This year, my annual trip to Patagonia promised to blend the old and familiar with new and exciting. For two weeks I would travel and fish with my friends in Argentina, exploring new water from Limay River Lodge, and enjoying the familiar comfort and excellent fishing provided by the Olsen Family at San Huberto Lodge.
Afterwards, most of the group would (sadly) leave for home while my good friend, Mark, and I, journeyed overland to Chile, where we would stay and fish for another week from Martin Pescador.
PART TWO – SAN HUBERTO LODGE
Within the boundaries of the Olsen family ranch, San Huberto has access to over twenty miles of the Malleo River, and several more of an extraordinary spring creek. The Malleo and its tributary, the Huaca Mamuil provide countless opportunities for the wading fisherman to stalk and catch rainbow and brown trout up to twenty-four inches on dry flies and nymphs.
Guests staying at San Huberto also enjoy private access to a high mountain lake, on the Chilean frontier. Lago Tromen, which is the source of the Malleo River, is comfortably fished from boats with floating lines and dry flies. Fishermen target the rainbow, brown, and brook trout that cruise the shaded and rocky shorelines in search of aquatic insects and terrestrials.
Given favorable conditions, fishermen also have the opportunity to float and fish on a very remote stretch of the larger Alumine River. These floats can be managed as day trips, returning to the lodge in the evening, or a very comfortable over-night camp can be utilized to experience a night on the river, under a star-filled sky.
I have fished, guided, and hosted friends at San Huberto for over three decades. Every year Lisa and I depart believing that the experienced couldn’t possibly be better… and yet, the next season always reveals new improvements. The Olsen family and their staff are uncompromising in their pursuit of excellence, and continue to refine and improve every aspect of what they offer. The food, the accommodations, the fishing program, and the incredibly high level of service at San Huberto have to be experienced to be believed.
In May of 2016, we plan to offer a second hosted trip to San Huberto, in which just four guests will have the entire lodge and nearly 40,000 acres to themselves. The cool autumn mornings will be spent hunting wild California quail over pointing dogs. Afternoons will be occupied fishing for trout during the river’s legendary hatch of blue-winged olives, and the evenings will be filled by sampling and learning about Argentina’s very finest wines, presented by some its best-known vintners. Pair all of this with a couple days of dove and pigeon shooting at San Huberto’s sister lodge, Inti Malal, which is located in the northern province of Tucumon, and it’s a perfect week!
