Jurassic Lake Lodge; Argentina Patagonia Sept 30-Oct 5

Recently had the opportunity to fish Jurassic Lake Lodge for the 5th consecutive year.  Jurassic Lake (aka Lago Strobel) is perhaps the best rainbow trout fishery in the world.  In 1996, the original stocking of wild McLeod strain rainbows from California were introduced into the Barrancoso River and thus made way into Lago Strobel.  With a hearty strain of rainbows combined with the abundant food source of scuds and an environment of crystal clear highly oxygenated water with minimal fishing pressure and no predators has allowed these rainbows to grow to sizes unheard of.  I along with 6 friends verified that the giants do exist.  We arrived in a blizzard on Sept 30 which is a tad earlier than the normal opening season.  Taking a 5 minute walk to the river mouth found thousands of giants

entering the river to begin their spawning cycle.  I walked about 10 minutes up the river and found more rainbows than water in the river.  Later in the afternoon the group split into 3 groups and fished 3 beats.  Normally the 1st pool in the Barrancoso was the best the past few years, but this time the rainbows were not too active here most likely due to the extremely cold water.  However, the fishing was redhot at the Bay of Pigs and especially the river mouth which are again a 5 minute walk from the lodge.  This year, after a summer of practice, I switched to a fly rod and was rewarded with

hundreds of rainbows topping 15 lbs with 2 giants pushing the boga down to 21 lbs and 20.5 lbs.
  Others in the group did much better than I did slowly jigging white tube jigs.  When the wind made fly fishing impossible I switched to a 5/8 oz Moonshine bloody  glow nose and had strike after strike outside the river mouth.  For the 4.5 days of fishing I estimated the group landed over 2500 rainbows of which at least 7 topped 20 lbs with the largest reported at 22 lbs with the average rainbow topping 11 lbs.

The fishery gets better each year and the rainbows are getting larger due to an extreme growth rate.  I am heading back in April to battle even larger chrome rainbows as told by the great guides at Jurassic. Jurassic Lake Lodge sits on the Barrancoso River which is the only river on Jurassic.  The lodge consists of 10 rooms for clients consisting of private bath and walk in shower.  There is a main lodge building where meals are served and clients gather after a great day of fishing and discuss the day over drinks and are then served fantastic meals which will add to your waistline!  We drove into the lodge from Calafate in a lodge van and meet up with the lodge guides at the end of the highway for a ride in 4 x 4 trucks to the lodge and back.

The ride offers great sites. The only signs of life are ample heards of guanacos..cousin of llamas and a few rheas..cousin of an ostrich. For the remainder of the season which extends to the end of April, clients take a charter flight from Comodoro Rivadavia to the lodge runway. 

   This is a dream trip where the fishing is unbelievable.  Get in while you can!!