Patagonia - anyone been ?

[steveg137]

For trout, December...anyone been ?

Any thoughts welcome

Thanks
Steve

[WLREDBAND]

Yep, I've been, but in JAN. IMNSHO, a hugely overrated fishery that does not offer much value for the large amount of money and time it takes. Very scenic country, but fishing, especially in the public waters, is not worth the cost and time of travel. The private waters I fished were nice, but very pricey. To sum it up, I met a guy in the airport in Dallas on the way there and his comment was "that's an awful long way to go to catch a bunch of dinky trout". He was right. I doubt I'll ever go back.

[Jepatock]

I traveled o Argentina last feb with Chocolate Lab Expeditions. Nothing but good things to say about this outfitter. Ron Sorenson and his wife Vanessa are fantastic people and customize the trip to what type of fishing/rivers you like to do.December would be considered the start of summer with the rivers being a bit higher than mid-summer. We based our trip out of San Martin which is a small ski/fishing town. We had 10 day son the water and fished dries, streamers and swung flies. Typical fish were in the 18-20" range with a chance at a trophy up to 30" plus range. Largest I caught on the trip was a 23" brown. Rivers fished were the Lower Limay, Chimehuin, filo hua hum, and Alumine. The lower Limay was my favorite as holds many very large browns which are caught by skating large flies. We primarily floated in drift boats with a few overnight trips. The camp staff would row ahead and set up camp so there were no worries when we were done fishing.


It was a trip of a lifetime. People were nice, food was excellent and we caught a lot of fish. IMO Defiantly worth going.

[steveg137]

Thanks a lot !

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

The big deal down there is fly fishing the east coast rivers for big Sea-run Brown trout.

I think it is in our winter and is pretty spendy.

Today most a using Spey rods for them.

I have not been there but we have customers who go every year.

Fish are 5 to 15 pound average and over 20 on occasion.

Sound more like fishing larger schools of fish, more like fishing fresh salmon in a small river.

[steveg137]

Great report
This place sounds great
I'd like some lake, float and small stream stuff. So some variety.
Would end nov or early dec be ok typically do you think?
I'll do some more research but thanks for the info

[avidangler]

If I were going to make a trip like that it would be for those sea run browns or jurassic lake pigs. But I don't make as much money as some folks so I'm stuck fishing our rivers here. And I'm ok with that.

[steveg137]

Yep great fishing here too. I Turned 50. So Why not. I’d actually love to go back to NZ, another option.

[Rossflyguy]

I’d look into Chile for the big king salmon that inhabit the rivers now. It’s becoming more popular to swing up huge King’s in those rivers. Id rather do that than focus on Browns that don’t get bigger than the ones up in Northern California.