Patagonia fly fishing trip

Hey everyone im headed to Bariloche Argentina in the Patagonia region at the end of February. This will be my first time to Patagonia and im am a well seasoned trout fishermen. I Lived in colorado 6 years and was on the water at least 4 days a week! Anyhow, i am looking for advice on DIY wade fishing Rio Limay or Rio Manso. Do i really need a guide? I have a rental car, can i find open water? I think im gonna book a day trip with www.troutbariloche.com but wanted to see if anyone has some first hand information to save some $$, and perhaps the overall fishing scene in bariloche. Thanks in advance!

Tight Lines!

How freaking exciting...I have no clue but I have looked at Patagonia on line many times and it looks insane.

I just bought a place in CO and am just starting...so much to learn

Hope you have the trip of a life time flycast!

Well to the forum. I hope you stick around long enough to post some pictures of the results! Somebody will come along soon that has been to that region. I’m sure No one has to tell you to consider yourself lucky can’t wait to see the results!

Hey flycast, I spent a month down there back in 2006. The Limay would be a great option if you’re staying around Bariloche. By buddy caught a 31 inch brown on our first day fishing the Limay, complete fluke imo. I like the Esquel area because it has a ton of options. Los Alerces Park is incredible. There’s countless rivers and streams in that area. The Rivadavia is a great 1 day float. It has a spring creek branching off of it and the terrestrial fishing is insane. In the early season (December), the fish ate like they were starving. El Boliche de Alberto in Bariloche is a steakhouse you must try. Steaks are cheap and it’s some of the best beef I’ve had. I could go on and on about Patagonia, but I won’t bore everyone. Pm me if you would like more info. Hope I can help.

Thanks so much for the positive vibes everyone, I am truly blessed to have this oppurtunity! Jesse10 thanks for your advice and recommendations! I'm going to Def book a day float trip on the limay, otherwise with all the creeks and streams around bariloche I'm sure I will have no problem finding some easy access points. I will Def follow up and share some pictures of my trip. I will be back at the end of feb, so stay tuned!

I don't think you'd bore anyone if you continued on....

How's your Spanish?

Ok. I guess those of you who would enjoy reading my poor writing will have a choice. The idea of taking an extended trip to Patagonia started on a weekend trip to Beavers Bend. I had researched this dream a tad before proposing this trip to my two buddies. After a long day fishing and a couple of beers, I layed it down. They both asked, When do we leave?!!! We planned out everything and bought our plane tickets in less than 8 months. The anticipation was brutal! We left out the day after thanksgiving and arrived in Buenos Aires in the afternoon. We jumped on a 20 hour bus ride to Bariloche. We arrived in Bariloche early morning and started hunting a decent rental car place. We fished the Limay the next day from the bank and my buddy landed a 31 inch brown. I though to myself, if this is any indication of what Patagonia is going to be like, I may never leave! The steakhouse, El Boliche de Alberto, was incredible. I ordered one thing all three times we went, a salad, filet mignon, plates full of fries, and Malbec of course. They put like three 6oz filets on your plate. It was like 25 US per person, oh and dessert, vanilla ice cream topped with caramel and fresh raspberries. Enough of that, we headed to Esquel the next morning (3 1/2 hours south of Bariloche.) We drove to Alerces Park to fish the Rivadavia. As we were traveling down this rocky mountain road, I felt a strong breeze from the back of our Volkswagen Golf. We stopped the car and discovered the hatchback was open, we had not lost our backpacks, gear, or our boats. Dodged that bullet. Our plans were to float different rivers and hitch hike back to the car. While enroute to the Rivadavia, we came across a big family cooking near their residence (actually on Lago Verde.) We pulled up and did our best to communicate with this family. We finally arranged to camp there at Raul’s place on the lake. Raul agreed to drop us off above the Rivadavia. As we were driving to the launch, we blew one of many tires. Raul jumped out and threw our spare on in 5 minutes it seemed. Raul was about 4 foot tall and approximately 80 years young. After we made it to the launch, Raul checked out our alpacka rafts with amazement. I guess not many people float these rivers in such small rafts. We fished the Rivadavia and it’s spring creek that day. The Rivadavia spring creek was nothing short of amazing. Rainbows and Browns would levitate from the depths, slowly to eat your fly in slow motion it seemed. We spent a lot of time on this spring creek. Camping on the river was prohibited, but we couldn’t help ourselves. We decided to build a fire on the bank that evening, get warm, and start cooking. After we ate our normal bread, pasta, and wine, we buried hot coals under our tent to keep warm. We stayed toasty all night and had no damage to our tent luckily. We fished this area several days and decided to drive south. We tried to fish Tres Lagos, but the wind blew us away. We managed several 24-28 inch fish on streamers one evening when the wind layed.. We crossed over the Futaleufu into Chile and floated the Futaleufu one day (flows were extremely high that time of year.) We Loaded up our gear and went back to Alerces Park area near Esquel and fished a couple days. We ran into a couple guys we knew from New Braunfels on the Rivadavia spring creek, very small world! They were actually guiding for a lodge in San Martin de los Andes. They invited us to the lodge up north, so we took them up on the offer. They let us borrow a 3 man pontoon and dropped us off on a private lake. We smoked brook trout all day on dry droppers. These brookies averaged between 2 and 3 pounds. We stayed at the lodge 2 nights, returned our car to Bariloche, and caught a bus back to Buenos Aires the next day. We flew home, depression set in, and we’ve been wanting to go back since we left. I apologize for the horrible writing and punctuation. I hope some of you will enjoy. Cheers!

We swung streamers to 18-22 inch rainbows on the crystal clear waters of the Rivadavia. These fish would follow the fly 20 feet before they ate. The Rivadavia spring creek fished like a spring creek that no one had fished in 100 years. The brook trout in this creek we’re so fat and colorful. I could have stayed at this creek and never fished anywhere else for the rest of my life. I caught my best brown on a leech. I saw this fish, rushed a crappy cast, the fish moved 10 feet and ate. I have a ton of pics. I’ll try to post soon.

All of that typing and not one single photo? RUDE.
Patagonia is way high on my bucket list. I was in Santiago in 2007 for a grad school trip. Stayed 11 days. I still kick myself for not taking another 10 days to get into Argentina and fish. Back then, I had no kids and an already failing marriage. Would have been good timing. I had another opportunity this past November. I had a trip to Cordoba all planned for a wing shoot. I tried to combine a fishing trip, but it wouldn't work out back here at home with some other commitments. I ended up cancelling the trip altogether. SOME DAY. Great write up. How bout photos of that 31"er?

I know. I know. These pictures are incredible. I’ve since moved twice. I’ll text my buddy and get the pics. I actually gave my ex wife the gate right before we left for Argentina. If you get the opportunity to go, I would recommend at least a 2 week stay. You may never get another opportunity, so make the best of now.

Two weeks? Sounds like a place to have a two month visit, or a vacation house...maybe even buy a new rod for the occasion! Great story, waiting on the pics....

Two weeks? Sounds like a place to have a two month visit, or a vacation house...maybe even buy a new rod for the occasion! Great story, waiting on the pics....

Hey crapicat, my pockets don’t have hundred dollar bills falling out of them like yours! Why don’t you buy a cabin down there and I’ll come visit? PLEASE?!!!

I’m trying to get this brown posted, but forgot how to post pics. Stand by.

This fish may have been 19 inches, I’m a bad judge of length! Hahahaha!

My buddy is the luckiest sob I’ve ever fished with!

I’ll post more pics when I find them.

This fish came of the banks of the Limay just 10 minutes out of Bariloche.

Jesse10 man thanks!The trip is coming soon and im so stoked!!! As for my spanish, i can hold a small conversation. My wife is argentinian (spelling? or "argentine" my wife doent have a straight answer) so she is my translator. She is very outdoorsy but i think my passion for fishing and especially fly fishing has made her lose interest in even trying anymore...i blame myself. none the less this is an oppurtunity of a lifetime i will take full advantage of! I lived in eagle and summit county colorado for the last 6 years so catching numbers wont be a concern bc the conditions will be very similar. I plan mostly on swinging big bulky streamers looking for the big bite. here is my PB brown trout in colorado 21".

holy hell!

I’m really excited for you! I would try to get a guide if time becomes an issue. You’re 10,000 miles away, you may never get another chance, so take advantage of every second. I’m only saying this because we flew by the seat of our pants. We stayed for a month for around 3,000 dollars. We took minimal camping equipment, pots, pans, and a small water filtration pump. I was the designated rice cooker. We had rice for lunch way to many times. When you’re trying to make the most of fishing, food was not very high on our list. We packed all of our clothes, gear, and boats in a huge Kelty backpack. My pack weighed 83 pounds when I checked it at the airport. I had to sit down to put the damn thing on. That’s a nice fish there! I’m stoked for you! Don’t let us down! Cast until your arm falls off! Haha

If you can get something to float and arrange a shuttle, yes, the rivadavia is worth the effort. I can't see wading that as viable. But, there's a lot of varied water and argentines are nice people. I'm sure your wife can help w that. An argentine independent guide for a day is a good idea to get an idea.

Streamers will definitely work and there are some huge fish, but 18-20" rainbows were the norm w a few big browns for me. Lakes have big fish. The fish compared to Colorado are big and not overly picky.

Expect to be checked by their game wardens often. It's a good place to go. If you're going late in the year, me and I'll give you a place you can ease for big brook trout.

Here's some guys that did it themselves, sort of: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=x2Icra2QMDE

Just a heads up, if you want to fish that spring creek off of the Rivadavia, you can park near the road and actually walk straight to it. The creek is approximately 100 yards from the parking place. Just giving you options and info.

Well, at least you get to hold it for a pic!,,,

That’s not me.

Thanks! Thi is awesome, ill be pming you in a couple weeks

This is really good to know!

Well guys I'm headed to patagonia in the morning. Caught my first dorado on the fly on rio parana. Here's a little teaser before my final post on this thread.

Saweet! Have a blast!

Took your recommendation boliche de alberto..... FIRE

What do you mean FIRE?!!! The image is blank!

Where you at flycast? What’s the deal with the steakhouse? You just posted FIRE, come on! We’re waiting! Where’s the goods?