An update on recent weeks on the Rio Grande

Always keenly anticipated and then sadly over too quickly the sea trout season on the Rio Grande is into its final few weeks. We have many visitors this season and generally the fishing has been excellent, despite sometimes challenging conditions on the river on occasions. 

Since my last report a few weeks ago the Rio Grande has seen the full range of river conditions. The river had become very low by mid February, although people were still catching good sized fish. There was then some sporadic rain which helped things a little before rainfall of biblical proportions half way through the first week of March. Although the river was unfishable for a couple of days the benefit was to move a lot of fish into different pools, freshen them up and encourage the last run of fresh fish in from the sea. 

We had a group at Villa Maria in the last week of February who did really well despite having to fish hard. They were all rewarded with really good quality fresh fish in the early 20s and high teens. They were experienced fishers who were happy to put the hours in on the river knowing there were some great fish around and they loved the quality of the fish and the satisfaction of getting a few in the net knowing it had been a challenge. 

Kau Tapen has also fished well. The first week of March saw a group who did well despite losing the last two days to a blown out river. One guest, Paul, caught his first ever Argentinian sea-trout on the Rio Menendez, a tributary of the Rio Grande, on the first day of his week, it was 21.5lbs! Last week, 16-23rd March, we had a complete group taking the lodge at Kau Tapen. They had some really excellent fishing with many of the group landing more than twenty fish each for the week, it was possibly the most productive fish of the season so far. Some of the rods had not fished Kau Tapen for several years and they found the lodge in better shape than ever with excellent food and a river full of fish. The recent rain and higher river meant more fish were in the upper river beats and quite heavy tips had to be used, although by the end of the week small nymphs and green machines were doing the damage apparently!

We also worked with a small lodge operation that accesses some of the smaller sea trout rivers in the area and also the middle and upper reaches of the Rio Menedez. We had a guest fishing with him in early March who had some superb single handed rod fishing on the Menedez with fish up to 18.5lbs landed. This is a simpler operation ideal for a couple of friends fishing together and very good value for the adventurous. 

Please let us know if you are interested in fishing the Rio Grande or any of the other sea-trout rivers in Argentina next season. Although space is limited we do offer a variety of rivers and fishing for sea-trout to suit all budgets. We are also experts on Argentina as a whole if you are looking for a longer trip, combining sea-trout with dorado further north or trout in Patagonia.