One of the questions I had when I embarked on this new experience was how to find the right fly for the job at any specific fishing hole along the route. I was given tips and recommendations by both Vince and Pablo, but the concern somewhat remained. It turns out, it was´t as big of a problem as I had thought. Upon arrival in lake and river district the answer to this dilema hit me right in the face...literally. The following hypothesis, tests and conclusions I consider somewhat scientific, but mostly just haphazard-we´ll call it `willy-nilly science´ (I get it from pa).
Most roads closely follow the path the river has chosen through the landscape in
Patagonia, and they are full of life, big and small.. I tried catching bugs hovering the water with my karate kid set of chopsticks to study the make and model but failed. Sorry Miagi. I then saddled up, hit the road, and a more direct route `haphazardly´ splattered onto the goggles covering my eyes, I hypothesized... The frustration passed from the many quick but sharp `pings´ of pain from the unfortunate airborn insects in my path approaching a fishing hole, and I was able to test my hypothesis . ¿Could I simply peel off the
carcas of whatever bug was last plastered to my forehead and match it up as closely as possible with one in my aresenal of bait flies? Sure enough! The results were a success, 8 times out of 10 producing a bite within the first few casts!
I came up with a couple of biased conclusions:
First, I prefer to use the very small, very light `dryflies´, partially because I find them easier to cast-thus easeir to present nicely for the fishies, but mostly because their real-life matches do not sting as bad (coming to this conclusion was rather painful at times--ie: bees, dragonflies).
Second, needless to say, the fish that were hitting the small flies were rather small "fries" themselves (litterally the ¨handful¨ of fish I caught in the first week could have all fit into one hand!)
Patagonia, and they are full of life, big and small.. I tried catching bugs hovering the water with my karate kid set of chopsticks to study the make and model but failed. Sorry Miagi. I then saddled up, hit the road, and a more direct route `haphazardly´ splattered onto the goggles covering my eyes, I hypothesized... The frustration passed from the many quick but sharp `pings´ of pain from the unfortunate airborn insects in my path approaching a fishing hole, and I was able to test my hypothesis . ¿Could I simply peel off the
carcas of whatever bug was last plastered to my forehead and match it up as closely as possible with one in my aresenal of bait flies? Sure enough! The results were a success, 8 times out of 10 producing a bite within the first few casts!I came up with a couple of biased conclusions:
First, I prefer to use the very small, very light `dryflies´, partially because I find them easier to cast-thus easeir to present nicely for the fishies, but mostly because their real-life matches do not sting as bad (coming to this conclusion was rather painful at times--ie: bees, dragonflies).
Second, needless to say, the fish that were hitting the small flies were rather small "fries" themselves (litterally the ¨handful¨ of fish I caught in the first week could have all fit into one hand!)
Regardless of the take, the fishing has been awesome, and I have to thank my dad for such stimulated spontaneous science solving the bait problem. Sorry no keepers this time, but we shall return.... Lookout Patagonia!
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