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Category: anadromous

  • Tierra del Fuego: Giant Sea Run Trout on the Rio Grande

    For those among us who love swinging flies in rivers for big salmonids, it can be a long winter! But you can swing to your heart’s content all winter long on the world’s greatest sea trout river! The Rio Grande in southern Argentina produces sea run brownies that average 12 pounds and frequently top the 20-pound mark!

    Kau Tapen Lodge

    The original – the classic: Kau Tapen, the first lodge built on the Rio Grande, fishes 12 rods on 10 miles of the Rio Grande and an additional 15 miles on Rio Menendez.

    The normal rate at Kau Tapen is $7,250 p.p. from your arrival in Rio Grande City.  International airfare to Buenos Aries, city transfer, hotels and in-country airfare to Rio Grande can cost another $2,200 – $2,500. However, Kau Tapen is offering a great “Hassle Free” inclusive package during selected weeks amounting to a savings of nearly $2,000 per person:  2011 Dates: Jan 8 – 15, Mar 19 -26 or Mar 26 – Apr 2.

    Inclusive Package Includes: Round trip Airfare Miami to Buenos Aires; Transfer from International airport to Hotel; 1 night at the Loi Suites Recoleta (sgl room); Transfer from Hotel to Domestic Airport; Flight Buenos Aires – Rio Grande – Buenos Aires; 7 nights + 6.5 days fishing at Kau Tapen Lodge; Transfer from domestic to International airport

    Rate: USD $8,105 per person (or just $6,796 not including international airfare).

    Nice Sea Run Brown Trout from Kau Tapen Lodge
    That's a bright fish!

    Villa Maria Lodge

    Kau Tapen’s sister lodge, Villa Maria is situated just downstream from Kau Tapen, near the tide head, and is the choice location to intercept the freshest, brightest sea trout. Normally weeks are $6,750 per person from Rio Grande City, but Villa Maria is also offering a domestic air-inclusive package for the week of March 25 – April 1, 2011, $6,550 per person; a savings about $1,000. This would include all of the above except international airfare to Buenos Aires.

    Aurelia Lodge

    Aurelia is the next estancia upstream from Kau Tapen’s water and offers 6 miles of double bank fishing on the Rio Grande, and 15 miles on the Rio Menedez, Aurelia’s upstream location makes it most desirable during the second half of the season when their pools are literally stuffed with fish! Good space is still available for late February and March weeks. Rates from arrival in Rio Grande range from $3,580 – $4,680 per person until March 6th. The rate is $5,890 per person from March 6th – April 17th.

  • The Vulcan Grilse Grip

    For those of you planning an Atlantic salmon trip this summer, here’s a tip from Doug Schlink you might enjoy. 

    Adult, mutli-sea-winter (MSW) Atlantic salmon fish can be captured by hand tailing.  This is accomplished by wrapping your hand and around the “wrist” of their tail (known as the caudal peduncle), just in front of the tail fin, much as you would grasp your own left wrist with your right hand just in front of your hand.   The tail fin on an MSW fish has developed stiff exterior rays, and prevents the fish from slipping through.  

    Atlantic salmon that have only spent one winter at sea before returning to the river to spawn are known as grilse.  Grilse are smaller, usually from 20 – 24 inches in length, and have not yet developed this stiffness in the tail fin’s exterior rays.  A sure way to tell a big grilse from a small salmon is to check the development of the tail fin exterior rays.  If they are stiff, and don’t collapse when you try to squeeze them together, it’s a salmon.  But if they collapse, it’s a grilse. 

    Doug Schlink with nice looking MSW Atlantic
    Not a Grilse

    Because of this lack of development in the exterior caudal fin rays of a grilse, if you try to “tail” a grilse with this conventional method, the tail fin collapses and he’ll squirt right out of your grasp!

    But if your guide is not handy with the net when you’re about to land your grilse, you still can hand tail him using the technique I call the “Vulcan Grilse Grip”.    Make a “V” or a “peace sign” by extending your index and middle finger of your dominant hand.  With thumb extended, slide this “V” so one finger is on the top and the other along the bottom of the caudal peduncle.  Now quickly wrap the thumb around and close the rest of your hand as if you’re trying to make a fist.  You should now have a firm grasp on the fish!  I’m not sure why this works, but it does. 

    A word of caution, never lift a salmon or a grilse you plan to release clear out of the water by the tail.  This can cause internal damage.  Please use hand tailing only as a means of securing the salmon in the water so you can remove the fly and properly release into the current.  If you want to lift a salmon for a photo, use your other hand to gently support the body of the fish, and lift no more than a few inches from the water and for no more than a few seconds. 

    Many thanks to angling great Larry Solomon, co-author of the classic “The Caddis and the Angler”, for showing me this technique over 20 years ago on the Nepisiguit River. 

  • Brûlé McSprat

    This pattern is a hybrid of a Green Rat body (sans rib) and a traditional Spey fly, and was designed specifically for the beautiful Petite Cascapedia River.   The first few days following its baptismal, it accounted for 6 rises, 5 solid takes and 4 lovely June salmon to net.  It deserved a proper name!  “Brûlé”, its birthplace – “Mc”, in honor of the McWhirter Clan who’ve run Camp Brûlé for 4 generations – “ Sprat”, a contraction of Spey and Rat. Thus born and duly christened, “The Brûlé McSprat” was conceived and tied by Doug Schlink, but this particularly stunning rendition was tied by the eminently more talented hands of master tier, Ben Bilello, www.benbilello.com/salmonflies/.

    Born on the porch at Camp Brûlé – June 16th, 2011

    Tip: fine gold oval

    Rear Body: bright green floss

    Veil: bright green floss

    Spey Hackle: Blue Earred Pheasant, palmered thru front body

    Front Body: Peacock Herl

    Throat: Teal

    Wing: Bronze Mallard

  • Salmon Fishing: How Do I Love Thee. Part I – The Grab

    Having worked in the fly fishing travel industry for 25 years, I’m sometimes asked, “what’s your favorite fish to fish for?”.   Without hesitation I answer, “if I had to give up all species except one, I would keep Atlantic salmon”.  The question that frequently follows is, “why?”. You know, that’s a damn good question.  Lord knows I have suffered through long and painful droughts when the salmon had not yet come in, had already gone upriver, or when they were there and for a myriad of reasons, would not rise to the fly. 

    Yet, they sometimes do rise to the fly, sometimes subtly, sometimes aggressively, and sometimes they try to rip the rod out of your hands.   This is what the salmon fisher lives for, or at least what I live for – the “grab”.   You methodically search the water with carefully measured casts, swinging the fly through possible lies.  And sometimes you approach a known “hot spot”, or from years of experience, you recognize a likely taking spot – a “bucket”.  The anticipation builds as you approach the bucket, each cast bringing you a bit closer.  Finally, you get to that cast, the one you know in your heart and mind should be the one.  The fly swings oh so seductively down and across the stream and slides into the bucket and BAM, the “grab”.  Oh it might be a subtle take – just a slight tug, or the line might just stop, or a solid “pull”.  Or it might be that explosive attempt to destroy the fly (the kind I love).  But they’re all “grabs”, and your heart stops in momentary  disbelief as you await further proof that there’s actually a fish at the end of your line.    

    Such proof might come in the form of a majestic leap or series of leaps, or an immediate burst of speed into a searing, backing-melting run.  Or you might just feel a constant resistance, causing you to wonder if you simply snagged a rock – until the head shakes tell you differently.  There are many kinds, but they are all “grabs”.  And no matter how many I experience, no matter how sweet the bucket looks, or how well I know this is a “sure thing” taking lie,  when the grab comes, it still surprises the hell out of me – every time.  Like some kind of miracle just occurred!  For me, actually landing the fish is secondary.  I fish for the grab!

    Doug lives for "The Grab"
    Doug lives for “The Grab”