Gink & Gasoline´s
Trout and Dorado Combo experience
This is truly a once-in-a-lifetime fly fishing adventure.
I have fished some amazing places but none offer the diversity, solitude and hospitality of Argentina.
Floating the storied rivers of Patagonia, you get the sense of what it would have been like to be the first angler to trout fish the American west. Big brown trout and rainbows crush #2 dry flies as condors soar overhead and llamas lounge on the bank. You look around but there isn’t another angler on the river. Your boat pulls into camp and you are greeted by a goat, roasting on a spit over an open fire. A lavish island tent camp with Christmas lights strung in the trees, a full bar and cases of Argentine wine. You spend the evening gazing at the Southern Cross hanging over the river, then drift off as your guides tell fantastic stories around the camp fire. You can’t make up this kind of stuff.
The Limay is known for its big browns. It’s very common to catch fish over 20 inches on dry flies. Anglers probe the depths with minnow patterns, finding brown trout in the twenty-pound range. The river flows clean and clear across beautiful dessert hills. Riffles pour into deep pools and trees shade undercut banks. If there are small trout in the river, I haven’t seen them.
But that’s only the start of this trip.
After 4 days floating the famous Limay “River of Monsters,” we travel to the north, to the upper Parana on the border with Paraguay. For the next four days we’ll chase viscous Golden Dorado, Pacu and Pirapita as howler monkeys taunt us from the jungle.
At the Parana On The Fly Lodge we will take siesta after a hot lunch and enjoy fabulous evening meals with a view of the river. This is one of the most magical places I have ever visited. The Parana is a mighty river, the Mississippi of South America, winding through an dense jungle, by ancient cathedrals and fishing villages.
The Dorado themselves are beyond compare. They are so aggressive that the first half dozen to eat my fly scare the pants off me. Ranging well past the thirty-pound mark, these apex predators are the kings of sport fish. They inhale eight-inch streamers and rat patterns. In clear water you can sight fish to them as if you were on a saltwater flat. It’s like fishing another planet.
This trip is nothing if not exotic. The Argentine people are warm and hospitable. Our hosts, Andes Drifters, deliver unmatched service and personal attention. These guys do it right. You can not help but fall in love with Argentina. It is a beautiful and haunting place that stays in your heart. I hope you will be able to join us there.
Louis Cahill
Gink & Gasoline
www.ginkandgasoline.com
Original Article: Epic Argentina Double Header