I will speak about the fishing in a few lines but let me tell you something else. After some years of travelling slowly over “The Plateau of the Death” (La Meseta de la Muerte”), the local name of the Strobel fields, we have been amazed by all the secrets that are hidden in such a lonely place. Just a bunch of old archeologists have come to study some of the phenomenoms that are found in this land. 

It´s very easy to find arrows in the Barrancoso Valley -which of course are never picked up- that were used by the tehuelches to hunt guanacos, they principal source of food. The old drawings compared to the well-known “Cueva de las Manos” (Cave of Hands) on the North of the Province seem to be as old as them, which are around 10.000 years and the main difference is that these ones are written instead of painted. 

Then there is an old cave once we cross the Barrancoso River where the last aborigine lived among his daughter and woman, whom by the way was met by Mr. Rodriguez, owner of the estancia when he first arrived to start his own farm with just a bunch of cows. Mr. Rodriguez is now 77 years old and still rides horse and can see without glasses to the other side of the lake and spot guanacos (this actually happened to me on one occasion where I had to use the binoculars to confirm what I thought it was a lie). And not only this, when you are fishing in the lake is very common to find petrified pieces of wood that show that before the Andes Mountains appeared this landscape used to be a forest.

This is the context of an experience that for sure is going to change the way of making trips for your entire life. But now comes the fishing report…

This year I travelled to end the pre-season on Jurassic Lake with my colleague Julian and a group of crazy Argentinians from B.A and Mendoza (where the finest wines are made). The conditions were strange, an electric storm with some hail made us run to the lodge on the first afternoon. The fishing as always was stunning, in the morning the bays near the mouth were “regular” catching around 10 fishes per fisherman in a few hours, but in the end of the day you could see how the silver ones were getting into the river in huge groups, taking flies and running crazy all over the bay. The best option was the woolly bugger in olive crystal chenille and some green rubber legs, also with a cone head. However I have to say even though I don´t work full time for loop anymore that the floating line evotec 85 #7 kicked ass big time among the rest… We started with sinking lines but end up fishing with floating and an Alaskan egg pattern making the fish run crazy as they chase them over the surface.

The second night we shared some music with my limited 5 chords and forgetting the lyrics, but the spirit was all that mattered. I must say that the cooking was fantastic, Agustin whom is a local chef with international experience left everyone impressed with his skills, chocolate volcano was the cherry of the cake… only 23 years for the master of the cuisine.
“Bahia de los Cochinos” which is on the left side of the mouth of the river delivered the best fish of the season as Julian said, just 24pds on a small nymph with a bead head and orange rubber legs. That happened the last day while Gonza from Mendoza said to himself” I can´t get stucked on 9 kilos” (in a very ironic way), it was a short period of total craziness. The wind seemed to push the waves against the rocks and released a big amount of shrimps. That caused an immediate effect on the fishes. We could see them over the surface taking the food, it was a real spectacle to watch, but the way of catching them was only with tiny nymphs. Many other beasts caught around 15 and 17 pounds…
We end those 2 and a half days with almost 600 fishes. Fishing quite relaxed, having naps in the afternoon and coffee and mate breaks.

After 5 years of guiding on this place I must say that the wilderness is intact but the accommodation has improved 100%.

By Juan Manuel Biott