DIY: Argentina for Sea Trout

Is it possible to DIY fish the Rio Grande?

I expect that the majority of those reading here are DIY anglers. Enthusiastic fly fishers with a vivid dream to fly into a foreign country, resourcefully finding their way to a remote river and casting to runs of large sea trout on a warm and windless day. I get that – I’m with you.

Unfortunately, whilst this is possible for resident trout species in some countries such as New Zealand, chasing sea-run trout or Atlantic steelhead in Argentina is more complex, primarily due to access.

Whilst there are other factors taken in deciding to Do-It-Yourself such as (1) a fierce determination to be totally independent, or (2) an extended stay making a week of lodge accommodation and inclusive guide fees too cost-prohibitive, generally the main reason to choose to fish DIY is simply down to the significant outlay for lodge and related food and guide.

Let’s work this through before addressing the specific challenges of DIY. As perhaps there’s a halfway option – given you’ve already spent a small fortune flying into Buenos Aires or Santiago and then down to the closest airport to your chosen river system.

If the guided lodge offering is out of your budget, consider the option of finding an independent guide, not attached to the lodges, who has some private access or can take you to an accessible riverside location and help with your fishing technique. Even a day or two of this will give you a strong start for any additional DIY days in the region.

If you’re planning to fish the Rio Grande for instance, lodge accommodation, meals and daily guiding (two anglers per guide) will set you back US$7,000-US$9,000+ a week for a shared room in the seven Argentinian lodges or in the one lodge on the Chilean side of the border. Lodge costs can be significantly more expensive, particularly at peak times (Feb/Mar). Dividing this charge across the accommodation, food and beverages, guide, daily vehicle transfers, airport transfers and other services provided by the lodge works out to be very reasonable on a per day/per item fee.

But choosing an independent guide and checking into a less salubrious Rio Grande township hotel or local camping site will significantly reduce your outlay. A hotel for ~US$100 a night plus daily fees for a guide who can pick you up, get you onto some decent runs and net any fish caught might be a wise investment given the cost of time and flights already incurred.

But let’s assume you stubbornly refuse to take on a guide. What are the other challenges and how are they overcome?

Image: The current flight schedule into Rio Grande Airport (centre right of shot) requires you to depart Buenos Aires at either 2am or 3.30am - only for dedicated trout anglers!

There are many challenges to undertaking DIY fishing for sea-run trout in Argentina’s rivers.

First, there’s the detail of domestic transfers after your international inbound flight into Buenos Aires or Santiago. Then accommodation and getting about in your chosen province needs to be sorted.

Next is securing access – this a big one with the extent of closely guarded access to rivers. Finally, there’s the knowledge required to fish effectively during your stay.

Given the significant investment in time and travel to get to Argentina to catch your bucket list monster trout, you’re likely to be considering one of these three rivers:

1. Rio Grande, Tierra Del Fuego,

2. Rio Santa Cruz for Steelhead, or

3. Rio Gallegos, also in the Santa Cruz province.

We’ll cover each river in three separate articles with an overview of challenges and revisit these locations in future articles to provide more information, starting with the Rio Grande in this post.

Rio Grande for Sea-Run Brown Trout

Transfer Flights to Rio Grande via Buenos Aires

If you’re flying into Rio Grande Airport (RGA), you’ve probably coming from Buenos Aires having landed in Argentina the day before. Having a day/night in Buenos Aires to sort jetlag and acquire some local currency (Blue Dolar) is a fine idea.

Your flight to RGA departs in the crazy early morning hours (2am or 3.30am at time of writing) so you’ll likely be at the airport at midnight and not get any sleep until you crash at your Rio Grande hotel at the other end. That adds up to 2-3 days of non-fishing travel days.

Image: The Rio Grande river is 3-4 hours drive from Ushuaia, which offers a better flight schedule from Buenos Aires than flying into Rio Grande Airport.

Transfer Flights to Ushuaia via Buenos Aires

Alternatively, you can fly into Ushuaia – the most southern city in the world and a great tourist destination – grab a rental car and drive for 3-4 hours up to the Rio Grande. This is the way the Argentinian lodge operators typically work. Their hosts meet guests at the Ushuaia Airport (USH) to transfer them to the respective lodges.

You have no need to enter Chile if you are fishing the lower 100km of the Rio Grande so there will be no issues with your rental car, border control, or carrying fresh food that you’ve bought in Ushuaia before leaving the town.

Transfer Flights to Punta Arenas via Santiago

If you’re flying into Santiago and heading down to fish the Rio Grande, fly into Punta Arenas, stay the night and grab a rental car to drive to Rio Grande. You’ll need to book a morning ferry to Porvenir over the Strait of Magellan. Then it’s a 3 hour or so drive to the Rio Grande river. You’ll likely be fishing the Chilean side of the border - the top 240km.

The 50,000-85,000 quality of sea-run fish that move quickly through the river each year will be holding up here assuming you’ve chosen a logical time to visit. But accessing this water is a whole other issue.

If you decide to fish the lower river, you’ll need to pass through one of the border controls from Chile into Argentina. You’ll need to have completed the appropriate paperwork for your rental car (note: some rental car companies don’t allow you to exit the country you hired the vehicle in). You’ll need to declare any food. Don’t try to bring in any fresh goods as you’ll get in big trouble. Rio Grande town is your best source of replacement fresh food. Plan for border delays in your schedule and make sure not to be there too early or too late in the day.

Rio Grande Accommodation

I’ll assume you’re fishing on the lower river and staying at the Rio Grande pueblo, having flown into either Ushuaia or Rio Grande and rented a car. If staying further up the river, you’ll likely to be camping out.

Having a hotel room as your home base will be a haven, giving you respite from the violent westerly (downstream) winds you are likely to experience during a typical fishing day.

Rio Grande has a good range of hotels in the ~US$100 range but beware that most are likely to be booked out well in advance of the main fishing season, particularly for a longer stay, so plan and book well ahead of your visit. There are also cheaper options such as the Hostel Argentino for the budget-conscious traveller.

Access to the Rio Grande River

Securing access to good Rio Grande water is going to be your biggest hurdle, and this is why hiring an independent guide or staying at a name lodge is a logical consideration for this location. If you’re here to catch large sea-run brown trout and you only have a week – and if you’re unlikely to come back again – it’s smarter to save the extra money and go all out for a week. You’ll have fond memories, great photos and less frustration.

Argentina’s rivers are public water, but the land surrounding the good fishing spots is likely to be private and you’ll be trespassing by stepping onto private land. The best way to access water is go under a road bridge and into the river. If you stay within 5m of the water, you’ll be ok, but expect to be accosted by lodge guides if you’re in ‘their water’.

This really does limit your fishing options. You’ll be able to walk-wade for a while before you get bluffed. Whether these below- and above-bridge sections are good fishing holding water is for you to investigate and will depend on the time of the year.

Techniques on the Rio Grande

There’ll be days when you can fish a single handed 8wgt rod with WF/shooting head and careful presentation of a surface imitation, but generally skating flies across and down with a double handed 11’ Switch rod or 13’ Spey rod is going to better align your casting with the constant wind and not destroy your shoulder in a single session!

Remember when you’re cursing the wind that this same breeze is hiding your presence and allowing for the larger flies and presentation imparted by the bigger gear you have deployed.

Try the renowned EMB with its rubber legs imparting movement, or similar patterns. Bring some weighted stoneflies and some lighter smaller patterns so you can adequately fish the water depth in each pool.

Pack a range of interchangeable tips for your main floating line to ensure you can get down into some of the deeper pools on the Rio Grande.

Change of light (‘La Hora Mágica’ means Magic Hour) is a key time to be on the river so pack a headlamp and be aware of your return journey. Fishing the same water that you fished during the day will help you to familiarise yourself with the local terrain.

Fishing this change of light allows for you to move up in size and tippet to accommodate larger streamers such as a black & blue Intruder, a dark coloured Leech or Woolly Bugger. On the most calm of nights, if the wind has dropped and the river surface is flat, try swinging a sparsely tied Sunray as the sun sets behind you, but generally you’ll be better to go up in size and a darker pattern. The Rio Grande Leech is a good intruder zonker style fly to fall back on.

Without having the expertise of a local guiding team or the accumulated knowledge of a lodge guide gleaned from daily visits to their local section means your success will be partly down to luck and good fortune. It is maybe worth re-considering that decision to DIY fish for sea-run browns in the Rio Grande if you only have limited time on the river.

If you are dead-set on taking a DIY approach to chasing sea-run brown trout, I suggest reading the coming article on the Rio Gallegos as this long river system offers more access and a wider range of angling opportunities than the Rio Grande.