Chile, Tierra del Fuego, middle part of Rio Grande - part 2

Along the river there are only a few trees, sowe were able to drive with our rods ready for action. 

Guanacos are very common, and they are not afraid of people.  Stefan during his sleep was almost stepped on by a careless animal. 

Sea-trout is strong fish; for landing it you spend at least a minute per pound.  Most of the holding areas were hard to cover with single-handed rods, especially in strong wind.  I was using 15' 2-handed rod.   

This fish weights about 3 kg; it could be a good trophy for Northern Europe; in Rio Grande this is an average catch.  Sea-run trout are biting mostly rather small flies.  Rubber-leg nymphs are among the best patterns. 

The flies selection for fishing Rio Grande could be limited to small wet flies and nymphs on #12-8 hooks.  In low water conditions the sea-run trout is biting mostly little flies.  Bigger flies (Wooly Buggers, String Leeches, Intruders) are used in periods with high water, and in limited light conditions.  They are also catching the majority of resident trout.   

This 70 cm silver fish was caught with a #10 Red Tag. 

Puff-balls near the river

In summer and fall the ibis is quite common in the open pampa

Chile, Tierra del Fuego, middle part of Rio Grande

Famous Rio Grande begins in the western (Chilean) part of the Tierra del Fuego, crosses the island and flows into Atlantic Ocean.  On this shot Rio Blanco flows left to right and joins Rio Grande near a big beaver hut. 

Below the junction with Rio Blanco the Rio Grande becomes rather big; it is difficult to wade across it even in low water.

 The river meanders in wide open valley with only a few beech trees.  There are no willows in the floodplain. 

Flat terrases of the river allow driving with a 4WD truck. 

 

In the private stretches of the river there are not many fishermen. 

We were fihshing the Chilean part of Rio Grande - from the bridge at the Ruta 85 downstream to the border with Argentina.  The most numerous fish was resident brown trout.  The stream offers excellent trout fishing, but we were aimed at trophy sea-run trout.  This means, a bite of even good size resident trout was considereda nuisance...

Both resident and sea-run trout were biting black or other dark wet flies.  Most of resident fish were caught with big flies on #6-4 hooks.