La semana de Los Frances part Deux

On February 13th, our crazy and fun-loving French friends invaded the Inn of the Brown Trout for another season of Patagonian adventure, this time for nine days.  Out of the group of six, four were part of the original group and two were new faces.  They arrived the first night, duty-free bags in tow, and as dinner stretched late fueled by wine, conversation, and excitement, I knew we were in for a good week.

As I reported before, the El Nino has been wreaking havoc on the Patagonian Coast and one low pressure after another has lined up to deliver us rain, clouds, wind, and even some snow.  But our French brethren brought the sun and we were able to show them a killer week.

Here are some highlights.

One of many bluebird floats on the upper river.  Where the sun, bugs, and calm created some of the best dry fly of the season.

  

And allowed us to go on a killer overnight float to our beautiful camp, right next  the best evening dry fly stretch on the river.

photo: Rex Bryngelson

On the way to the upper river there is an overlook,  at which we always stop and take pictures.  Here are some of the crew checking it out on a beautiful morning.

photo: Rex Bryngelson

While on the upper river there is a big rock formation that we call the Moi, due to its likeness to the famous statues of Easter Island.  Since the weather was crazy and the fishing was good, all floats past the Moi seemed extra beautiful this week and he loomed over the trip like a mascot.

photo: Rex Bryngelson

Gerard was the unofficial spiritual leader of the group.  So, here he is finding his peace on in front of the spiritual leader of the Cisnes.

  

Due to the high water this year, we haven’t been able to do the float on our lower river.  It is a phenomenal float with some truly unbelievable scenery.  With the dry weather that accompanied the Frenchmen we were able to get after it.

  

photo: Rex Bryngelson

The only issues with the float, however, are the takeout

and the shuttle.

On the last day we took a crew of the guys up to a lake that we don’t get to fish that often.  It was a great treat for all and was super beautiful.

photo: Rex Bryngelson

There was a minor mistake involving a changed lock on the gate while we were still fishing.  Not really out of the ordinary for Patagonia and it ended up costing us only about twenty minutes and we were able to check out this sweet sunset.

Oh yeah.  We also caught some nice fish.

  

Chao. 

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