Tolhuin, Argentina

We said goodbye to Ushuaia today, and after resupplying, headed north for the first time, this time to do some more fishing and eventually to chase some sea-run brown trout. Our first stop was a remote valley outside of Tolhuin that was supposed to hold a nice population of fish. The weather wasn’t stellar, but we thought we’d give it a shot anyway. As we came into the valley, the water looked promising, with the deep clear water diving off the shore at a fast pace. It looked like perfect water for brown trout to hold.

Soon the wind and rain picked up, and of course it was blowing all the way across the lake, crashing into our campsite. Like a scene with Captain Dan right out of Forest Gump, we went out onto the water and raised our fist towards the sky and asked the heavens’ if that’s all they had. The wind and bad weather has been incessant here in Patagonia, and we were determined to get some fishing in, so we said the hell with it and did our best to chuck some buggers. We fished until we were soaking wet, and couldn’t see our line to tie flies on anymore, with only one brown coming to hand. Disappointing to say the least.

The next morning proved to be more of the same, so we moved onto another nearby lake that was supposed to be a bit more sheltered from the wind, but we ended up with the same results. No fish, cold fingers, and lots of wind knots. We spent the better half of the day fishing before returning back to our original lake and campsite to give it one more shot. The weather was a tad better, but still not stellar, and unfortunately the results were the same.

The next morning brought more whipping wind, so we headed out and went back to town. Our next destination was another remote river of the island, this time looking for large sea-run brown trout. The Rio Irigoyen was supposed to hold some sea-runners, the only problem is that it was in a pretty remote area, and our directions to the river weren’t ultra clear. We did our best, and in the end came to a river that we believe was correct, but in the end without a GPS coordinate, we have no idea if we ever found it or not. After finding a place to park the van, we headed out in search of fish. Not one hundred yards downstream we found a nice bend with a deep pool. Different from all the other waters we had fished so far, this river was dark with tea-stained colored water. We noticed fish were rising so we threw on some hoppers and initially caught a few small four to six inch fish that could barely fit the large flies in their mouths. After about twenty minutes I hear a gigantic splash as a brown annihilated Noah’s hopper, only to hear him yell ‘grab the net!’ Sure enough, he had a large brown on, and compared to everything else that we caught in the river, it may have been a sea-run brown. I have never seen a brown fight as hearty as that one did, tail walking many times, and taking about five to six long runs for the deep water of the far bank. It eventually came to hand, and after taking a bunch of pictures, we released it back into the depths, excited for what the rest of the afternoon would bring.

We explored a few more miles of the river downstream, and plopped flies into every likely looking holding area, with only a bunch of six inch fish to show for it. We fished until dark, and never did hook into anything larger than six to seven inches. Maybe tomorrow will bring larger fish as we put on more miles away from the road.

We got up early today and headed back towards the town of Tolhuin, this time destined for the fly shop to buy our 'conservation stamp' for access to the Rio Ewan. Since we couldn't raise anymore sea-runners on the Irigoyen, we decided to try the Ewan, which was known for its relatively large numbers of browns, without the steep prices demanded by the Rio Grande. It still required a 100 peso stamp to get on the water, but we figured for one day, it would be worth a shot. The only bad part was that it required a 6 mile hike to get out to where the river hit the ocean and the fresh fish were coming in.
Eager to see what we could find we buzzed through the fly shop and with stamp in hand made a bee-line for the river. We strapped on our packs, threw in our head lamps, and set off for the mouth of the river at the ocean, with the idea that we’d stay out until dark (11:00 here).
The hike itself was monotonous and long, with only the occasional entertainment from herds of guanacos approaching us to see what we were. As usual, the wind was fiercely whipping through the valley. As we approached the mouth, the river changed considerably, widening out and sporting noticeably taller banks. You could tell that the tide dramatically influenced the flows here. We rigged up and headed out into the boca, still fresh with excitement.
After about five casts we both noticed that our fly line wasn’t drifting downstream, but actually upstream behind us. Every cast required cleaning the seaweed off of our flies. Crap, the tide must be coming in. Sure enough, within ten minutes the water was quickly rising, and the river was turning into a muddy mess as the reverse current churned up the bottom.
We soon realized that we had crossed the river to get to the boca, and now our way across was much deeper. Thoughts of getting stuck in the thick mud while the tide rose over our heads immediately came to mind, so we bailed on the idea of trying to cross there, and hiked quite a ways upriver before attempting another crossing. We eventually found a place that was still shallow enough to safely make it across and we were quickly back fishing. We hiked upriver some more until we were out of the tidal zone and slowly fished our way upstream for the rest of the day.
With the rising tide we figured some fresh fish might be entering the river, so our hopes were still high, but after hundreds of casts and many hours, the only fish we saw was a small one that I had on for about five seconds and then was gone.
We fished until the moon came up, and then made the long hike back to the van, feeling defeated. Apparently paying for a ‘conservation’ stamp doesn’t increase your chances at catching these elusive fish! Maybe we’ll spring for a guide as well next time…