We’re gonna have some coffee and make some jokes, Danni is going to forget the ibuprofen I asked him yesterday. LOL I just saw him and he has it! I’m happy about it! I was not feeling that good yesterday and I’m feeling much better today. Rodo brought the grill! It’s going to be a great day! Sunny, no wind, and we’re going to Malleo River which requires a lot of talent to fish and a good guide. Well, we’ve got the good guide at least!

When you get to the river there are three roads. We are going to get the one on the right, which takes you to the lower part of the river, we’re going to fish that today. It’s a very nice area, close by the indigenous reserve, we probably gonna be fishing in the indigenous reserve and we’ll see what happens over there. Dani wants to check what the action is there and if it is good, probably go fish the upper river in the afternoon. 

Same rods, 5 and 6, same lines, Danny doesn’t think we will need sinking lines here at all, he said we can leave them at the lodge, but you know, I like to carry everything with me, for example, sometimes you think you’re going to be in a river and you end up on a lake, so I took everyting with us. 

I asked Danny when we were arriving, am I gonna need that line? and he was like, No, Pablo, I’ve already told you you’re not gonna need that line. Ok, now I understand the message.

We were driving with Juan, and he says, Pablo, why don’t you just go and get 3, 4 fish and then just go straight to the barbeque? And I said, it’s not a bad idea Juan but no way! I was feeling better today and I was ready to fish all day long!

Something very important: It’s funny when you go to the indigenous reserve. They’ve got a different perception of time. They are not in a rush, why being in a rush? There’s no point, right? So when we had to pay the fee to get in, they took their time to open the gate. Then, when they finally open it, they have to close it again. But see, these guy might not see more than 10 vehicles a day, he takes his time, go in front of the car, write down the number of the licence plate, check for the change, there’s no hurry at all when you live in an indian reserve.

El Pozo de la Felicidad

Our first stop is going to be this place, El Pozo de la Felicidad, which literally translates as The Hole of Happiness, Dani said there’s gonna be a willow tree and very difficult fish behind the willow, we’ll see what happens at Pozo de la Felicidad… Lets see...

El Pozo de la Felicidad, we’re right here and the water level is hight, we can see that there are some huge stones which usually stick outside the water in the riffle but we cannot see them now. Behind them in the current, there are trout between 18 and 23 and inches, they are usually there so we have to insist with nymphs, which work when the speed of the water is just right so as to let them move at the right speed for the fish to get them. The current is very strong so the fly is going to be taken by the current so fast that it won’t give the fish time to get it. So Danny, our guide, guaranteed us that if we do some casts, they won’t be successful and if they do, it would be just by chance. 

The morning was amazing. We were almost close to the connection between Alumine River and Malleo, so we fished the lower part of the Malleo River. We got into the water in a flat area, not many trees around, just after the riffle, but we still fly fished the structure with some trees, willows and rocks, some plants. The water was still moving, it was kind of active water, cast just over the foam on our closest side of the current. The cast was with dry flies and then we tried with dry flies and the nymph. We saw fish catching our dry fly and we decided to take the nymphs off and continued with dry flies. The first fish was amazing. I was almost ready to take the fly out of the water when I tried a little bit, I just pushed the line and we got a fish, it was a 18 inch rainbow and the first fish of the day. 

Second fish of the day was much nicer but we couldn’t catch it. We saw it and we tried to put the fly, but it was a very difficult cast, we had to put the fly in a very difficult place, smaller area, no more than one yard by one yard, about a 15 yard cast, it was not that long, but the situation wasn’t easy. The point is, we put the fly where it should have been. There was a huge trout, the trout could not take the fly. The day was starting to get really good, we went to the next riffle, we fished next to the nervous waters, when our guide Daniel said hey, I think there’s nothing here let’s go to the next one, just as he was finishing uttering these words, a beautiful trout got my fly and we got a nice fish in our line. Then, I gave the rod to Danny to do some casts and told him, Dani remember the one I got, it was very close to us on this side of the river, maybe you should try there. And he did, and he did get a fish! It was very early and we already had nice fish in our bag! Then Juan fly cast for a little time, he couldn’t hook a couple of bites he had and then suddenly, he got all the fish. We stayed fishing a little longer, got a couple more nice fish and then Rodo prepared a special, spectacular barbeque for us. So overall, my conclusion is that Malleo river is really really good.

The barbeque came together with salads, wine, beers. We took our time to enjoy this really nice lunch. We even had a nap! After that, we changed and we went to the yellow bridge to do some fishing in the afternoon. We arrived late, 3.30, 4 pm and we only had a couple of hours more to fish. We caught a couple of fish but were all small ones, we got like half a dozen fish, all small, not much action. We put flies in all nice places but nothing happened. Some parts of the upper part of the Malleo are difficult to cast. So we used the roll casting a lot to fish that part. At around 8.3 we came back to the lodge with a great feeling of a great day, and we had the feeling that the day had lived up to our expectations and also exceeded them. The lower part of the Malleo was really good, but I almost forgot to tell you about the biggest fish I got, in a very difficult place under a tree. We put the fly right there and it got it! I don’t know what happened, but it cut the line. Probably, I put too much strength on the line and that’s why it cut it. The leader was already damaged, that was part of the problem, too. But the thing is that we lost it, and it was like 24 inches. We saw some part of the fish when it bit the hook, we couldn’t see the full fish, but I knew it was the best one of the day. 

Stay tunned! Next up: Three day float trip in the Limay and deluxe camp by the river!

Pablo Aguilo

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