photo gallery

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fieldandstream-editor — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 19:00:00 -0500

Upon arrival, guide Alexander Trochine, showed us a photo of this brown trout he had landed a few nights earlier. Along with his twin brother, Nico, Alex is tasked with figuring out the complexities of the Irigoyen, where they are starting a very limited (four-angler) guide operation. The brothers grew up in Bariloche, and formerly worked as guides on the fabled Rio Grande, known as the sea trout capital of the world, 150 kilometers to the north. "Do you think we might catch fish like this?" we asked Alex. "Claro que si . . . of course," he answered.

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fieldandstream-editor — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 19:00:00 -0500

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fieldandstream-editor — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 19:00:00 -0500

Just for grins, we would spend early evening hours at the river mouth where the Irigoyen poured into the Atlantic. Here, in the brackish pools, we'd find both sea trout and enormous schools of robalo -- a strange species that looks like a cross between a redfish, cod, and rockfish.

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fieldandstream-editor — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 19:00:00 -0500

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fieldandstream-editor — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 19:00:00 -0500

A matter of scale . . . Naturally, they do things a little differently in Argentina. You don't measure trout with a tape, you weight them with a Boga grip (lifting the net and subtracting its weight, so as not to clamp down and damage the jaws of the trout). The Trochine brothers treat these fish with great care, releasing the vast majority, with the very rare exception that ends up as sea trout ceviche or sashimi. This one tipped the scale at 13 pounds, and was released unharmed.

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fieldandstream-editor — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 19:00:00 -0500

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fieldandstream-editor — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 19:00:00 -0500

Leaving the Irigoyen, I paused to reflect on a true "life adventure" near the bottom of the civilized world, where I had caught many trout I will never forget, in ways and in a place I could not have imagined. This is the gateway to dreams.

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fieldandstream-editor — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 19:00:00 -0500

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fieldandstream-editor — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 19:00:00 -0500

This proved to be the biggest fish we landed that night, a 17-pound female. But that wasn't the end of the evening adventure. There are feral bulls in this part of Argentina (you read that right . . . bulls). As we walked out of the river and through the forest, Alex and I could hear stomping and bellowing in the near distance. We flipped on our headlamps, then saw the shadow of a 2000-pound beast splitting through the trees. "I think we'd better stay near the river," he said. "Claro que si . . . of course," I answered.

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fieldandstream-editor — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 19:00:00 -0500