Fly Fishing Nation: Bad Guys Fish The Night

Bad Guys Fish The Night - Las Buitreras
Story about Cojones
by Stephan Dombaj

I never though it would be that hard to sit right in front of my notebook and write about fishing although I could be fishing right now. Typing these letters here is a real quest for me, especially since we are talking about not some sort of pond or urban stream... One of world´s most renown seatrout-waters, the Rio Gallegos, located in southern Patagonia is literally just a few steps away from the estancia. I know you are going to hate me for that but I am going to stay here the whole season...

(Sunset behind - Seatrout ahead)

Maybe it´s a relief for you to hear that I got to do some work here in the dirty south. The photographers from sports illustrated know exactly what I mean when I say: It´s a hard job but someone...you know the rest. Working the weekends and the nights can be tough... especially in this case. Claudio, Las Buitreras Camp Manager and head guide, told me that there´s a new cut bank-pool just around the bend of a major holding pool (Loop Hole) Still unnamed since no one slammed a Chromer out of it, either because it possibly no holding spot or because Loop Hole is just around the bend so they never really tried. New pool, unnamed and without fish so far. Jesus! Do I have to go on?

(Rio Gallegos - Seatrout-legend)

Chance of a lifetime! Entitling a Gallegos-Pool! The only thing I had to do is catch a chromer... Time for a plan. Either LOOP´s Gass 6120 or 693 Opti Coast, C/I Shootinghead (depends on the Combo) + 0,29mm Runningline + 13ft+1 1/2ft leader and tippet. Fly for the win: Hot cone Spey Bugger with Grizzly Rubber legs tied on TMC 777SP. Thou shall be slamming chrome! Amen. Beyond all theories I really had to check out the water. No watermarks, no m³/sec - just a little walk along the shore.

(Strippin´off)

I love Chromers. Fat-ass, strong, silverish migratory salmonides. But I really adore Gallegos Browntrout's! Every single scale of them. I simply can´t get enough of them and they can´t get enought of giant hoppers: Miss Knobby X for the win! Of course I had to carry a 5weight Loop Yellow Line II (rigged up with an OptiStream WF5F on a CLWC) with me - just in case that something is really stupid enough to rise in a radius of a mile when I am around with a deadly pattern tied and approved in New Zealand.

(Gallegos treasures)

On the way downstream to the section I got a couple of fish rising for this pattern so that it was almost dark when I arrived the unnamed pool. For some strange reason I exactly knew what was going to happen... I changed the leader for a 14ft with 0,22mm tippet... While I was opening my flybox a fish showed up close to the cutbank. Chromers ahead, head&tailing just a few meters away from my position. My welcome present was a Hotcone Spey-Bugger with Rubberl egs. Almost dark and wind picked up rapidly but anyway I managed to hit the spot. Long drift with a floating line to get the the fly down and dirty.

(Amen)

Full contact swing. Forget everything around, the only thing that counts now is something that is really hard to explain. It´s that feeling that takes over when you feel the current in the line, when you know that your fly swings just into the right spot, when you know that everything you are aiming for is waiting for something to pass by just under that specific bubble line... It´s a good feeling! You know that it ain´t no trout, it´s the silver flash, the leaper or simply one of the meanest motherfuckers of the collective of all freshwater fish.

(Prince Beadhead with RL tied on Mustad R90)

Focusing on every on every movement, I started to retrieve my fly. Slow and even. A splash on the surface that simultaneously leads to a violent pull in my line. Stripstrike! Connected! The semitransparent reel gets into serious troubles. Left-handed version hits me on the wrong turn. But right now I don´t give a damn f*ck about it. Jump and run, jump and run... silver bullet is heading downstream. Although I am using a 5 weight I can feel that this is a big fish. The current is too strong to land it here so I move a few steps downstream. Headshakes and heavy pumps hit the butt section of my rod - hell yeah, now we are talking. After a couple of minutes it´s almost done. I am moving backwards, trying to beach that bull. Got it...

(Chromer!)

84cm length - 52cm girth (according to the calculator: 7,95kg) - taken on a tiny yellow trout rod, a dry line and a streamer. A few quick selfportraits and some fucked up night shots with a gorillapod and mama is back on its way to the spawning grounds. Mission accomplished! Some of you may think that I have missed the chance to set myself a monument by calling the pool El Steph or something like that. I have to disagree! We named it "COJONES"... and I guess you know what that means!

Some shots