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Villa María Lodge – End of Season Report
2022 has been a very special and delightful season. Since 2020 COVID halted the world, we were not able to open for the 2021 season and after a long and endless wait, we were able to reopen this year!
We did enjoy a season with full satisfaction, welcoming old-time friends that were waiting to come back and new guests that we hope to see in the upcoming seasons. What a great feeling is to be back in the river, catch these fantastic fish, and as a bonus, enjoy a sip of single malt by the riverside among good jokes and nice memories.
Fishing wise the season was pretty good but challenging at the same time. We started with a good level of water but by no means the river was huge and fast. From day 1 it was possible to wade across it to fish from the other bank and it was clear and with a beautiful current speed. Several pools felt deeper (or cleaner from structures) than in previous seasons, probably due to the big flood caused by snowmelt and rain in the 2020 spring as the 2021 spring was dry after a particularly dry winter. This perceived extra depth did let us fish with fairly heavy and long sink tips; 12ft of T14. For most of the season, it was probably the go-to tip to approach most of the pools and then we were fine-tuning according to the fishing and weather conditions. One of the things that surprised us the most was that we were able to fish streamers for a good part of the season, including moments when common sense was telling us to use lighter and smaller flies but the fish were happily taking bigger and more aggressive flies, even under harsh sunlight. Of course, this ended once the river reached the lowest level of the season but was fun and nice to have the chance to fish the good old swing for several weeks.
The fishing was great from the very beginning all the way through late February when we started to have some showers into the river’s valley (and its tributaries) and some early snow in the mountains. All this started to bring the river up and down, sometimes a couple of times a week. All these constant changes make finding the fish a little tricky as they start moving fast upstream because that’s their best chance to get as far as they can into the system. Also, the water gets higher, colder, and faster and that makes the casting and the wading more difficult. On top of that, add heavier lines and big flies and the combo gets really challenging.
But we can say it was a very satisfying season and we are already looking forward to starting all over in 2023!
I want to thank especially all the Villa Maria staff whose hard work made everything possible and easy. Claudio, Sandra, Itatí, Fernando, Agustin, and Nico did a fantastic job keeping the lodge running smoothly and spot-on. And of course to my colleagues: Maurizio, Agustin, and Alejandro that helped me to run all the fishing and help our guests by the riverside making my job a lot easier.
See you all in 2023!
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Villa María Lodge – Week 12: March 20th to 27th, 2022
This was the last week of our fishing season and definitely the most challenging of all in 2022.
On the first day, we found the river was high and brown due to the different showers we had in the previous week plus the melting of the first snowfall on the Andes. So for a couple of days, we had to fish primarily in the pools where the beach is on Villa Maria’s side as it was risky and almost impossible to cross over the river.
These water conditions led us to fish with different setups than the ones we used throughout the season. The big rods came out of the tubes and those nice 14’ rods replaced the single-handed and switch rods that we used most of the time with low water.
These 14-footers were matched with different types of lines like floating skagit, FLT/H/Intermediate sinking rate skagits, and full fast sinking scandi shooting heads. We can say that the sinking skagit was the most successful and it is a line that has a good balance between “castability” and fishing. We matched it with different T-tips depending on the clarity, level, and speed of the water. At the beginning of the fishing week, the best way to pair the sinking skagit with 12-15ft of T17, and by the end of the week, as the river dropped approx. 30cm and the water clarity improved greatly, we used lighter sinking tips all the way down to T8. These lighter tips make casting and presenting the fly a much easier process.
When we had to choose flies, we had to apply the same line of reasoning used to choose rod/line setups. With muddy and fast water it was a must to find high-visibility patterns. Colorful and with a good profile. Usually, sea trout patterns are not this big but being creative helped a lot. Staking tube flies is the best recipe to achieve the color and silhouette requirements. An example of this is combining a bright green tube in front of a black flashy intruder. With this all the boxes are checked and being feather-tied patterns, they cast relatively easier than a rabbit-based pattern.
As the water dropped and got clearer, we were reducing the size of the pattern and by the end of the week, Tracey was catching her best sea trout -which reached 19 lbs- with a normal chartreuse leech and Will caught a beautiful 18lbs cock fish on a more traditional rubber-legged fly.
The whole group of anglers, all first-timers at Villa Maria Lodge, did great work in very demanding conditions. The rest of the guides and me want to thank them for their patience and for following our wildest recommendations in the quest of catching that dream fish in less-than-ideal conditions!
For current updates from the river, be sure to follow our social media accounts (@villamarialodge and @nervous_waters).
By Alejandro Martello – Villa María Lodge Fishing Manager
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Villa María Lodge – Week 10: March 6th to 13th, 2022
The 10th week of the 2022 season started with higher and more colored water. It was not a surprise as we were expecting some changes due to the rain, we had the prior week all along the Rio Grande valley and its headwaters. The bump in the level was quite substantial but we have to remember that the river was really low so it remained crossable (with care and knowing where to try) and it wasn’t out of bounds. The visibility was seriously compromised for a day or two, especially the last day of the fishing week when it started to carry an important number of debris, feathers, grass, and algae.
We received a group of Villa Maria old-timers, from Switzerland, the heart of Europe. With some of them, like Hugo, Uli and Thomas we met like 15 years ago in the old & beautiful Toon Ken Lodge. It’s great to sip a fine Islay’s single malt while remembering good stories of old fishing adventures together. Mike and Duff integrated the rest of the party and they added their share of fun!
According to the conditions we had to change and adapt the fishing setups. Single-handed rods and floating lines were put to a side and the big boys came into play. Big rods between 13 & 14 feet were the best option to deliver heavier lines and a big arrange of flies. Skagit lines (both in floating and sinking versions) were matched with long (12 to 15ft) and heavy sink tips to present the flies as deep as possible in a faster and murkier river.
The flies used were changing throughout the week. Started with big colorful and big silhouette streamers but along the week the water dropped and cleared to the point that we caught fish on green machines. But by the end of the week, the river colored again and we had to return to the big streamers.
The week ended with the river with a substantial color in it but still in a good shape and speed in most of the pools. We will wait for the next week which looks promising but always keep an eye on the forecast as rain is still present in it. Autumn is here and the chance of a big cock fish is present in every cast!
For current updates from the river, be sure to follow our social media accounts (@villamarialodge and @nervous_waters).
By Alejandro Martello – Villa María Lodge Fishing Manager
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Villa María Lodge – Week 9: February 27th to March 6th, 2022
As expected last week, this week the autumn showers appeared and changed slightly the scenario. By mid-week, we had and slight raise in the water but it stayed clean with very little debris floating in the water column the same day we had a powerful overnight rain and that water will probably show up at the beginning of the next fishing week.
Aside from that, the weather remained calm and friendly, with mild temperatures and soft winds. So with these fishing conditions and in line with last week’s conditions, we were able to try a big number of techniques. And again, single-hand rods rigged with floating lines and tiny nymphs were as effective as more traditional setups when they were fished correctly and in the right spot.
Of course, we did use more traditional systems with sinking tips ranging from 10 to 15 feet in length with sinking rates from a classic Sink 3 to the heavier T lines, like T11 in a range of 10 to 12 ft. depending on the pool, speed of the water and size/weight of the fly.
There are no big surprises in the flies used. nymphs, rubber legs, and green machines were the first options due to the water level, clarity, and mild weather.
The highlight of the week was the performance of Eric and Douglas, which made their first visit to the Rio Grande and they got their biggest trouts even with several fish in the range of 16 to 21 lbs. Congratulations guys! We hope to see you next season.
Probably next week we will see some changes in the river level and water clarity and the game will be different.
Largest fish of the week: 21 lbs.
Total Average Weight: 10,75 lbs.
For current updates from the river, be sure to follow our social media accounts (@villamarialodge and @nervous_waters).
By Alejandro Martello – Villa María Lodge Fishing Manager
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Villa María Lodge – Week 8: February 20th to 27th, 2022
The 8th week of 2022 Season at Villa Maria Lodge was a little different from the others. Not because of the fishing, which was great in fact, but some of our friends couldn’t arrive due to Covid related issues leaving the house half full.
Another major difference with prior weeks was the weather. Coming from a week that topped 130km/h wind gusts, having a full fishing week of pleasant weather was very welcome for both the fishermen and the guides who had been being challenged since the beginning of the season.
With this calm weather and the river with low water, we had to go as fine as we could to induce the fish to take the flies. That opened the chance to try almost everything we had in the box having takes with almost every technique used, but dry or skated flies. Single-hand rods rigged with floating lines and tiny nymphs were as effective as more traditional setups when they were used in the right spot.
Aside from the use of light setups, we did use more traditional systems (for Rio grande fishing) like sinking tips ranging 10 to 15 feet in length with sinking rates from a classic Sink 3 (3 inches per second) to the most modern T lines, especially T11 in a range of 10 to 12 ft. depending on the pool, speed of the water and size/weight of the fly. Another substitution we made was to change the ever-ready Skaggit lines for the more subtle and lighter Scandi lines.
March is around the corner and autumn weather is about to come. Probably next week we will see some scattered rains and, hopefully, some of that water will reach the river system and raise its level of it, speeding up the pools and waking up some of the lurkers that are hiding in deep and dark stretches.
Largest fish of the week: 21 lbs.
Total Average Weight: 10,75 lbs.
For current updates from the river, be sure to follow our social media accounts (@villamarialodge and @nervous_waters).
By Alejandro Martello – Villa María Lodge Fishing Manager
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Villa María Lodge – Week 7: February 11th to 18th, 2022
Another week went through at Villa Maria with the lodge full of old friends of the house. A great week, full of stories and memories from decades of visiting the Rio Grande.
Weather-wise we were punished by the wind as it did set a new season record when last Sunday it reached an incredible 130km/h speed (80 mph), turning that day almost unfishable as the waves and the gusts made it difficult to get in the river even in shallow stretches. We had a couple of days with 90km/h winds but compared to that Sunday, they felt kind of pleasant.
Those windy conditions influenced the water condition as the intense wind and big waves stirred muddy banks and lifted a great number of sediments causing cloudiness and reducing drastically the visibility in it. We have to add to the mix a 10-15cm raise in the water due to early snow in the headwaters that along the week melted fast. This pulse of water went through very fast and within a day the river raised and dropped again to its level.
With all that taken into account, we had to make obvious choices in regard to the fishing setups. Long and heavy sink tips, short and thicker than usual leaders, and leeches were the go-to rigs to fish every pool. When the conditions get that extreme we choose to use high-visibility flies and you can choose between big silhouette flies (like intruders) and/or smaller colorful patterns (like leeches). Chartreuse, orange, black, purple, or pink, or combinations of them, are colors that become obvious to use when you step into a brown-colored river. Its also commendable to use weighted patterns, either with dumbbell eyes or cone-heads as they usually fly better into the wind and break the surface faster to reach the desired depth, especially in these extreme conditions where you cast and fish “as you can” and not “as you want”.
Even with these conditions, the fishing was fine with days averaging up to 13.7 lbs per fish. One of the highlights of the week belonged to Bob S., who, at his 84 years of life, caught the biggest of the week (21lbs) following his long-time tradition. Bob is on the Wall of Fame of both Villa Maria and Kau Tapen Lodge for catching the biggest fish of the season. Kudos Bob!
As stated before, most of the time we choose sinking tips ranging 10 to 15 feet in length with sinking rates from a classic Sink 6 (6 inches per second) to the most modern T lines, especially T11 and T14 but these tips, as they have a higher sinking rate, were shorter in a range of 10 to 12 ft. depending on the pool, speed of the water and size/weight of the fly.
Weather forecasts state that in the upcoming weeks, we won’t have strong winds anymore but some showers, low temperatures, and east wind will show up. Probably that would be the beginning of the autumn weather.
Largest fish of the week: 21 lbs.
For current updates from the river, be sure to follow our social media accounts (@villamarialodge and @nervous_waters).
By Alejandro Martello – Villa María Lodge Fishing Manager
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Villa María Lodge – Week 6: February 4th to 11th, 2022
In our Midseason week, the weather presented stable and predictable and very similar to the previous week. No rain, a day or two of hard winds but warm and pleasant evenings.
The river remained at the same level as the week before with no significant changes in temperature or clarity. We have to remember that the week before the river dropped 30cm.
With these stable conditions, the fishing was nothing but superlative and we closed the fishing week with the highest number of catches of the season (so far) with a whooping 110 fish landed. And it was not just good in the number of fish landed but also in the size. 5 out of the 6 guests got a 20+ fish and the 6th-rod fell once short with 19.5lbs a highlight was during the last session of the last day when Sandy landed a fantastic 25+lbs fresh cock fish hanging from a stone fly nymph.
The fishing setup was almost unchanged from last week. So, small nymphs and rubber legs, and long leaders were the best choices. Of course, the leeches remained used successfully, especially on the windy days and late evenings.
Single-handed rods and switch double-handed saw a lot of action again as shorter and well-presented casts were mandatory to succeed.
Looking forward to the upcoming week being as good as this one!
Largest fish of the week: 25lbs
Fish over 15lbs: 32
For current updates from the river, be sure to follow our social media accounts (@villamarialodge and @nervous_waters).
By Alejandro Martello – Villa María Lodge Fishing Manager
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Villa María Lodge – Week 5: January 28th to Feb 4th, 2022
Another successful week is over at Villa María Lodge and we had the pleasure to receive some old house friends and a couple of newcomers.
The weather was a typical midsummer week in the Rio Grande and that means dry, with days of hard winds (we had a day of 90km/h+ West wind) but usually warmer than the prior weeks and with some days of really calm wind and breathtaking sunsets.
The major change this week came from the river. In a week its level dropped around 30cm with really clear water. This was the biggest change we have seen from the river in the whole season and we had to act according to it.
Of course, in this kind of situation, the steps to do are: reduce the size of the flies, lift those heavy sinking tips and change them for light ones, be extremely quiet wading into fish and choose casting techniques that are the least aggressive noise-wise.
With all this put together, we changed leeches for nymphs and T14 tips for full floaters or slow sinkers. So, small nymphs and rubber legs, and long leaders were the best solutions. Of course, the leeches remained used successfully, especially on those windy days and late evenings.
Single-handed rods and switch double-handed started to be used more often in these conditions as the casts are much shorter than 2 weeks ago and the presentation and stealthiness of the casts were a priority on those calm and sunny days.
Among all the great guests we have last week, we want to mention to Alan S. that with his 86 years of life decided to visit us for the first time, dealing with the conditions, accepted our suggestions, and ended the week with a beautiful 15lbs spanking fresh sea trout in his last session of the week.
Let’s hope the upcoming weeks are as good as this one!
Largest fish of the week: 21lbs
Fish over 15lbs: 28
For current updates from the river, be sure to follow our social media accounts (@villamarialodge and @nervous_waters).
By Alejandro Martello – Villa María Lodge Fishing Manager
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Villa María Lodge – Week 4: January 21st to 28th, 2022
As we saw progress in the last couple of weeks, the river is looking in prime condition, a very comfortable level for fishing, and the clarity is about as clear as it gets. The water level has continued to drop throughout the week making the fishing even more enjoyable as wading became super easy and casting can be short and precise. The weather experienced during the week was interesting, to say the least, with relatively cool temperatures to start the week and unusually warm days on the last 2 days of the week. This caused water temperatures to be pretty unstable. It is common that the Rio Grande, as a relatively shallow stream to be colder overnight and warm up all the way to 4 pm to start losing temperature again, but this past week the difference between highest and lowest was more notorious. We recorded 8 degrees Celsius at its coldest and 18 degrees Celsius at its warmest. According to that, you have to be pretty careful to choose the line+fly combination
The usual Tierra Del Fuego westerly blew for the most part of the week with winds blowing more from the north or East on occasions. The wind from the East brought along some scattered rain showers that passed quickly over us.
The clear water and dropping water level conditions were not a barrier to use bigger than usual -for this time of the year- flies. According to the conditions we should have been using a wide variety of nymphs, rubber-legged patterns, and/or green machines as the prime choices but, as pointed out, we were surprised that the fish kept taking happily larger patterns like articulated leeches even under sunny conditions which made things in a big part much easier for the guides.
Line-wise, the choice remained tied to the combo of pool depth+water temp+sun brightness so there was not a standard recipe. Usually starting with a short and slow sinking tip is the best call and according to the fish’s reaction (or lack of it), you can choose heavier tips on each pass.
The run of fish looks like it has started to be more solid and predictable and the speed of the fish running upstream seems to be still fast. This makes every session to be completely different than the one before and tricky as there was not a handful of places to find the fish but every pool was showing great activity if you were lucky enough to find the school of running fish going through it. So the best strategy to be successful was to stay restless and put a fly in almost every pool or lie you found.
This is just starting and everything is getting better week after week!
Largest fish of the week: 19lbs
For current updates from the river, be sure to follow our social media accounts (@villamarialodge and @nervous_waters).
By Alejandro Martello – Villa María Lodge Fishing Manager
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Villa María Lodge – Week 3: January 14th to 21st, 2022
If I defined the previous week as “extreme”, our third week would easily fit the adjective challenging. Why? Because throughout the week the weather changes were restless and we had the most varied conditions. We started the week with a thick rain that came with a strong East (upstream) wind. A couple of days later that precipitation arrived at our stretch of the river and it raised approx. 20cm, compromising the clarity of the water to the level that by the end of that day, the visibility was not more than 30cm.
The day after it started to drop and clear up and that process came together with the typical strong west (downstream) wind. By the end of the week, the water level and clarity were back to the starting point but its main change was its temperature. By the beginning of the week, the water was around 7-8 Celsius and on Thursday evening it was 18 Celsius.
You can imagine that with a scenario of daily changing winds (we also had full days of south and north wind!) and compromised water conditions, the fishing tactics were changing constantly as not every pool was fishable and one day you were swinging a green machine and the day after we were combining tube flies to get proper weight, good silhouette, nice profile, and contrasty color combinations.
We received fishermen coming from South Africa and Norway in a mixed bag of Rio Grande rookies and longtime friends, like Didrik with whom I had the pleasure to share fishing weeks both in the Rio Grande and in Iceland.
I would like a special mention for Calix and Morten as on their first tour to the river they destroyed their personal records for sea trouts and topped the scales with fish of 20 & 19 pounds. Congratulations guys!
The most chosen line to use, again, was of skaggit type as we were in the need to deliver the usual 10-12ft of sinking tips and big bushy flies into winds coming from uncomfortable angles. Scandi lines had their place also, especially when needing better presentations and quick depth was not the maximum goal.
As the water conditions were ever-changing, we preferred to fish big flies which will provide the volume and silhouette desired in murky conditions. Of course, the preferences were changing as the water was going from clear to brown to clear again. Articulated leeches, intruders, snaeldas, collie dogs, and a big variety of tube flies caught fish every day. The combination of bright and dark colors was the most productive -my favorite combination for murky water- of black & yellow patterns.
Next week we should have some showers but the weather will set back to “normal” so smaller patterns will be the norm once again.
Largest fish of the week, 20 lbs.
Fish over 15 lbs: 9
For current updates from the river, be sure to follow our social media accounts (@kautapenlodge and @nervous_waters).
By Alejandro Martello – Villa María Lodge Fishing Manager
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Villa María Lodge – Week 2: January 7th to 14th, 2022
If we have to define our 2022 season’s second week would be “extreme”. And that is because of the 6 fishing days, 4 of them were extremely windy with winds between 80 to 105km/h (50 to 65 miles/hour) making the wading and casting a very demanding task. That’s why, first of all, the guides and I would like to thank Ian, James, Tim, and Jan for their great effort and patience in following our suggestions.
The river kept dropping slightly and the water was very clear but due to the strong winds, the water was losing visibility. If on top of that, you add unusually low temperatures (3 Celsius degrees at 10 pm) while the rest of the country was melting down in the biggest heatwave of the decade. All of that pushed us to use bigger-than-normal flies for these water conditions.
The good news is that fresh fish are running solidly and we had a very satisfying week as everyone in the group got a fish of 17 pounds or bigger, so both guides and fishermen were happy with the outcome despite the weather.
Again, the most successful setup included skaggit lines complemented with heavy sink tips (10-12ft usually).
Articulated leeches, medium-weighted were the most used flies during the windy days but we have to reduce drastically the size of the flies in the moments when the wind decreased and the suspended sediments in the water were precipitating. In those moments we were going back to small rubber-legged patterns and -the always trustworthy- green machine.
It’s nice to see a good number of fresh fish running every day. Really looking forward to the rest of the season with a lot of good fishing to be done.
Largest fish of the week, 20 lbs.
Fish over 15 lbs: 14
For current updates from the river, be sure to follow our social media accounts (@kautapenlodge and @nervous_waters).
By Alejandro Martello – Villa María Lodge Fishing Manager
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Week 1: December 31st to January 7th, 2022
Welcome to Villa María Lodge 2022 season!
We are totally delighted to be back in the river after this well-known pandemic that halted the world for so long and made us skip the 2021 season.
In our opening week, we did welcome a mixed group of fishermen. Stephan, Alex, and Anton were on their second tour at Villa Maria, and Joerg, Gusti, Kasey, and MC were visiting us for the first time.
We are starting with normal conditions for January here, which means dry and windy. The water level is fine and all the pools fish well with nice swings and good speed but definitely on the low side for the time of the season. But the river looks in a good shape and without many notorious structural changes.
The wind and air temperature were major players this week. Almost every day we had gusts reaching 70 km/h, making fishing some spots very difficult and demanding. But by adjusting the tackle, and technique, and choosing the fishing spots according to the conditions everybody was able to enjoy the fishing and catch some gorgeous fish!
All the newcomers achieved great success and all of them caught fish in the 15-25+lbs range!! Kasey and MC deserve a special mention as in their first fishing experience at Rio Grande, each of them landed a couple of fish over 20lbs, and Kasey landing a fantastic 28lbs cock fish. Kudos guys!
Aside from those personal records, several double-figured fish were caught, all super silver, super fresh, and with unbelievable power and explosive fights. Water clarity was excellent aside from a couple of extra windy days when it was compromised due to sediments being stirred up from shallow banks. A brief but powerful rain in the headwaters rose the river’s level by 4 inches overnight but, surprisingly, the water remained clear.
Having all these factors into account, the most successful setup included good skaggit lines, medium to heavy sink tips (10-12ft usually), and long leaders. No big surprises with the flies used, but we fished flies bigger than usual mainly because the water was below 10C most of the days. So leeches were the usual choices but by the end of the week more usual “low water flies” started to kick in living the leeches just for low light moments.
We are very enthusiastic about the upcoming season with this fantastic opening week we just had.
Largest fish of the week, 28 lbs.
Fish over 15 lbs: 13
For current updates from the river, be sure to follow our social media accounts (@kautapenlodge and @nervous_waters).
By Alejandro Martello – Villa María Lodge Fishing Manager
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