South American Chinook fishing I been seeing some toads down there daily on fly fishing chinook Rio Puelo check it out on facebook. Makes me want to book a trip down there. I also herd they have killer steelhead and 20# searun browns down there to boot

They're probably 5lbers stuffed with cocaine. Everything down there is a mule.

I think this one was stuffed with 25 kilos of coke.



Or mebbe it was just a another mule?

NAH... just another big ol' tule.

[Bleeeeep!]...

I've trout fished a few streams down there that have both salmon and steelhead in them. I was there outside of the typical run timing for each though.

The Rio Del Las Vueltas near town of Chalten and the Fitzroy-Cerro Torre gets a pretty good run of Chinook. Most of the locals I spoke with and the pictures I saw were of pretty dark fish, which made sense seeing as how they are pretty far from the salt by the time they get that far into the system.

The rio Santa Cruz is the only river with a run of steelhead that uses the Atlantic ocean in the world, or so I've read and been told. I spoke with a few shops in Calafate (near the Santa Cruz) that said the fishing can be awesome at times. It's big water and fairly nondescript and my general impression was that it would be a tough nut to crack. Seems like most of the guides worked out of boats from bars mid-river. Most of the gear, flies, and methods I saw being employed I saw being used were very low tech. Beautiful country. Very windy.

The picture Doc posted shows the Torres Del Paine in the background and there are several glacier fed systems which come out of the park outside of Puerto Natales. Not sure which one that fish might have come from but it should be easy to figure out.

The sea run browns were a bigger attraction for me and I never got to see one in the handful of days I had to fish. I was on the early end of the season for them. I'll give it another try one day for sure.

I really really really really really really want to swing spoons for 30-40 pound sea run brown trout.

I really do.

Fish on...

Todd

Let's book it soon todd. Need a different scenery

I dunno...I mean, who would ever want to waste time trying to catch these?







Those don't look like fun at all to me.

Fish on...

Todd

Sorry Todd; all the best sea run brown trout waters run through private estancias in the Tierra del Fuego area. You'll need to sell a whole lotta' RVRFSHR tackle to afford a week at one of them. And then - wait for it . . . - you'll most likely need your fly gear. I've never heard nor read of any of those owners permitting any spoon chucking.

Ugh, how could you ever deal with those crowds.

Not sure if you are being serious or not...but I have heard otherwise, both the DIY opportunities and the "you can use whatever you want to use" standards.

Fish on...

Todd

Really taking off down there. Clancy Holt went not to long ago and slayed them.

http://www.salmonfishingnow.com/salmon-fishing-chile-argentina/

Todd,

There are lots of rivers north of the Cape with public access, and they have good numbers of chinook and steelhead in some of them. All gear types are used there. Harry Lemire and another friend went down checking it out about 10-12 years ago. I've not heard of many sea run browns there, however, but there might be. But there is very little public access on decent water, from what I've heard, down in the Rio Grande area, which is where the good sea run brown populations are. Rio Grande population itself is estimated at 70 - 80k fish. Some of the private waters might let paying guests use whatever gear they want to bring, but all the ones I looked into only discuss fly fishing.

Sg

Never been there but if I do go this is one place I'd like to hit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2Zi4NquBQU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xACIQkjLf4A

I've looked pretty hard into DIY trips to Strobel (Jurassic) and the Barancoso. From what I've been able to find it is doesn't really seem to be a practical possibility. Access is via private land and many hours of 4wd HC travel. No real infrastructure minus the two lodges, not that you need it to camp, but it is pretty lonely country. Very, very remote. It would be a pretty involved expedition bringing all of your gear, food, and fuel with you from either the US or big city down there then making your way to the lake, that's if you could secure access and transportation.

I fished the Gallegos which doesn't have nearly the populations of searun brown that the Grande and the rivers farther south in Tierra del Fuego.

http://en.argentina-excepcion.com/tours-argentina/tierra-fuego-fishing-tour.html

"You may practice flyfishing or regular fishing...We suggest bringing a wide variety of lures".

Besides encouraging you to bring lures, it's clear that they, too, consider flyfishing "irregular"...since you both do that or "regular fishing"

Fish on...

Todd

P.S. That's an expensive trip there, of course...a ten day tour of ten cities and something like eight rivers...but this one especially seems interesting

I've looked at it before and a true DIY sounds far more ambitious than I'd be willing to do...

Fish on...

Todd

We camped a few nights at the "lodge" mentioned in that article, the Bella Vista. It's little more than a rundown house really. We camped in their lawn for a few bucks a night and had a few meals with the owners who were very nice. Its located right on the Gallego Chico was is super tiny but has a healthy population of resident browns. Its a five minute walk to the Gallegos from the camp spot.

Lots of locals chucking hardware, in fact I cleaned a few spoons from the river and meant to give them to you for a chuckle Todd. I thought I had but maybe they are still floating around in a box somewhere. Most of their spoons more closely resemble a pipe jig than a real spoon.

Lots of great DIY trips to be had down there, but the logistics and access of Stroble might be too much to overcome from a practical standpoint.

The bank access on the Gallegos is great.

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