Trip Summary

Far End Rivers By Brian Gies
Fly Fishing Argentina

Given my love of small streams and any fish that goes to sea, the call I received last fall seemed providence.

The message was from Alex Trochine a young Argentine fishing guide I had met on the Rio Grande a few years prior. The note was brief and said he had found a small river south of the Rio Grande. It was intimate, interesting fishing, with decent numbers of sea-run browns and best of all they were BIG. Along with the note were a dozen images from their scouting trip in the Fall of 2007. After reading the letter once or twice and then flipping through the photos once or twice (actually it more like a dozen times), I knew this was a very special place that I needed to see.

After a series of message that bounced between Argentina and Iceland, where Alex and his twin brother Nico guide as well, we were able to set dates and come up with a plan. 2008 would be a full exploratory season on the Irigoyen and on March 1st – 8th I would lead the 5th group to get a shot at the system. All I had to do was find a few hearty souls that would follow me to the end of the world, quite literally, too see if the river was all that the initial report made it out to be.

After making a handful of calls my group was set. The small group of competent anglers would consist of Paul Martzowka, Cary Pugh, Andy Horowitz and me. We would all meet in D.C. on Thursday Feb. 27th. From there we would fly to Buenos Aries, Argentina and finally to Usuahia, the southernmost town on the South American continent. In Usuahia we would be met by a member of the Far End Rivers staff who would drive us three hours by four wheel drive to the end of a dirt track and the quaint Irigoyen Lodge.

The lodge consists of a small refurbished rancher’s cabin for dining and sharing the days fishing tales as well as a new three bedroom guest cabin. The facilities were completed just hours before the first guests arrived in January. The dining cabin was complete with a new furniture and satellite internet and each bed room was complete with new beds, storage shelves for gear, and on demand hot water. The guides and co - managers Alex and Nico Trochine, took great care of us on the water while the rest of the staff took care of us in typical Argentine style serving us great meals, delicious wines, and an never ending supply of warm hospitality.

The river itself is just steps from the front door of the dining cabin and truth be told it is as perfect a trout stream as I could imagine. Flowing 28 miles from source to sea, the river winds relentlessly through a forest of mossy Lenga trees. The river bed is small cobble, with grass banks, smooth runs, and countless deep pools created by downed trees and log jams.

The nature of the river made all of the fishing quite interesting. All week long we swung small nymphs on single hand rods with floating lines on a virtually windless river. And the big question everyone wants to know is, did we find fish and were they big? The answer is yes we did and yes they were. We each landed good fish every day and by the end of the week we had hooked 58 and landed 39 sea-runs that averaged just over 10lbs. Of these three pushed 20lbs mark. For the statistic conscious, this was to be compared with a earlier week were four anglers hooked over 120 but only landed 44 sea runs with the same average weight.

I would say that our trip as well as the whole exploratory season was a great success. The river is a true winner and absolutely holds solid numbers of fish. Moreover the fish are big with the largest of the season conservatively topping 24lbs. In our opinion the Irigoyen may well win top honors as the smallest stream with the largest trout on the South American continent. And as a topper the river is absolutely beautiful and completely private. Needless to say we are looking forward to the systems future and all that it will bring!