Fly Fishing Patagonia, Antonio's, Part 9

When the Patagonia fishing season got rolling in early January I moved from Futaleufu to a fly fishing lodge in a rural area called, Valle des Escales, about an hour and one half walk from town. On transition day, when old clients were leaving the lodge and new ones we arriving, I'd have several free hours to myself. Mostly I fished. Sometimes I'd walk an old ox cart trail along the Caribbean coloured Futaleufu river to one of several corner stores in town to purchase some items. I rarely met anyone along the trail and if I did it was usually a local on horseback. One day I meet a British fellow on a mountain bike but it didn't seem too odd as experience has taught me Brits are everywhere.

As a child growing up in a Montreal suburb I had a small corner store that was a converted garage in a bungalow style home. It was called Tony's and my friends and I biked the short distance there most summer days or after school to get a soft drink or other treat. Tony's had every kind of candy imaginable behind a glass counter. It was a treasure chest of sugar: Sponge toffee; Popeye candy cigarettes; Eskimo pies; Candy necklaces; Licorice twists; etc. My dentist approved. Whatever you selected was put it in a brown paper bag. We would eat it all up before leaving Tony's parking lot.
Futaleufu had several small corner stores and on transition day I would make the long beautiful walk to town for supplies and several milk chocolate Golazo bars. Here is a picture of Tony's in Futaleufu, or what I called Antonio's. Fly fishing is not always about fishing. Often the best part is what happens along the way.

Futaleufu Corner Store

Lower Oldman River, April 15, 2012

I spent the afternoon on the Lower Oldman river. It snowed the night before and was cloudy when I first arrived there and just above 0 C. I was hoping some good fish would be up on dries mid-afternoon as there was little wind. No such luck. I walked a lot and only saw one decent fish and hooked it briefly. Midges were the main hatch. Some sporadic small fish rises here and there. The water was as low as I have ever seen it and silty/off colour but alright to fish. There was also an extremely low flow rate. The water temp. was 38F...still cold. Hopefully fish will become more active in the next week or so as late April and especially early May can offer some great dry fly angling prior to run-off and increased discharges from dam. Swallows were picking off midges on the water and provided some entertainment.

Crowsnest River Report, April 8, 2012

I spent 3 hours on the Crow today, from early afternoon to about 3:30 pm. I walked a quarter mile or so fishing with my eyes. At about 2:00 I spotted a fish bulging the surface in a very slow pool. I tried to get him to take a dry fly: size 20 midge. After several casts he responded. I spotted a larger fish just upstream and fished the same midge. This trout was subsurface feeding mainly but occasionally taking flies on the surface. I had no luck with the midge but fished a size 18 Blue Winged Olive and landed him. A great classic Crow trout.

crowsnest river rainbow

It was sunny day with absolutely no clouds. The river is very low and still cold. I took the temp. the other day in the shallows and it was 38F. I did not see a lot of fish activity. The main hatches were: Midges and Little Black Stones. I also spotted the odd Olive. This hatch is just starting. If we get some drizzle and overcast days in next week or so it will develop into something more significant. I will post a photo soon. The Rainbows are spawning so watch where you walk.

Crowsnest River Report, April 1, 2012

I spent a couple of hours mid afternoon on the Crowsnest river. I fished with my eyes. There were a lot of midges and some small black stones. I sat down and focused on a slack water area for an hour or so and watched midges collect. I was hoping a fish would move in from deeper water to surface feed. It looked promising but no luck. I checked out 3 or 4 other similar areas but no sippers and returned to the first spot for another look before heading home. It is still kind of early for surface stuff and today was windy. I couldn't find my thermometer to check the river temperature. The water was low and fairly clear...April conditions.