BROOK TROUT - Day 1 of officially fishing in Patagonia and it was amazing! The beauty, size and the fight of these Brookies are astounding. @valkyrie821 and I caught about 40 of them, despite some choppy waters.
Just a note to say thanks to everyone at El Encuentro for another fine fishing adventure. Friends here ask us why we travel so far to fish when we have rivers like the Henry’s Fork, the Madison, and the Yellowstone in our backyard. Part of it lies with the lodge itself, which substitutes comfort and sociability for architectural pretension. It’s sort of like home, with bedrooms off the living and dining rooms, except of course here you look out over the Futaleufu River and the stunning Throne of the Clouds Mountain.
Here goes the Step by Step instruction to tye the Hot Spotted Pheasant Tail fly pattern. We are filling up our boxes for this upcoming Spring fishing season and this pattern is one of the must have!! Feel free to reach out to us if you need any further information.
Step 1: Wrap thread along the entire hook shank.
Step 2: Select between 6 and 8 fibers of a natural pheasant tail and place them creating the tail of the fly, same lenght as the hook shank.
Here goes a brief description of how to tie the CDC / Elk Hair Comparadun. We hope you find it helpful! Please feel free to contact us if you would like to receive more infomration about this pattern!
Step 1: wrap thread along the hook shank.
Step 2: select a piece of elk hair and use the hair stacker to stack the equivalent in lenght of a hook shanck.
We at El Encuentro share your goal of having a healthy and sustainable fishery. Here are the practices that we will be following when we are together on our waters in Patagonia.
Fly Fishing Tackle
It’s hard to believe, but late-summer is fading into early-autumn in our idyllic corner of central Patagonia. We’ve experienced a warmer than average summer season, and the slow progression of fall brings with it a welcome change with cooler daytime temps, and crisp mornings and evenings.
As our dear friends and extended members of the El Encuentro family were experiencing the icy grips of a cold, snowy winter in the north, we saw hot, dry weather and large trout hunting for dry flies here in the shadow of the Andes.
As with most of the world, my plans for March and April were rapidly thrown out the window with the oncoming threat of Coronavirus. On a crisp Patagonian morning a few weeks ago I awoke early to begin planning my post-El Encuentro travels. As the season began to wind down I was looking forward to fishing and seeing more of this beautiful country with some of my new friends before returning home. By evening that same day, however, it became clear that I would have to leave the country before quarantine orders and airline suspensions left me stranded.
Warm greetings from Patagonia, where early winter has set in, bringing snow to the high country and giving us time to reflect on what’s most important as we make
Patagonia 2020
After we finished our fishing trip in San Martin de Los Andes area, we drove south for 6.5 hours, mostly on the famous Argentine highway called Route 40 to a city called Esquel in Chubut Province. This is Chubut area is famous for uncountable fishing venues. We took a couple rest days in Esquel before drivers from El Encuentro Lodge picked us up. Taking rest days shows our age, but it’s not ALL about fishing, its where the fish take you.
One unique facet of the El Encuentro experience is our close proximity to the water. As I mentioned in my last post, the lodge sits atop a large stretch of back eddy, providing a spectacular view of the Futaleufú River. But it’s not just picturesque — more importantly, it gives us a 24/7 barometer of fishing conditions. There’s a lot fewer mornings spent waking up early to check CFS flow data online, reading wind charts, or looking at forecasts.
