Chrome Egg Wagon

It sounds stupid if I start like that, but one of the good thing amongst many others of being here in Argentina for more than 3 months is, having one of the best seatrout rivers literally in my backyard. Changing day for our clients is saturday, that means I can sneak out and check out the river. Almost exactly one year ago, we've had a flood that washed us out for 2 days - that was the time when Stefan Franzmann arrived here in Buitreras. The first fishing we did together on our watershed was right after the peak of the flood, when the water cleared up a little and most of the weeds and plants were already washed down the river. At that time, it was Nanchi who hooked into the first fish in Molino which happens to be a cracking fresh 15lb buck on a Yellow Yummie. Right after that we went on to "75" where I took the first turn picking Nanchi's combo from the rod-rag. Nanchi himself was sitting in the front of the truck, watching the scene with his boots hanging out of the window, whereas Stefan was leaning at the back of the truck, eagerly following my presentation. It was my second cast into the hotspot as I got connected. The fight was unspectacular and I exclaimed not to bother since I firmly believed that this fish would not exceed 8lb. It turned out to be a 19lb egg wagon! Very sweet.

Well, back in time, pretty much one year later we were standing again at the bank of Rio Gallegos. Nanchi, Stefan and I, the tres mariachis! Again it was Nanchi who hooked into the first fish in Molino and we were starting to fool around about last year's events. Unfortunately he lost the fish after it showed up on the surface, numbing all impressions by its size. Fuck, it was big! As this impression passed my mind, the hook came lose. Nanchi's facial expression was a borderwalk between horror and agony - I know what it feels like! History takes its course, so we went up to 75, staging last year’s scene again. Nanchi was sitting in the front of the car, Stefan leaning at the back of the truck and I was grabbing Nanchi's combo... Stage was ready and so were we! The only thing that was missing was the star role. Pretty much the first drift into the host zone straightened up and I jumped a mid-sized fish that came lose on the leap. Good start and fair enough considering to what happened to Nanchi before. It was not over yet though. My second attempt was even closer to the bank, presenting the fly on the outer edge of the hot spot close to the far bank. Pretty handy situation for a streamtip because it enables me to slow the belly down whereas the tip is going down and dirty, once the bomb is placed at the bottom of the pool all it needs is a simple downstream mend to speed up the fly. In ideal world, the fly rolls down to the bottom of the pool, unrecognized by the bunch of fat chromers sitting right in the spot - as soon as one mends the line downstream, the floating belly speeds up and lifts the fly on a ridiculous and deadly ascent that triggers a reflex strike. The script for this scene mentioned in the sentence before has proven to be god damn accurate. An interception half way the presentation, hookset and heavy pumping right away. Picking up last year’s slap stick, I announced the presents of a 9lb fish, knowing well that this fish was even heavier than last year’s 19lb buck. As already mentioned somewhere on this page, the 20lb + females are kinda sluggish because they don't want to risk their precious freight. After two minutes, one of the fattest fish that I have ever seen was landed. The scale stopped at 22, something lbs. We repeated the scene, we did it! Just more spectacular, bigger and better... Looking forward to next year's Saturday bash right after the first flood! Tight Lines, Steph