This week it was all change.
Sadly a complete group pulled out leaving the river in prime condition, full of fish but virtually un-fished.
As a result the team were off exploring far and wide with Chile being the destination of choice.
Rumours abounded of a river stuffed with Chinooks or King Salmon and more interestingly nobody had previously fished with success on the fly.

A challenge ripe for the taking.
We had heard the river was huge with a fast current, and since it’s semi-glacial, it’s pretty cold. Consequently the Loop armoury was unleashed in force with a huge arsenal of lines, rods and flies being deployed. On arrival the river seemed high although conversely with glacial rivers they run at they’re highest in the summer as a result of melt water.
It was however crystal clear, with a touch of blue and there were Salmon jumping everywhere.

Plan-Tactics-Action.
Ok, better start deep and work our way upwards.
With that as our plan it was 400 grain shooting heads on monofilament running lines, short leaders with a tippet breaking strength of nearly 40 lbs, (we had just seen photos of a 57lb fish), flies as big as possible and heavy. Reels adjusted from home, so the drag was even stronger than normal, all knots and loops super-glued for maximum strength.
We actually started to wonder if this was still to be called flyfishing?
After 4 hours of fishing nothing had happened,and we started to share our guides disbelieve in fly-fishing for these fish. All was to change
however with the fish waking up and after a dramatic fight with too small a net, we landed the first King from this river on a fly rod.
Only a baby of 35lbs, although it was followed by an even smaller one of 24lbs!
In total 2 landed, a further 3 more lost alongside several takes - all in one day and leaving the guides reputation in tatters.

Over and above the fishing itself, the trip to the river, which is running through a national park, is one of the most breathtaking experiences available and certainly well worth a combination visit when you are down here. (Martina runs very nice trips!!)
Torres del Paine is simply breathtaking with snow capped mountains and Glacial lakes. The early morning sun
creates an incredible visual spectacle with the cliffs turning alternating shades of orange and pink whilst the
lakes are a virulent turquoise green.
And this is all a backdrop to your fishing with Condors, Guanacos and Buzzard-eagles adding the last spice.

We also had a couple of rods fishing our “home-river” Rio Gallegos. Although they only fished intermittently for a couple of hours a day a good number of Sea Trout were landed. I can only wonder what it could have been like if we had stayed on and fished the river full time. A sudden rainstorm, made the river rise 15cm to just above the 0 mark and drop again within 36 hours.

Fish were certainly moving up river
although so it will be interesting to see what is in store for next week.
Techniques remain the same with small flies and intermediate lines. Unfortunately the dry fly fishing seems to have died out, but next time
the water gets some colour we’ll be ready with some rubber-legged monsters.