in which you fill with money. It is a verse that my grandfather has on the wall of our cabin. When the four of us in the the rental car came across this small local port, this verse came to mind. Unfortunately in this case, the poor guy that owns this hole in the water has to figure out a way to savage what he can. At least the emergency floatation device can be reused.

The other day we left Esquel saying goodbye to Raul San Martin. We would be hard-pressed to find another guy like Raul. His kindness, generousity, humor and all around knowledge of fishing was incredible and we will be forever greatful towards him.

Eric and I went out with Raul to fish for the remaining two days we had in Esquel. We returned to El Canal on the first day and then hit up some of the other smaller lakes around the park.

The following day Raul took all of us out to a connecting lake called Lago Futalaufquen which then pours into the famous Estrecho de los Monstruos aka the stretch of Monsters. When trout where introduced to Argentina back in the early 1900’s, many of the rainbows imported from the states and the browns from the England and Europe would eventually end up in the lakes at one point of their lifecycle or another. The story of the stretch of Monsters dates back into the 1970’s when the sport of fly fishing started gaining popularity and deticate aka rich travelers slowly began trickling into Argentina to fish for them. Back then these fish in the “Monster” had not seen much if any fishing pressure since their introduction. So by the time the fly fisherman came around they were pulling out 8/10 kilogram sized trout. Just huge for those that don’t understand the metric system. Nowadays their are still some good size fish in there but nothing compared to the days of old. We hooked into them using sinking line with a wooley bugger casted towards shore and dropping hoppers into the sandy reed beds.

Los Alerces National Park reminds me a lot of Glacier Park back home. It is a romantic place filled with jagged mountain tops that drop imediately into numerous large lakes at their base. Raul, his guides Alvardo and Geronimo, Bill, Eric, the clients and I loaded into three 14 ft boats and left the mud of the spring creek beds for some lake and river fishing. We left the shores along Lago Verde and headed out the towards the Rio Rivadavia in search of brown trout along the weed beds. The scenery only added to the large bows and browns we hooked that day.

I have to hand it to the Argentineans when it comes to cooking there beef. They don’t mess around. Combine culinary expertise with meals on a fly fishing guided trip and you have yourself a recipe for success. This last week and a half, Eric and I have been joining up up with Raul, Bill Marts from the Redding Fly Shop and four of his clients on a fly fishing trip throughout Los Alerces National Park. Every day we were treated to the best damn lunches we have ever had. On this particular day Raul fixed up his famous parillia aka riverside BBQ of the best cuts of meat found on the cow. With his made-from-scratch meal, he introduced us to a special Argentinean sauce called “Chimmychurry” Basically you mix 4 parts salt with 2 parts oregano, red pepper, four cloves of chopped up garlic, olive oil and water. Let it “ferment” for about 3-4 days and then apply it to beef on the grill after you have braized both sides. I have never known beef to taste so good. It beats the hell out of homemade sandwiches.

I think probably one of the most obvious indications that you are in a foreign place would have to be found in the wildlife there. So much of the Patagonia reminds me of Montana. You have the same types of trees, climate, big mountains but when you start comparing the wildlife you get some subtle and other times completely different varieties. You can imagine the reality check I got when this bright pink flamingo flew over our heads the other day when we were fishing. It seemed really out of place to me.

For any fisherman who is familiar with the Patagonia region of Argentina, the name Arroyo Pescado should signal sirens. It´s known for being arguably the best spring creek fishery in the country and first hand accounts from previous fisherman have described it as being so good it´s almost boring.

Eric and I came to it with a guided group of fisherman from Washington state with local fishing guide Raul San Martin and Bill Marts from The Fly Shop in Redding, CA. For all the build up people had been giving it, at first glance, it didn´t look like much. The creek resides roughly 30km from Esquel and it flows slowly through a huge open valley in the heart of the Patagonia tundra. What it lacked in mountainous asthetics, it made up for in the fishing and the quiet beauty of the wind swept grasslands.

Driving up to it along the mazes of off-the-beaten-trail gravel roads, you drive past Argentina guachos herding their merino sheep and watch over head as flamingos and spotted ducks give themselves a safer distance from the new arrivals. It is the kind of place where you won´t find another footprint and the fish act as if they have never seen a fisherman before and with good reason. The property that the creek runs through is owned by a Bozeman Montana man who in the spirit of conservation, maintains a strict limit of access no more than eight fisherman to the water system on any given day. In order to fish it we had to pay $210 pesos (roughly $70).

All I can say it was well worth the cost.

I´ve noticed that traveling through the more rural areas of Argentina, you get a big sense of the small town feel. Often times any given individual will work two completely different jobs or own numerous random businesses within a town. In our case, our hotel owners Rueben and Mimi spent their mornings cleaning up their hotel then spent the rest of the afternoon listening to music at their ice cream shop a couple blocks down the street. This ain´t no thirty-one flavors. Argentinan´s love their ice cream almost as much as their meat. I´m not a food critic, but I can´t remember the last time chocolate ice cream has tasted so dreamlike. I like to think that is because Argentina is a place in the world that still takes great care and pride in the foods they prepare and the goods they make mostly likely from the fact that each town produces all of these goods locally. Away from Buenos Aires there are no Walmarts or any other small business killing superpowers. This is the ultimate small town feel and Eric and I were welcomed warmly. This was proven when Mimi joked with us saying that if we came back from fishing empty handed we could fish out of her freezer that was stocked full of 30+ inch rainbow trout.

Raul met up with us an took us to one of the best yet unexpected places to get a fishing license, the gas station down the street. For $300 pesos or $100 American dollars we purchased a seasonal pass for fly fishing in the Patagonia region. We were startled to learn that upon our arrival into the Tierra del Fuego in a couple weeks we can expect to pay a $1000 pesos for that region. Yikes. We will worry about that when the time comes. From there Raul recommended that we consider fishing at a privately own lake that he knew of. Throughout all of the fishable waters around Esquel, only two require additional charges for access. The famous Arroyo Pescado, said to be the country´s best spring creek and the Laguna de Willimanco, a small private lake that Raul said had rainbows that fought like Tarpon. For as poor as Eric and I are for this trip, who are we to question a guy like Raul. We choose door number two.

From just a short drive out of town we barreled our way down a dirt road and through numerous cattle gates to the lake and came to look upon gorgeous aqua blue waters unspoiled by the presence of land owners. Large stallions sprinted and kicked to a safe view point as we rigged up our Sage rods and listened to Raul offer pointers about the fishing. For as beautiful as the lake was it was like starring down the barrell of a hurricane. Forty knot winds blasted us and bent our rid tips in the wind. Raul explained that he had a busy day ahead of him and that he would be back to pick us up here around 9 p.m. Sure thing. He even made sure to show us how to get out of the wind by hiding behind a few large bushes.

This lake offers a large sand flat off the shoreline that extends about 100 yards. We waded out into waist deep water where the wind was kicking up three feet high waves. These rainbow trout would gather in along the flats cruising back and forth, feeding on small shrimp on the lake bed. For us it was a delicate balance of bracing for wave impact and then trying to spot these pigs inbetween the wave breaks. Sight fishing is a lot like knowing a secret plot for a surprise party. You know it´s coming but you´re not really sure when and how and then all of a sudden a dark mass materializes in the water and starts swiming your way and the realizations of “Holy shit is is a big bow headed my way´´ sinks in.

To see the fish is one thing. To cast accurately to it in the constant state of hurricane was another. We missed many o fish but for the few perfect casts, they hit our prince nympths like a Harry Potter book. The result was a intense fight of long runs and jumps that left our arms sore at the end of the day. We couldn´t have asked for a better day of fishing. Welcome to the Patagonia.