Junin De Los Andes, Argentina

The region of Patagonia covers the entire bottom third of the South American continent. It´s world renowned for trekking, climbing, and fishing. As most of you know, I´m an avid fly fisherman, so I packed my rod, fishing gear and waders, and have been lugging them around for the past three months. My fishing goal of 30 fishing days has not yet been met, but I am half way there. Our latest excursion was to Junin, just one of the many places in Patagonia where the fishing is "the best in world." It is amazing how many Patagonia towns claim to be the trout capital of Argentina and how many rivers claim to be the best or most important river in the world. The trout are not native, but they are thriving in these waters and people from all over the world flock to fish here. It is a huge industry and the most expensive around it seems in terms of guides and other similar services. We went to another of the most important rivers to fish. They wanted $100US per day just for the license. Big business.


Junin is a small town of maybe 10,000 people. The Lonely Planet said it is the kind of place where you see the same stray dog over and over. It is true, and in fact, we didn´t see the same one dog over and over. We saw the same four, and they also slept outside our tent while we were there. Beth puttered around town and went for walks while I spent my time on the river. She had a stray dog escort everytime she went into town. Unfortunately a few of the mornings I also had a stray dog escort to the river. They had a great time playing in the water and scaring away all my fish. I had to resort to yelling and throwing rocks at them to get them to go away. They were sad.

I put myself on a strict fishing schedule of 6:30am to about noon, and 3pm to 6pm. I spent the 4 days fishing the Chimehuin that is said to be another of the best rivers in Patagonia. It is late season so the water is low, and the fishing a bit more difficult. I caught fish using dry flies, nymphs, and streamers, both floating line and sinking tip. I caught both rainbows and browns. Most of the fish were only about 12 inches, but I landed an 18 inch brown which ended up being my biggest fish thus far.

It has already been worth lugging the gear around. When we are rich, I would like to come back and spend more time fishing. Now, my sights are set on some kind of Amazon fish...maybe piranas or something. More research needs to be done.

I apologize for the lack of pictures. USB is technology that hasn´t quite made it to Humahuaca.