From an American in Patagonia,

First, I should start out talking about fishing. After all, El Palenque is a flyfighing ranch.

I can't describe my experience here other than to say it was the best fishing and travel experience of my life . The fish can hit dries almost at anytime of the day anywhere on the ranch. More importantly, they hit them hard! These fish are wild,…..very wild. I doubt most trout I caught have ever seen a hook before. They are beautiful and healthy. They look like footballs. Any size fights like mad. One 20 inch rainbow came out of the water fouteen times and was still struggling so hard I could hardly get it out of the net! You can catch rainbows and browns and an occasional brook trout. Of course I never caught but I could also see three foot Pacific Chinook salmon swimming by in the deep pools. They really caught me by surprise. You can catch one minute a small rainbow trout and the next the biggest brown you will ever catch in your life.

There is no place on the river you don't want to fish. It is incredible. Every hundred feet you need to develop a new strategy. You never get bored. You have deep pools, ripples, runs, undercut banks, overhanging willows, small creeks and wide rivers and meandering spring creeks and also some marshy lagunas. Oh, on that note…..I fished my guts out and did not see another fisherman all week long. (Actually I take that back, I saw some kids that stole on to the ranch and were trying to hook a big salmon with a huge barb hook. They had a string wound around a tin can and would throw the hook out over the big salmon and then try and drag hook them as the pulled the line in quickly. I quietly watched this for a while but never saw them catch one. They must at some time, otherwise, how could they remain so persistent? I assume the salmon eggs and flesh of the decaying salmon make for good trout food.)

I would look up at the snowcapped mountains that surround the whole valley and I could see condors miles high in the sky and ducks skimming the water and all sorts of other strange birds I have never seen before.

The wind blows here. It tested my casting ability at times. When the wind stops you rush out to tackle some hard to cast to spots. You mostly wade. Some places are easy to wade, other spots test my baby-boomer legs. The guides helped me stay afloat and put me in to some great fish. I know I hooked (and lost) the biggest rainbow I have seen……or maybe it was a baby salmon?

You also have a tremendous non-fishing experience. This is an actually working Argentine estancia with cattle and gouchos (or cowboys) that look like they were frozen in time from a hundred years ago. The place is huge. I never realized what 50,000 acres are. From the valley we only see half the ranch and it is big.