June 28th, 2021.
2021 was an atypical fishing season for the Angling community in Patagonia. Normally, we would be operating Austral Kings camp in Chile or running our Fly Fishing programs in Bariloche. But, due to the Pandemic, the borders remained closed in Argentina and Chile making it impossible for the foreign anglers to come in. Instead, we were lucky to spend more time at the Limay swinging flies with our Local friends. This time investment in the water, lead us to understand the dynamics of the river better than ever before! It also showed us how to catch its migratory fish in greater numbers.
How was the End of the Season like?
Usually, the biggest migrations of Brown Trout start in late March getting bigger towards mid-May. Along with these Browns, Rainbow Trouts start migrating in Late April and keep all May.
This year was no exception and big amounts of Migratory Browns came from Nahuel Huapi Lake in late March and April. Once the fish settled it seemed to be concentrated in sections one (10km) and two (13km).
Towards May, the weather got cold along with some rains, we could see that fish started to spread even further downstream, sections 3 (13km) and 4 (12km) started to fish very well too. Added to this, with the rising level of water, some hefty Rainbows started to come in and we could see them in decent quantities!. By the end of May, the river was literally full of fish, with both Rainbows and Browns. Even with so many fish in the River, making these fish bite still challenging, the Limay doesn’t give away these trophies easily.
Our Favorite way to fish the Limay
Our favorite approach it’s wading and swinging flies with Spey rods and sinking lines. On the other hand, most of the Anglers choose to drift the river and fish single-handed rods from the boat, which sometimes it’s a better choice if the Angler can’t reach the ”hot” spots from shore. If we want to be successful we’ll have to be well prepared to combine sinking-shooting head casting and well-presented flies.
Most of the flies we used are baitfish patterns (Puyen and Pejerrey) , and Freshwater Crayfish (Samastacus) and Crab (Pancora) patterns.
Fish size
Most of the Trouts we caught were in the 65cm – 75cm range which was a bit bigger than other years. The biggest trouts we saw were 80 cm to 85 cm.
This River is fascinating and we’ll talk about it in future posts !! Take a look at these unique fish and let us know if you want to fish the Limay River with us! Info@farawayflyfishing.com