The Rio Grande is undoubtedly the best sea trout river on earth, though like any river, it will have its ups and downs over the course of the fishing season. To use an already overused phrase that fishermen love to employ in order to justify their occasionally (or often) bewildering pursuit – “that’s why it’s called fishing and not catching.” But like most things in life, the definition of fishing success is more relativistic than absolute, and a less than spectacular week on the Rio Grande is still better than the best week of the year on most any other sea trout river. Due to abnormally warm air temperatures and very clear water, anglers landed “only” an average of 2 fish per day throughout the week, with an average weight of over 10lbs. Where else could one catch 20 pounds of sea trout per day and call it slow fishing? Nowhere. Gaston Guglielminetti, head guide at Villa Maria Lodge, succinctly outlines the fishing conditions in his weekly fishing report:
“This fourth week at Villa Maria lodge , we welcomed a friendly group of six anglers from Switzerland , returning to our lodge the last seven years.
We finished the week with a very good number of fish despite the “strange” weather conditions we had in the week.
Fishing was particularly difficult the first three days of the week, we had high temperatures in the water, as the week before reaching maximum values ??of 21 degrees celsius.!!! only had good opportunity to catch in those days, when it was sunset where the water temperature began its descent.
The special and the good news of the week was that last Wednesday the temperature dropped about 11 degrees Celsius, therefore had a high temperature in water at temperatures ideal for sea trout and where we started to have very good and exciting fishing hours.
I am safe in saying that during my nine years of experience guiding in Rio Grande and Rio Gallegos had an opportunity of seeing different situations and weather conditions in both rivers, but I never saw something like last week, plenty of fish moving in many of the pools of Villa Maria water even at high temperatures, and not taking the fly, these situations make our much appreciated sea trout, be sure to surprise me and teach me something every summer
We were fishing with floating lines rigged with intermediate to fast sinking tips. We used mostly nymphs and buggers but we started using some tube fly during the day time especially the sunrise shadow or collie dog fly, which work very well in clear water. Sometimes the takes were very gentle with the fish just nibbling the fly and then grabbing it. So no striking, just patience and we had to let the fish take it properly to have a good hook up.
Finally I would like to thank our customers for being persistent in keeping the mood high and landed 74 sea trout on days when conditions improved. Our guides did a great job finding fish by changing pools and rigging all the time to suit the conditions and get fish
River Conditions: Fishing was hard work all week . Some days the water was too hot, especially during the mornings and throughout the afternoon. Only during the evening would the temperature drop a few degrees. Water temperature: between 10,8 ºC and 21 ºC. Water clarity: Water very clear even with strong winds Water level: It dropped 3 inches during the week.
Conditions of the fish: Most of the fish this week were very fresh. Only a few fish were turning.
Tight Lines !!
Gastón Guglielminetti
Fishing Manager –Villa María Lodge”
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