First season attempt at the Middle Limay

By Mario Capovía Del Cet
 

This river has been a common destiny for many fly fishing anglers since recent times. It can be regarded as the ¨door¨to trout fishing in the Patagonia region because it is located at only 1,100 kilometres away from Buenos Aires province, something which  makes it easy and fast to get there by car, specially if one has the chance to share a nice ¨mate¨ (a typical Argentinian beverage) with friends.

If your choice is to come by plane, you can do so by flying to Neuquen city and then rent a car or hire a tourist guide that will come to fetch you at the airport.
No matter how far or close Piedra Limay can be from Buenos Aires, this beautiful place has become one of the most popular destinies for triout anglers in this country.
In a previous visit to this place we fished in Pichi Picún Leufú Dam where rainbow trouts and triploids are so plentiful that they make  the anglers´ delight. On this occassion we could fish in the Middle Limay River, where rainbows and big browns are the main attraction at the beginning of the season,  not to mention the innumerables perches and the possibility to get a really big ¨pejerrey¨.
As it usually happens with  fishing in waters below a dam, this is ruled by the dam activity since the trout behaviour is modified according to whether the water is held or released. 
According to our host and guide, Mr. Daniel Ortega, who is an expert angler in these waters, the biggest concentration of trouts is produced when the dam releases water. This may be due to the fact that at that moment oxigenation gets higher and it pushes nymphs from among the stones. On the contrary, if this does not happen the fishing results are not so successful.

Although fishing here is usually done by fording, it is recommended to use a boat as it makes things easier for a wider and longer journey. With a boat it is possible to get each river bank easier and to get further from the area close to the dam which is the place under more pressure from of anglers.
When we arrived at our fishing spot, Daniel said that  as water was not being released, it was too shallow and that fishing was not going to be easy. We got a kilometer downstream from the dam and tried to get further and further but there was so little water that we had to go back as we thought that we wouldn´t be able to come back unless one of the dams was opened. As a result we had to accept the fact that we were restricted to fishing only in the first part of the river.
It is convenient to take into account that navigation is not easy here, on the contrary,  it is dangerous due to the precence of stone banks in the depth of the river. These stone sometimes appear on the surface of the water making things a bit difficult.

Fording is simple as there are not big stones to block our way but at the same time it is a bit difficult because these stones are sometimes a bit bigger than expected and oblige us to articulate our ankles.  Here the use of a foding stick should be convenient. Also the constant and strong wind (of course, there are exeptions) demands the use of very fast fishing rods.
Using fast sinking shootings with the thinnest possible amnesia lets us do long castings, which are essential to locate our flies in the small canals that are always far away from the place from where casting is done.
All this should be taken into account when fishing with streamers, but the use of floating lines and dry fly is also possible as caddis hatchings are common (one of the captures was done with a dry fly).

And, as Daniel Ortega had forecasted, the result of four-hour fishing was poor. We got only three trouts and about six perches, plus some failed strikes.
However, it is widely known that the success of a fishing day is always unpredictable. It depends on the time, place, temperature, situation of the waters and not only of the guide´s  experience but also the angler´s.  If one of these things fails, in this case, the small amount of water, most probably the result will be poor.  

Services:

Restaurant and Hotel Chamonix
Hotel - Parrilla - Restaurant
Roca Nº 77/79 - David Zapata Nº 133
Piedra del Aguila - Prov. de Neuquén - Patagonia Argentina
Telephone/Fax (02942) 493162 -
E-mail chamonix@paguila.com 

Restaurante and Fishing Organizer La Posta
Route  237 Piedra del Águila.
Telephone 011-54-02942-493507.
E-mail:  laposta@argentina.com 

Fishing Guide Daniel Ortega
National Route 237 Km. 1446. YPF Petrol Station.
Telephone number: 011-54-02942-493100
E-mail: daopesca@infovia.com.ar
Web-site: www.daopesca.unlugar.com 

Piedra del Águila Hotel
National Route 237 and  Primeros Pobladores
Telephone: 011-54-02942-493306
E-mail: michelangelo@paguila.com