska Float plane pilots. We then hired a local Pilot and his plane to do our "Study". Short of boring you with incredibly long winded fishing stories, we were able to land and fish some great waters and to make conclusions on the positives and negatives of having a float plane operation; We were also fortunate to see some incredible country. Well, being the fisherman that I am, I will have to tell you one quick story. We landed on Lago Trebol one nice afternoon; This Lake is the headwaters to the River Tic Toc. The nicest location to beach the plane was only about 150 yards from a small inlet stream that formed an incredible Boca where it entered the lake. Being the only one fishing that day was special, but it would have been incredible to share the experience, which followed. After rigging my rod with a sink tip, I scrambled over to the inlet stream where I proceeded to catch and release approximately 25 fish in about 1 1/2 hours. Most of these fish ranged from 17-23 inches and all were fine healthy specimens of either Rainbow or Brook trout. The largest fish I had on was about a 24-25" Rainbow that was just to hard to control, and finally shook the hook. The strongest fish I landed was about a 22" Brook trout that made such a strong run that the fish blew my clutch out on the Lamson 3.5 I was using. Anyhow, besides the great fishing on that lake the scenery was breathtaking! I guess being the guide that I am I will have to relay one other small story from our week of flying. We landed in an Island fjord off the coast of Chile, where a medium sized river entered the salt. The pilot seemed a bit hesitant to take us into the mouth of a river, so he placed us on a small spit a short distance from the mainland and the river. Dale said to me, " We have to get to the mouth of that river, to check it out! I only have waist highs on and it is to deep for me." Well, with that I took off to do my job-Research and Development. I waded about half way to the mainland where it starting getting deep and as I approached three quarters of the way it was darn near to the top of my Simms gortex. Well, the next three steps did me in and I was wet, really wet. I thought to myself, being that I am wet I might as well keep going. So I did, only about four more steps and the water was to my chin and that was enough, I turned around and headed back for the uncharted small spit where Dale was postured with his video in a state of hysterics watching the bonehead maneuver that his "head guide" had just completed. Shortly after draining the waders we hailed the pilot over and caught a quick ride from the spit to the mouth of the river. We pre-designated only a thirty-minute period to fish because we were a little behind schedule. I hooked three fish and Dale did not hook any. One fish was about a 15-pound 35inch Steelhead that cart wheeled two times in front of me and spit the hook. The other two fish were some sort of Ocean type perch. During the first week of January Chris our fearless guide of the North and I spent a bit of time on a Spring Creek that we call Jimmy Carter Creek. We named the creek that, because we understand that Jimmy loved to fish the creek when he was living in the area. This spring creek actually spills into a tumbling clear mountain stream, which in turn enters the Petrohue River. We would consider the creek a difficult fishery in that it is predominantly sight casting to fish in clear waters with lighter tippets. It most certainly is fun fishing for those who enjoy this type of challenge. The creek hosts both Rainbows and Browns. This clear creek offers some nice hatches of Midges and Mays, allowing an angler the opportunity for some challenging dry fly presentation. It also boasts a prolific population of scuds and leeches. Combining some dry fly fishing as well as some classic slow stream nymphing and leech stripping makes for a well-rounded fishery. Anyhow, when you turn a couple of guides loose on a stream such as this, inevitably there will be a few "High Fives", a few missed fish and a few "Oh S_ _ ts". We had a great time that day for approximately 3 hours. Since then we have returned with clients. Usually no more then 1-2 times a week, so as not to over pressure the fishery. Unfortunately Region X and X1 of Patagonia Chile was unseasonable inundated with rains and bad weather for the last two weeks of Jan. and the beginning of Feb.. We had some mixed fishing as well as mixed weather. As the weather would subside we were able to get some fishing in, especially in our southern location. However, it never subsided for long and would be back to incredible rains. In Chile, we say, Malo Tiempo. These rains would definitely inflate the rivers to unfishable conditions. One beautiful thing about unspoiled watersheds, they recuperate very quickly. At our El Patagon location, our home river can drop back into shape within two to three day because of the minimal effects on the ecosystem by man. It is an incredible sight to watch a river at beyond flood stage change in a matter of three days to a clear and fishable river. The guides at our lodges have been busy guiding and researching. We have named many of our favorite holes and locations. These names graciously refer to some endearing or interesting occurrence or fact that either happened at or are part of these specific places. Some of these so eloquently named holes are classic pools some are back eddies. The following is a short list of a few names that have been deemed surnames to our fishing grounds............ The Eternal Back Eddy The Old Folks Home Sprained Ankle Back Eddy Edgar's Home Run Slow Joe Tea Bay Rock Island Last Chance Back Eddy The Bubble Hole The list goes on and will continue to grow. Fall is now just around the corner and we should begin to see some anadromous fish as well as some Lake Run Browns. Recently, since the abnormal rains of this season subsided, the fishing has been consistent and good. We have had some great dry fly fishing in both our North and South locations. The other day, four of us did a float on River X. This river is basically East of Eden. We call it River X for obvious reasons. Between the four of us we must have caught more fish than most dream of in a week. The average fish certainly weren't monsters, but what more can a person ask for. We caught rainbows, browns and a few brookies. The fish ranged in size from 10-23 inches. We were able to catch many during the day with dries as well as streamers. With the onset of the evening, we continued our dry fly game by chugging mice patterns..........I don't need to say anymore. River X is truly a special place that has not seen or felt much pressure by man, which is a bit abnormal for the fisheries in the North. There are many rivers in the South that have not been spoiled, but the amount of unspoiled rivers in the North is diminishing quickly. River X offers everything from incredible scenery (standard for Chile), easy fishing, solitude and a chance to catch numbers of trout. After fishing River X we headed North of Puerto Mont close to Lago Puyuhue to fish a couple of no name Laguna's. We arrived a bit later than had planned but were pleasantly surprised by a wonderful Calibeatis hatch that was taking place. It was great dry fly fishing that day. Aside from about 4:30pm to 7pm which was a bit slow there weren't too many minutes that went by, that we didn't have a fish on. Most of the fish we caught that day we would refer to as the "Jewels of Chile"; Normal 10-18" trout and large numbers of them. The largest fish landed that day was about 21 inches. However, one-week prior, Jerry Reichow landed a 261/2" brown from the same Laguna. It may have been possible to catch larger fish that day using sinking lines but we chose to stick with the dry fly game and we had a blast. The next day we fished the infamous Rio Gol Gol and were quite disappointed in the fishing. The scenery was incredible, however the river was part of what we call "The Killing Fields." We hope that in the future the people of Chile realize what an incredible resource has developed because of the extensive stocking programs that were done around the turn of the century. One of the most common statements we here today in the North sector of Region X is "You should have seen the fishing ten years ago." This specific region still has some incredible fishing in specific rivers, but large numbers of watersheds have been decimated by what we refer to as the "Killing Fields". The country is not a very wealthy country, and therefore many of the families don't have much money. It is common to see the men out fishing to provide meals for there family and that is something that one cannot put blame on. However, when you find nets strung across the mouths of rivers near the Boca of a lake, or near the Boca into the salt, this should raise eyebrows. Yet it hasn't, till just recently. The original Chilean sport fishing lodges of the North have never practiced catch and release, and have targeted a large number of the rivers when the Lake Run fish are making their way into the systems for spawning purposes. Basically within the last 15 years the North regions prime genetic stocks have been dwindled. What is needed on the rivers of the North is a bit of enforcement. Unfortunately the monies collected for license sales is put into a general fund, that some of us are all to familiar with in the states, and the benefit is never seen. The Southern sector of Region X and continuing further South into Region X1 and others in the South still provide unharmed watersheds that are teaming with Arco Iris, Fario and Arroyo Trucha (Rainbow, Brown and Brook Trout). How long will this last? Only time will tell. Argentina has placed specific regulations on certain rivers to protect their resources and it has worked. We believe Chile is starting to see the light; We certainly hope so! |
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Phone:
509-962-5959 |
