Glad you are enjoying seeing the pics. You know the guides are so positive about their river its refreshing to hear them say things like " Your next hook up could be a world record sea trout" It adds an extra bit of spice and optimism to your efforts. Here's some more pics.
One of 5 taken during a hot evening session where I had 8 takes and 5 fish during the last hour on a monkey stripped square.
The "Intruder fly" that was used to great effect by some of the team fishing-it has great mobility in the water.
They cook cracking steaks down there that go really well with the nice Malbec wines.
Lovely fresh run fish with a blue tinge
Returned to the river to get on with the migration to the redds
Night time would see the big fish come and roll on the surface where you wouldnt see them during the day as they are quite shy
You can see how deep this 18.5 lber is-no problems where they feed
Trees dont do very well down there with hellish winds and big beavers everywhere
Some of the guides who take you to your pools for your 2 four and a half hour hour sessions, and help you in everyway possible to get you a fish. They joined our party for a last night party.
Fabulous sunsets
Hard fighting fish that really play dirty by diving into the undercut banks in amongst fallen bank debris
The guides are exceptionally good at netting fish
Land of the big skies
A condor soaring on the thermals
A dirty flood that took days to clear
The camp fox
The estancia where the gauchos herd the sheep on horseback with the dogs.They process 40,000 sheep a year there and are one of the biggest sheep producers in the world
Some of the fish run as early as November and will spawn in March/April
I had some scales examined today from a 17 lber that showed it had smolted after 2 years and returned as a maiden spawner after 3 years at sea. It then spawned a further four times prior to being caught on its sixth spawning run-it was returned safely.
Me and my fishing Buddy for the week Gerhard
When the rivers dirty you can still have a laugh on the river bank with the guides-they are exceptionally fine casters using a variety of techniques to cope with the strong winds.Some days the wind rose in the late mornings and by mid afternoon was storm force 9 !
There is a complimentary bar laid on with tapas every lunchtime and evening prior to dinner. We used to play a game where last man to put his thumb on the table whilst you were sitting had to take a penalty dram (strafe one its called by the Scandinavians)-it was quite funny if you got caught 5 or 6 times in the evening-not the same in the morning when you woke up though.
Strafe One-caught for the 4 th time at the dinner table-ouch
Party organiser Reid Hagelin of
www.gcof.no who organises some fine fishing around the world and has good availability on his website including the Dee.
Beavers Lodge
Reid and guide Diego having their annual arm wrestling challenge-Reid who is 6 ft 5 inches with a 56 inch chest has never beaten him-Diego has amazing technique and arms like Popeye.
The takes were savage at times with fish embarking on 100 metre plus rushes downstream when hooked.
Picture of Paul Young and Diego with Pauls 32 lb fish - Paul is going back shortly and was so helpful giving me some tips about the river.This helped me enormously ensure I had the right tackle and flies.
My wish was to get a double figure sea trout and I was so delighted as you see with my first fish a super 12lber.