Fishing
Brown and Rainbow Trout in Patagonia
Trout
fishing in Patagonia, Argentina and Chile, runs from November through April.
During these summer months, the weather is very moderate, the days are long, and
the fish are plentiful ... brown, rainbow, and brook trout are abundant throughout
this time of year.
History
of Trout Fishing in Patagonia
There were early attempts to introduce trout to Argentina by immigrants who were
owners or supervisors of the big estancias in southern Patagonia. One story has
it, that a certain ranch boss missed his native land and the fishing. Although
he had beautiful waters around him there were no fish in them. So he decided to
import eggs and that is how the sea run brown trout got its start in Patagonia.
Official records say that it was not until 1904 that the first planting of trout
took place with good results.
The first planting were composed of brook, lake trout and landlocked salmon all
coming from New York, USA. They were planted in lake Nahuel Huapi, Traful, Espejo
and Gutierrez. More importation of fish eggs continued coming from the US, England
and Germany with the same species and additionally adding rainbows, browns, Atlantic
salmon and some species of Pacific salmon.
Since 1933 this work was supported and controlled by building a fish hatchery
that received its water supply from a spring creek close to the now called city
of San Carlos De Bariloche. Which at that time was within the boundaries
of the Estancia El Condor and was a early pioneer frontier town.
Since these early times much progress has been made to increase the production
of eggs to assure future wild fish for the sport of angling. Wild spawning trout
are caught in fish traps and used for reproducing and then the ones of the highest
quality are returned to the waters of the Argentina. To
this day you still can go to areas and catch in the same day all four species
of fish originally brought almost a hundred years ago to Argentina, the brook,
the brown, the rainbow, and the landlocked salmon.
Fishing
in Patagonia
All three areas (the Puelo at the Alto
Puelo Lodge, the Rio
Yelcho in Chile and Alerces
Park in Argentina) have very good fly fishing for trout and the natural
surroundings are extremely beautiful. We fish a great deal of diversified
waters from rivers and lakes to spring creeks. We also do a great deal of
drifting and casting to fish we could see. Most of the time we fish with
dries (see fly
patterns).. The fish are brown and rainbow trout with the average
size 18-21 inches. It is common to catch fish over that that size
and up to 30 inches or more. All the fish are wild and very strong.
Book your trip today and fly fish the diversified waters of the Patagonia region
in Chile and Argentina. For more detailed information contact Kent Schoenauer
at (telephone) - 011 54 2944 492513 or E-mail at kent@ArgentinaChileFlyFishing.com.
