From: 04/01/2014
To: 04/07/2014
Type of Water: Freshwater
Species: Brown trout, Brook trout
First week of the season 2014 started with some english friends. A coupple that I used to to guide in Gallegos river for many years. David Roby is a very talented caster and an unstoppable walker. Sarah is a charming lady who loves horse ridding everywhere she has the chance. Both have visited Patagonia for the last 9 years experiencing every landscape we have down here, and this time their trip was ending in my family´s estancia, Río Pelke.
January was hot in the beggining, with the temperature reaching 25°, but fortunately the water level is always in perfect condition for that part of the season. I picked them up in Las Buitreras lodge and arrived to my place at 11 am. After they met my family, Pedro, Fernanda and Tomas (my younger brother) we start fishing the closer beat, just View more...First week of the season 2014 started with some english friends. A coupple that I used to to guide in Gallegos river for many years. David Roby is a very talented caster and an unstoppable walker. Sarah is a charming lady who loves horse ridding everywhere she has the chance. Both have visited Patagonia for the last 9 years experiencing every landscape we have down here, and this time their trip was ending in my family´s estancia, Río Pelke.
January was hot in the beggining, with the temperature reaching 25°, but fortunately the water level is always in perfect condition for that part of the season. I picked them up in Las Buitreras lodge and arrived to my place at 11 am. After they met my family, Pedro, Fernanda and Tomas (my younger brother) we start fishing the closer beat, just a few meters from the house. Set up a #4 weight rod with a rio shooting head floating line which he wouldn´t change at all trough the week. To be cautious we used a tippet of 20mm in case we find a big brown around. Brooks can get up to a kilo and half and browns can double that size.
Within the first two cast we were rapidly fighting the first nice brown that took a humpy right against a cut bank. We fished for a couple of hours and got back to the main house to have some steaks the gauchos way (on an iron plate with onions). In the estancia we produce lamb meat and vegetables on the kitchen garden, so most of food its organicly produced.
In the afternoon we focused on a smaller stream located half an hour from the house. This tiny stream looks so small that you can´t understand how browns and brooks can get so big. The fishing was upstanding. Each corner was a place where big browns would be holding. Only dry flies allowed in the afternoon sesion! A very smooth aproach to every place and then start watching the surface. Some of the days the browns were literaly flying over the water to reach damsels! quite spectacular to watch...
We counted around 12 fish over a kilo and the very first one reached 2,5 kilos. The fishing we did was with no waders (important for some lazy people haha)
Next day Sarah and my father did some horse ridding around the estancia. Pedro was trying to find some guanacos around but the cold wind didn´t let them go to far.
For the morning sesion we focused on the main river and only in fish that were rising. David got around 6 or 7 fishes in the morning. The afternoon sesion was again in the other stream. This time a different beat with a big lagoon full of brooks. That sesion was really nice, not windy with very good browns around 2 kilos. The brooks on the lagoon were shy, taking tiny nymphs so softly that we missed most of the takes. Back to the estancia, we shared a memorable dinner with my family outside the house with a good fire.
Last day was similar to the others. One good thing is that in Estancia Rio Pelke property both rivers together must reach around 30 km of length. But we save the best for the very last. After hooking many fishes it happened what became a story. On the very last pool, in the small stream, David casted a huge chernobyl and a big splash surprised us, my brother and I were waitting to see what was at the end of the line trying to shoot some video with go pros. After a great fight this amazing male of brown trout gave up. It was around 3 kilos, big, fat and dark. Simply beautiful, the perfect end for a memorable first week of Estancia Rio Pelke.
Rods: 1 (of a max of three)
Fish: 50 aprox
Bigger fish: 3 kgs
Best fly: chernobyl ant
