Argentina Sea Trout 2013 Report

Our teams caught so many great sea trout in Argentina this year, that it took Jim a while to recover enough to complete his report! Here it is - the blow-by-blow account of an incredible season on the Rio Grande:

2013 Sea Trout Season at Villa Maria Lodge by Jim Curry

Villa Maria on the Rio Grande in Argentina’s Tierra Del Fuego delivered another great sea trout season in 2013 for us here at Halstead and Bolton. Our rods throughout the season caught some fantastic fish, including Mark Riley who landed the biggest fish of the season at Villa Maria with a bright 26½ lb fish. Mark now has his name forever displayed on the roll of honour on the wall of the lodge!

Out two hosted weeks produced more than two hundred fish for our rods. It was a pleasure to see clients from previous years returning and beating their personal bests as well as new rods living their dreams of catching some of the biggest sea trout in the world.

Week 1 - 1-8 March 2013

We arrived to find the river low but full of big fish! One of the advantages of the Villa Maria water is that, even in the lowest water conditions, fresh fish will enter the system on every tide and hold with us. Due to the low water the fish had dropped back into the deep pools so a Skagit line and 15ft of T-14 tip was the order of the day to get our flies down to the fish. Flies varied wildly in size from tiny nymphs to large leeches. The evening sessions saw us switching in the main to large, dark leeches which where savaged by the huge sea trout. 

This week was fished by one of the strongest teams of anglers I've ever assembled, with a great mix of experience on either sea trout or Atlantic salmon. All were good casters and handled the conditions very well indeed. Helped by the constant flow of red wine from the lodge wine cellar, they went on to catch 125 sea trout for six rods - with no less than ten over 20lbs. That made it the most productive week of the season at Villa Maria in terms of numbers of fish caught. 

Richard Williams, who was enjoying his sixth year with us chasing sea trout in Argentina, and his chum Andrew (Watty) Watson hooked and lost more big fish than I’ve ever seen. They went on to catch some great fish but I know they will remember some of the wild things that went berserk and threw the hooks.  These beasts take some landing!

Paul Lalwan and David Eccleston picked up where they left off last year by landing giant fish. Incredibly, Paul landed a 26lb fish for the second year running (and won the bet for the biggest fish of the week!).  

Nick Moody and Phil Walker, our most experienced destination fishers for Atlantic salmon, went steadily through the gears, picking up the tactics and learning the river and the demands of the evening sessions. As expected, they just got better and better and I was fortunate to spend the last day with these guys as they switched into overdrive and took fish out of every pool they fished - including the home pool during the siesta.  Great work boys an absolute pleasure to watch you all at work (and play). 

Week 2 - 8-15 March 2013

This week saw a lift in water and a change in tactics as the week progressed. Again, it was to prove another excellent week, especially for big fish. It was especially interesting for me to see the fish moving out of the deep holes as the water lifted a foot and into shallow water in the fast necks of pools as well as dropping into the tails as I would have expected.

Also many of the pools that were too low to fish properly the week suddenly became perfect fly water. And even in the most coloured water we still caught fish on the biggest tube flies – to the surprise of some!

Keith Graham and Rock Wallace returned for the second successive year after becoming addicted to the runs of these sea trout. They hit the ground running, landing five twenties between them on just the first day! The guys covered the water beautifully and the sound of Keith's Hardy Perfect screaming could be heard in the Andes, I'm sure. 

Mike Cooney and Chris Noble, first timers on the Rio Grande, formed a great team. Chris landed five fish over 20lbs - an incredible achievement, especially as a bad back had stopped Chris travelling last year at the eleventh hour. Mike who had a rough time on another river in Patagonia allowed me to persuade him to try the Rio Grande and he did fantastically well catching great fish to a staggering 24lb everyday. Mike also persevered and took fish in the high water conditions when everyone else had retired to the lodge. 

Joe, Joe jnr and Chris Gallo from California are generally more at home running the Gallo wine empire. However these guys did so well learning to Spey cast proficiently and always listened to the guides’ advice and,  as a result, caught some huge fish. 

So, two great and very memorable weeks for us again. This year was made even more special, not simply for the fish which just keep getting bigger, but also because of the great team of guides run by head guide Gaston and the house staff led by Analia. They combined fantastically well to make everyone's trip such a memorable one. 

It all just confirmed to us what we already know: that the Rio Grande is the finest sea trout river in the world and the Villa Maria water is the best and most productive beat on the entire river. 

Can’t wait for next year!

- Jim

Salmon on the Eden

Our Spring Salmon Course on the renowned Warwick Hall beat of the Eden was a great success, with some excellent Spey casting and a couple of lovely fresh fish thrown in.

Jim taught the course with Eden-based instructor, and our great friend, Glyn Freeman. Some recent rain had put the river into perfect order and the team saw plenty of fish showing.

Hugh, Willie, Tina, Richard and Paul joined us for the course - and everyone made great progress.

Hugh sends a cast to the far bank

Paul Lalwan opened the account with his first UK salmon, a sea-liced springer over double figures (see earlier blog post). True to form, he went on to land another lovely fish on the second day, a little smaller at around 7lb.

Paul the fish magnet

Throughout the two days Jim and Glyn were delighted to see the casting progress made by the team.

Beautiful D-loop

And what a location for a course! The river was stunning and in excellent shape. The accommodation, food and service at Warwick Hall was superb.

Lunch at Warwick Hall

These courses are such great fun, and they are the perfect way to learn new skills or just to fish with a great party of friends. They are so successful, we're going to do more of them for both trout and salmon. And hopefully we'll get plenty more action shots like this:

Paul takes control of a salmon (or perhaps vice versa)

- Bob

Eden Spring Salmon Course

We got the salmon season underway this week with our spring salmon course on the Cumbrian Eden at Warwick Hall. And, typical to form, Paul "Lucky" Lalwan kicked it off in style with this stunning sea-liced springer. Estimated at 10lb-plus it was Paul's first UK-caught salmon.

Jim lands Paul's springer

After catching the biggest sea trout on his Argentina weeks for two years running and landing the biggest salmon of our Midfjardara week last year, it was little more than we would have expected!

To be fair, it may be a bit more than luck, though. Paul's been working really hard on his Spey casting and it's now looking really sweet. Shows what fishing with a bit of confidence will do.

And it also shows the stunning fish that the Eden produces in spring. Well done, mate.

Full report on the spring salmon course to follow...

 - Bob

Glyn Freeman and friends on the Rio Grande

Glyn Freeman writes about his week at Villa Maria on the Rio Grande, Argentina:

A change of venue this year from the Rio Gallegos to the Rio Grande a little further south. I went with a couple of friends Mark and Phil booking through Jim and Bob at Halstead and Bolton and have to say that all the travel arrangements were flawless, ran very smoothly and with no delays. We were looked after royally from the beginning of the week to the end of the stay at Villa Maria on the lower Rio Grande. There is a shop at the Villa with anything you may need from flies to waders if you have forgotten something.

Phil on the home pool which was a five minute walk from the fishing lodge.

The food was good, an endless supply of big juicy steaks, fine wine and beer in copious quantities, the staff were fantastic and friendly, the fishing guides Gaston, Pele and Ben really knew their business. There are two lodges, one you sleep in, have breakfast and evening meal and one on the river during the daylight hours where lunch is served and siesta, all very civilised.

That fish looks just like how I felt after a couple of days of fine living!

You could fish the very productive home pool during siesta time if you felt you had any strength left after the morning session and big lunch, not many did!

Guanacos were a regular sight along with the huge Condors.

 

Mark into a nice sea trout.

I have to say that the sea trout fishing and tactics that I was used to on the Rio Gallegos did not work that effectively on the Rio Grande, the pools are really quite deep in places and heavy tips were the order of the day to get down to the bigger fish. It took me a couple of days to get tuned in to what was needed and after that thankfully it was fairly plain sailing.

There are a lot of very big fish on the Grande, many were lost that week from our party with some in the high twenties. it was surprising just how small some of the successful flies were during the day and how big the leeches that were used just on dark.

The wading is very comfortable and the pools fairly easy to read, there is plenty of water to go at and if one pool is not working the guides are quick to take people to another. We shared the week with Skyler an American who did very well, Tony from the north east and two south Africans Richard and Richard, all were excellent company with a good humour which makes the week enjoyable.

There were pools that required some long casts and others less than twenty yards or so, all very manageable with the right outfit.

Some of the fish were like hooking the back of a passing car.

Very fresh fish just off the tide.

The biggest fish of the season so far at Villa Maria was taken by Mark at 26.5 lbs, followed by…

24 lbs, the boy done good! (pictured with Gaston the head guide)

 

The last evening was just something special, I did not want to come home!

Highly recommended!

Rio Grande Sea Trout season off to good start

The sea trout season on the Rio Grande in Argentina is now underway and the Villa Maria water has got off to a good start. Lodge manager Gaston says despite unsettled conditions and some strong winds,  the statistics for the past week, the second of the season, are the best for four years.

Unsettled conditions are to be expected at this time of year, but it's encouraging that fish were being taken on lighter lines and smaller flies and nymphs already.

Gaston's just sent us his report. Here's what he says:

"At the beginning of the week the level of the water was still a bit higher but still clear.
On Monday we had heavy rain showers for one day and two nights, along all the way
of the Grande rivers and the resulting watershed brought about a very sudden rise of
almost 6 inches of clear green water from the Rio Menendez.

The weather was less than accomodating this past week. Some fishing sessions throughout the week were very good and some slow. Changing weather and river conditions seemed to have a negative effect on the fishes' mood. Anyway these adverse conditions were overcome, finishing a week with excellent results. According to our statistics for the same week, the best in the last four years.
So, I am safe in saying that we had a very successful week.

River Conditions: The river is continuing to drop and clear on a daily basis.
Temperature of the water is perfect, about 11 degrees.

Fishing Techniques: As the water temperatures rose as the week progressed, we started
to use smaller flies and lighter lines. In fact, the two biggest fish were caught with
leeches, chartreuse fished with sinking lines and long leaders.

Flies used: At the beginning of the week, with the water still cold, we fished mostly
with leeches. Later in the week as water temperatures rose, flies such as the green
machine and small rubber legged nymphs provided the most action.

Fish: By the end of the week we landed a total of 89 sea trout, however 27 fish were
also lost. The average weight was 9,7 lbs. The average fish a day was 2.7 and the big
fish of the week was 22 pounds.

Conditions of the fish: Most of the fish this week were very fresh. Only a few fish were
turning."

We'll watch the conditions carefully ahead of our two weeks down at Villa Maria in February/March.

Accessible Golden Dorado Fishing

We've been looking for a long time for some great fishing that is easily accessible from Buenos Aires - something special as an add-on to a sea trout or dove shooting trip. Well, we've finally found it. 

Golden dorado are one of the finest game fish in South America, and we've been fishing for them in northern Argentina for quite a while. But here is something different - fabulous dorado fishing within about a 40 minute drive of Buenos Aires.

Golden Dorado are one of the most exciting freshwater fish

The ease of access makes this a perfect bolt-on to one of our other adventures, such as sea trout in Patagonia or dove shooting in Cordoba. If you're in Argentina next year, you've got to try this.

Explosive fishing

This is explosive, floating line fishing, with plenty of visual action and jumps galore. Because the location is so close to the Argentine capital, you can add a day excursion (or a few days) on to your trip and the guides will simply pick you up from your BA hotel early in the morning and drop you back in time for dinner.

Multiple hook-ups are common

The fish are typically in the 2lb-12lb bracket, but there are larger fish there. It's a great chance to see some spectacular scenery, experience a new type of fishing, and get extra value from your trip to Argentina - and all you have to do is book an extra night in the hotel!

Dorado country - beautiful scenery

Of course, for the ultimate dorado experience, there is Pira Lodge, in the Ibera Marshlands in northern Argentina. But for a taste of the golden dorado, this is superb.

Fish up to 12lbs are common - with some larger

- Bob