Fly Fishing Insider Podcast
Argentine Patagonia is roughly the size of California and Montana combined and fishes from November into early May, so the useful question is which region and which month. The north fishes best early and late in the season, the central region holds cold water through midsummer, and the far south is anadromous fishing.
Evan Jones is the author of Trout Bum's Guide to Argentina and a full-time blogger for Orvis, who spent two years traveling and fishing the length of Argentine Patagonia and later ran a fly fishing club on the Gulf coast of Florida.
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How big is Argentine Patagonia and why does that matter to a trip?
The Argentine side of Patagonia is roughly the size of California and Montana put together, and it fishes from November, their early spring, through early May, their fall. Saying you are going fishing in Patagonia is like saying you are going to California - nobody would leave it there. Anglers who pick one lodge in one month rarely realize how different the experience is 500 miles away, or how much the same river changes between December and March.
What is the northern region of Patagonia like and when should you fish it?
The rivers in the northern region sit close enough together that two can be fished in a day. They run smaller and stonier, hold more insect life, and the water is clearer - the closest analog is Western US fishing 50 or 100 years ago. The northern region fishes best in November and December or in March and April. January brings tourist pressure from the cities, water too warm and too low to float in places, and a dip in the bug life at the same time.
What changes in the central region of Patagonia?
In the central region around Esquel the rivers move farther apart, the roads turn to glacial gravel, and a breakdown can mean ten hours before another car passes. The water becomes more tannic and takes on a meandering, cut-bank spring creek character, which shifts the fishing toward streamers and big terrestrials. Fish there are spooky enough that casts often come from 30 or 40 feet back from the bank. A glacier keeps the water cold through January and February, which is exactly when the north struggles.
What is the fishing like in the far south of Patagonia?
The far south - Santa Cruz Province and Tierra del Fuego - is windswept, barren country with glacially silted or heavily tannic water, and the fishing there is mostly for anadromous fish. Sea-run brown trout peak around January and steelhead in late March into early April, with some small brook trout and brown trout streams on Tierra del Fuego. The port cities on the coast are rough and the least welcoming stops for a DIY traveler, and the drive south is dangerous enough that flying is the recommendation.
What makes the Santa Cruz River steelhead run unusual?
McCloud-strain rainbows were stocked in a lake up near the glaciers where there was not enough food in the system, and the fish ran roughly 400 miles down the Santa Cruz River to the Atlantic, apparently ranging thousands of miles through the southern Atlantic before returning in March and April to spawn. The Santa Cruz River is close to a kilometer wide near its mouth. Because the water is so turbid, the fish cruise the very edges where visibility is lowest, sometimes in under a foot of water, so tread softly on the bank.
Do you need technical dry flies in Patagonia?
Going smaller and lighter is the wrong instinct in Patagonia. On a December spring creek, fish nudged tiny parachutes out of the way to eat something else; a size 6 Chernobyl ant slapped down hard in frustration got eaten on the first cast, from above. In late January and early February a bright green inchworm drops out of the willows and trout key on it hard enough to be taken on bow-and-arrow casts. In fall a small tree flea produces, imitated with a black cluster pattern - fish eating them have a red-stained mouth.
What has to change when a trout angler starts fishing salt water?
The habits that work on a trout river work against a saltwater angler. Rig the rod before leaving the ramp, because a school of jacks blowing through may be the best shot of the day. When nothing is happening, move rather than going smaller and more technical - most of that water is empty most of the time, and the fly is rarely the problem. And judge a saltwater fly by how it swims, how it casts without tangling, whether it has a weed guard and whether it is weighted to land quietly, not by how convincingly it resembles a shrimp.
Key takeaways
- Pick a region and a month rather than booking Patagonia generally - the fishing varies as much as it would across two western US states.
- Fish the northern region in November-December or March-April; go to the cold-water central region if the trip has to fall in January or February.
- Stay as long as you can in the shoulder season - November can deliver five days of sideways rain, but the weather windows are what make a trip.
- Bring big attractors: Chernobyl ants on size 6 hooks, parachute Adams and caddis in a few sizes, beetles, and an olive woolly bugger for the local crab.
- Black rabbit-strip streamers and big black articulated leeches worked along weed edges cover the lakes and stillwaters.
- Bring backup rods - replacement in Argentina is expensive and slow, and spare rods trade well for float trips and access.
