Tweet
Today was the day I’d been looking forward to over the whole trip, returning to the Rio Azopardo. The Azopardo has always been a river for me that holds huge potential, dare I say it even more so than the mighty Rio Grande, certainly from a visual and species variety perspective. The Rio Azopardo drains out of Lago Fagnano on the Chilean side, finally emptying into the Pacific Ocean. Lago Fagnano is some 95km long, with 80km being in Argentina and the last 15km in Chile. The Azopardo is a mere 12km long, but is a sizeable river, where a double hander is certainly called for. It’s a very fast flowing river, and any wading should be done with extreme caution. It is, however, crystal clear, and never really colours up because of it being lake-fed.
I had fished the Azopardo several times with great success, landing some really nice sea-trout along with brook-charr, brown-trout and rainbow-trout. There were also rumours of king salmon and I am certain that some of the fish I had caught in the past were steelhead. However, having never caught a steelhead with someone that caught correctly identify the sea-run version as opposed to the resident rainbows I was cautious about noting my catch.
The banks of the Azopardo are very difficult to walk along as they are covered in sphagnum moss, which is like walking in very soft sand as your feet sink in around a foot each time, making any journey rather arduous. However, this time Mark, the lodge manager at TDF-Lodge, was going to bring his jet-boat down to the river, so that we could access the largely unfished pools, which was hugely exciting. Mark got these boats made in Santiago, built on his own spec from Alaskan designs. These are the only jet-boats on the island. They also utilise them for some of the lakes where access is difficult or the walk to the good spots too long.
Back on the Rio Grande the weather was pleasant. A soft breeze and a light, overcast sky. The Azopardo is around 1hr 45mins South from the lodge when pulling a boat, and is in a totally different climate zone. The journey was fantastic, passing through the snow capped mountains. However, the weather soon turned and it rained for the best part of the day, sadly, which is hardly the best photographic weather.
We started off by fishing the lake itself, which is usually highly productive. A brook-charr was caught almost immediately, which set-up the day nicely. Some time passed but soon enough a rainbow of around 6lbs was landed, and what a magnificent fish that was. A little further on and a nice, fresh sea-trout of some 6lbs came to hand. Three species already! The fishing could hardly be described as being prolific at this point, but the calibre of the fish was more than making up for this – quality not quantity and all that. The area where the lake turns into the river (the boca) was where the most consistent sport was usually found in the past, as such, we headed on down, after a bit of a detour up a rather steep hill!
The boca region was quiet, very little activity. I had all but given up and on my final cast turned my back to the water and started wading back to the bank, stripping line as I did. I felt resistance, which I believe to be a rock as the line had swung into the shallows. The proverbial rock tugged back! And soon enough a silver torpedo exploded into the air. A good fish was on the line. This turned out to be a 8lbs steelhead!! And with my good friend Tom being a seasoned steelhead angler and Mark being more than well rehearsed with the species I was content in claiming my prize. A sea-trout and a steelhead from the same system, there can’t be many places that can be achieved?
The river turned out to be very quiet, almost devoid of life. We saw no fish whilst travelling up and down in the boat, sadly. Tom hooked and lost a nice sea-trout and I hooked into another fish, which could have been a brown-trout, which would have finished off my grand slam in style!
Sea-lions have been travelling up the river system for as long as I have been visiting the Azopardo, which is now several years. However, they now seem to be present in greater numbers and are now travelling all the way through to Argentina! A very worrying trend indeed, as they can soon decimate a fishery. Indeed, it would seem that they had almost all but killed off the resident population in the river, leaving a few stragglers. A very sad trend indeed, as I can assure you this system has huge potential and is a system I would rather fish than the Rio Grande.
Regardless of this, it was a fantastic day and day I will remember for a long time, as much of an adventure as anything else.
This is yet another string to the TDF-Lodge bow, and another system you can explore from the lodge should you wish to, at no additional cost. The chance of catching a Pacific sea-trout may be attraction enough, with the chance of a steelhead in the same session being an obvious draw. Think species variety and quality not quantity and you’re on the right track with the Azopardo and Lago Fagnano.
I had fished the Azopardo several times with great success, landing some really nice sea-trout along with brook-charr, brown-trout and rainbow-trout. There were also rumours of king salmon and I am certain that some of the fish I had caught in the past were steelhead. However, having never caught a steelhead with someone that caught correctly identify the sea-run version as opposed to the resident rainbows I was cautious about noting my catch.
The banks of the Azopardo are very difficult to walk along as they are covered in sphagnum moss, which is like walking in very soft sand as your feet sink in around a foot each time, making any journey rather arduous. However, this time Mark, the lodge manager at TDF-Lodge, was going to bring his jet-boat down to the river, so that we could access the largely unfished pools, which was hugely exciting. Mark got these boats made in Santiago, built on his own spec from Alaskan designs. These are the only jet-boats on the island. They also utilise them for some of the lakes where access is difficult or the walk to the good spots too long.
Back on the Rio Grande the weather was pleasant. A soft breeze and a light, overcast sky. The Azopardo is around 1hr 45mins South from the lodge when pulling a boat, and is in a totally different climate zone. The journey was fantastic, passing through the snow capped mountains. However, the weather soon turned and it rained for the best part of the day, sadly, which is hardly the best photographic weather.
We started off by fishing the lake itself, which is usually highly productive. A brook-charr was caught almost immediately, which set-up the day nicely. Some time passed but soon enough a rainbow of around 6lbs was landed, and what a magnificent fish that was. A little further on and a nice, fresh sea-trout of some 6lbs came to hand. Three species already! The fishing could hardly be described as being prolific at this point, but the calibre of the fish was more than making up for this – quality not quantity and all that. The area where the lake turns into the river (the boca) was where the most consistent sport was usually found in the past, as such, we headed on down, after a bit of a detour up a rather steep hill!
The boca region was quiet, very little activity. I had all but given up and on my final cast turned my back to the water and started wading back to the bank, stripping line as I did. I felt resistance, which I believe to be a rock as the line had swung into the shallows. The proverbial rock tugged back! And soon enough a silver torpedo exploded into the air. A good fish was on the line. This turned out to be a 8lbs steelhead!! And with my good friend Tom being a seasoned steelhead angler and Mark being more than well rehearsed with the species I was content in claiming my prize. A sea-trout and a steelhead from the same system, there can’t be many places that can be achieved?
The river turned out to be very quiet, almost devoid of life. We saw no fish whilst travelling up and down in the boat, sadly. Tom hooked and lost a nice sea-trout and I hooked into another fish, which could have been a brown-trout, which would have finished off my grand slam in style!
Sea-lions have been travelling up the river system for as long as I have been visiting the Azopardo, which is now several years. However, they now seem to be present in greater numbers and are now travelling all the way through to Argentina! A very worrying trend indeed, as they can soon decimate a fishery. Indeed, it would seem that they had almost all but killed off the resident population in the river, leaving a few stragglers. A very sad trend indeed, as I can assure you this system has huge potential and is a system I would rather fish than the Rio Grande.
Regardless of this, it was a fantastic day and day I will remember for a long time, as much of an adventure as anything else.
This is yet another string to the TDF-Lodge bow, and another system you can explore from the lodge should you wish to, at no additional cost. The chance of catching a Pacific sea-trout may be attraction enough, with the chance of a steelhead in the same session being an obvious draw. Think species variety and quality not quantity and you’re on the right track with the Azopardo and Lago Fagnano.
Comment