DOA

Ten or so years ago, my friend Sophia Heinonen mentioned a problem at a couple of small lakes in Argentine Patagonia. As the head of Tompkins Conservation at the time, Sophia was well-connected to wildlife biologists, and one told her someone had put some rainbow trout in lakes on the Meseta del Lago Buenos Aires, in the Santa Cruz province, and they were eating endangered hooded grebe chicks. These lakes are shallow and very alkaline, and they grow massive amounts of shrimp, scuds, mussels and, more recently, trout large enough to dine on baby birds. I told Sophia that I’d be happy to help with the problem and put this information in the part of my brain reserved for future adventures.

I’ve been going to Patagonia regularly since 1968. After seeing a photo of Mount Fitz Roy in Lionel Terray’s book Conquistadors of the Useless, a few of us “fun hogs” took off two weeks later in an old Ford van to go climb it. After 60 days of horrific weather, 31 of which we lived in a dank ice cave, we summited. Along the way, we fell in love with the land, the culture and the fish of that windswept region. One day on a small stream near Bariloche, I caught two 10-pound rainbows on a Fenwick glass rod and a white marabou streamer. It remains a strong memory; I’d beaten my personal best trout by 8 pounds.

I’d hung on that vision of the bird-eating rainbows until this past February. The hopeless state of the natural world, the endless wars, and the unravelling of human societies at the hands of fascist politicians was really getting me down. It was time to head south to my querencia for a refresh.

Subscribe for access to this article plus the entire archive of The Flyfish Journal content—and receive a discount on all products. Subscribe Now