THE ANGLING REPORT January 2009 Vol. 22, No. 1

“SERVING THE ANGLER WHO TRAVELS”

A MONTHLY NEWSLETTER

SUPPORT OURCORPORATE SPONSORS

IN THIS ISSUECuba

Will The New AdministrationLift The Ban On Travel?

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ChileChaiten Volcano Update:Lago Yelcho Fishery Ok

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Subscriber-Written ReportsNewfoundland, Alaska, Arkansas.

Plus, An Update On Hoodoo LodgePAGES 12 - 16

Special ReportOur Tipping Survey Is Finished!Copies Are Ready For Mailing

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LouisianaThe “Real Skinny” OnThree Redfish Guides

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Special ReportAre Modern Pirates A

Threat To Motherships?PAGES 8 - 10

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DATELINE: ARGENTINA

FREE Fishing ReportAn On-Site Report OnThe Juramento River

(Editor Note: When we offered Online Extrasubscriber Bob Tyrrell the chance to gofishing FREE on the Juramento River innorthwest Argentina, his assignment waspretty straightforward – namely, get to thebottom of all the talk about this river beingthe next great place to take golden dorado.Does this smallish tailwater indeed offerheart-stopping action on big fish? Or is theriver, as critics maintain, so temperamentalit will never emerge as a major fishery? Well,read on and find out what Tyrrell experiencedthere, thanks to the generous offer of a com-pany called Andes Outfitters, which alsotook him fishing farther south aroundBariloche where it is building a new lodge.See box on page 6 for more information onour FREE Fishing Program. Enjoy!)

he South American fly fish-ing company, Andes Outfit-ters (786-266-5068; www.

andesoutfitters.com), offers fly fish-ing trips for trout and golden doradoin Argentina. Thanks to The AnglingReport’s FREE Fishing program, Ispent a week this past November sam-

pling both fishing experiences. As anative British Columbian, I’ve fishedtrout for more years than I care to ad-mit to, but golden dorado would be anew and, I hoped, exciting adventure.Andes Outfit ters owner MartinCarranza suggested I start off withthree days on the Juramento Rivernear Salta fishing for golden doradoand then fly down to the area around

San Martin de los Andes in northernPatagonia to fish trout for the rest ofthe week. This sounded good to me.

I arrived in Buenos Aires late Fri-day afternoon after the long flight viaVancouver, Toronto, and Santiago,Chile. I checked into my hotel, got alate dinner and hit the rack early as Ihad a 7:00 am flight. After that two-

hour flight Saturday morning I wasmet at the airport in Salta by Alex,Martin’s manager for the dorado op-eration, and driven two hours southand east to his home in a small vil-lage near the river.

Andes Outfitters does not operatea lodge for the golden dorado fisheryon the Juramento. Instead, I was putup in a small hotel in the town of J. V.Gonzalez, 20 minutes from Alex’shome. The room was clean, quiet andperfectly adequate for my needs. Al-though no one I ran into in townspoke English and my Spanish is lim-ited to not much more than buenosdias and dos cervezas, por favor, Ifound the people of Argentina unfail-ingly friendly and helpful. Essentialcommunication always worked out. Itook my meals in a restaurant just upthe street (run by the family whoowns the hotel), and the food was ex-cellent. Argentina is, of course,known for its beef, and I have to saythat I had one of the best steaks I’vehad in my life in that little restaurant.

But, back to the fishing. The Jura-mento, a tailwater born below ElTunal Dam in northwest Argentina, isa relatively small river (50 to 150 feetwide) compared to many dorado riv-ers in Argentina. Andes Outfitters islicensed to float the river from justbelow the dam for some 50 milesdownstream. During my visit, the wa-ter was high and quite muddy (tea-colored) and the flow fast and steady.The river traverses a broad, relativelyflat plateau region and the drop in el-evation is steady but gradual; therewere no rapids in the three sections Idrifted.

Fishing is from 14-foot inflatablerafts with rowing frames and castingseats fore and aft. Anglers cast verylarge, brightly colored streamer flies(they reminded me of a cross between

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-2-January 2009 Volume 22, Number 1

THE ANGLING REPORT

THE ANGLING REPORTPRESIDENT/PUBLISHER

Don Causey

MANAGING EDITORTim Jones

MARKETING MANAGEREdi Bell-Suffoletto

INFO. SYSTEMS MANAGERNicholas Titus

EXECUTIVE ASSISTANTTracy Sanchez

ILLUSTRATIONSGordon Allen

The Angling Report (ISSN: 1045-3539) is publishedmonthly by Oxpecker Enterprises, Inc., 9200 S.Dadeland Blvd., Suite 523, Miami, Fl. 33156-2713.Periodicals Postage Paid at Miami, FL, and at addi-tional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send addresschanges to The Angling Report, 9200 S. DADELANDBLVD STE 523, MIAMI FL 33156-2713. The An-gling Report is not a booking agent, nor is it affili-ated with a booking agent, outfitter or guide.

How can we help you?New Subscriptions: A one-year subscription costs$49. Add $11 per year in Canada/Mexico. $29 over-seas. Visa/MC/Amex ok. Contact us on the web(www.anglingreport.com), by phone (305-670-1361), by fax (305-670-1376), by e-mail (mail@ an-gling report.com), or by regular mail (The AnglingReport, 9200 S. Dadeland Blvd., Suite 523, Miami,FL 33156-2713).Online Extra Upgrade: One year cost $24, in addi-tion to regular subscription fee. Puts one on list toreceive e-mail invitations to go fishing FREE in re-turn for filing a report. Also, invitations to review(and keep) fly tackle. Unlimited access to our TripPlanning Database also included. Plus, e-mail andhard copies of monthly newsletters. Same contactdetails as above.Trip Planning Materials: Same contact details asabove. By phone, fax, e-mail or regular mail. Doyour own searches on our web site, www.anglingreport.com. Click on “Trip Planning Tools.” Thou-sands of pages of subscriber reports and previouslypublished articles.Subscription Questions: Same contact details asabove. On our web site, www.anglingreport.com,click on “Subscribe.”

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a classic Atlantic salmon fly and thebucktails we use for coho on the westcoast) with eight to 10-weight rodsand sink tip lines. Long casts are notrequired, typically 15 to 30 feet willdo, but the key is to cast tight to thebank of the river - and I mean reallytight. Dropping the fly within fourinches of dry land usually got a“good cast” from Emiliano, my guide.

The drill is cast, make a quick up-stream mend, followed by three orfour long strips, then cast again. Allwell and good, except for the fact thatthe riverbank is lined with brush, logsand other debris, the raft is drifting ata good clip, and (more often than not)if you hook up with something otherthan a fish (i.e. branches, roots, logs),the current is often too strong for theguide to get the raft back upstream tosave your fly. This isn’t always thecase; there are occasional back eddiesthat will save a fly. But you do haveto budget for lost flies at $5 apiece.At the end of my two and a half daysof fishing I had 16 flies “on my ac-count” but only brought one home(and I’m pretty sure Emiliano was be-ing generous in his count).

On Saturday, we didn’t get on thewater until about 1 pm as the windwas really howling when we arrivedat Alex’s home. We drifted about 15km that first day, getting off the watersome time after 6 pm. On Sunday, wedrifted a different stretch of about 30

km, and were on the river from about9 am until 7:30 pm. Our final drift onMonday was another shorter one, per-haps 20 km, as I had to be off the wa-ter by 3 pm in order to have time toclean up, pack and make the two-hourdrive back to Salta for an 8:15 pmflight to Buenos Aires.

So, how did I do? I had the bestaction on the first day and landed thefirst fish I hooked, a dorado of aboutsix pounds. Though on the smallerside by Juramento standards, the fishran hard, jumped six or eight timesand came very reluctantly to shore tohave his picture taken. I was pumped!This is not so hard, I thought! Guessagain, buster! About an hour later Ihooked a big fish, 15 pounds or so byEmiliano’s estimate. He was out ofthe water five or six times in the 60seconds I had him on and was 60 or70 yards downstream when he ex-ploded from the water and spit thehook. That was a serious adrenalinerush. Violent is the only word thatcomes to mind to describe a doradohitting your fly. I hooked and veryquickly lost one more large fish thatfirst day.

Unfortunately, things didn’t getany better than that. Day two wastough for me. I had a couple of strikesbut no hookups at all. The second an-gler in the raft that day landed a six-pound fish during the last hour of ourdrift. On day three, I hooked and

Honor Roll SubscribersThe Angling Report encourages

subscribers to file reports on greatplaces to fish and/or important newsdevelopments that help the rest ofus decide where to go (or not to go!)fishing. Subscribers who file unusu-ally important and useful reports areplaced on our Subscriber Honor Rolland are sent a complimentary An-gling Report Honor Roll FishingCap. Honor Roll subscribers also getspecial consideration in the award-ing of FREE Trips. You can find outmore about our FREE Fishing Pro-gram on our website. Click on FREE

Fishing. If you have been on an in-teresting trip recently, send in a let-ter-length report and see if you canget on our Subscriber Honor Roll.Send it via e-mail to: doncausey@msn.com. Our newest Honor RollSubscribers are Kim and DavidFrances whose report on a self-planned trip to Cat Island in the Ba-hamas is described elsewhere in thisissue. You can find the completelist of our Honor Roll subscriberson our web site at: www.anglingreport.com. Click on Honor RollSubscribers.

-3-January 2009 Volume 22, Number 1

THE ANGLING REPORTquickly lost another big fish and hadanother good strike.

Was I satisfied with the fishing?Definitely. I’d have been happier hadI landed one of the big fish I hookedbut, in fact, I did as well as anyoneelse we crossed paths with during mytime there. (The river was un-crowded, by the way. Over a three-day period, we saw only three or fourother boats that were fly fishing, plusa few locals fishing from the bankswith gear.) According to Alex andEmiliano, this past season has been alittle bit more unpredictable than pre-vious ones. They’ve had very gooddays/weeks and then they’ve hadslow periods.

It looks to me like dorado fishingis a lot like going after steelhead or

Atlantic salmon. You put your time inand there’s always the possibility of a“fish-of-a-lifetime.” But the fishingisn’t easy. (Would we do it if it was?)Given the size and topography (de-bris, etc.) of the Juramento River, I’dsay the odds are definitely with thefish, especially the big ones.

One caveat I would offer is thatthe prospective Juramento River an-gler needs to be in reasonably goodphysical shape, especially as regardsthe upper body. I work out three tofour times a week and am fairly fit formy age, but by the time I left Salta Ifelt like my right arm was going tofall off. Casting large flies on a heavyrod close to a thousand times a daywill do that to you.

Overall, dorado fishing is intense

and exciting. I have no difficulty atall imaging the thrill of fighting andlanding a large fish in the relativelysmall waters of the Juramento River.The tiny taste that I experienced con-vinced me of that. And the big fishare definitely there and catchable. I’llgo back.

The golden dorado operation runby Andes Outfitters is excellent. Alexand his staff are friendly, efficient andaccommodating. Emiliano, the guideI fished with, was first-rate, great onthe oars and consistently offeringgood advice and lots of encourage-ment. As mentioned above, I foundthe food and accommodation per-fectly adequate. I was very welltreated start to finish.

After a very short night in Buenos

We have finally put the finishingtouches on our Tipping Survey,known formally as our study of“Traveling Anglers’ Attitudes TowardTipping On Fishing Trips.” Copiesare ready for mailing, or e-mailing. Infact, copies are being e-mailed free asthis is written to subscribers who haveupgraded to Online Extra. To getyour own copy free, simply send usan e-mail address and we’ll shoot oneout to you. Alternately, you can go toour web site, www.anglingreport.com, and download a copy.Click on Tipping Survey. If you arenot e-ready, drop us a line at: The An-gling Report, 9200 South DadelandBlvd., Suite 523, Miami, Florida33156. Or give us a call at 800-272-5656. Enclose $2.50 for postage andhandling in the US; $5 outside theUS. These charges apply only to hardcopies sent through the mail.

If you are a continuing subscriberyou already know our survey hasturned up some resentment on thepart of anglers toward those lodgesand guides that are posting, or articu-lating, ever-higher tipping mini-mums. The resentment is particularlystrong among anglers outside the US

who are accustomed to lower tipsthan are customary in this country.Many traveling anglers, it seems, sim-ply don’t want to see their tippingright replaced by a blanket obligationto pay more than was advertised for atrip. Angling professionals who ignorethis point do so at their own peril.

One of the really interestingthings that emerged from the surveyas the final numbers fell into place isthe fact that most traveling anglerscurrently tip a moderate amount formost angling services. Only a minor-ity of anglers are handing out thoseextravagant amounts you hear beingdiscussed whenever traveling anglersget together. So, where did those ex-travagant amounts come from? There

is a clear implication here that guidesand lodge owners have helped createtipping expectations that exceedwhat most anglers really want to pay.Most would prefer to see an increasein the cost of the trip itself.

To be sure, some anglers are in-deed handing out large tips. On theflip side, some are handing outminiscule tips, too. The range of tipsbeing paid for some services is mind-blowing. No doubt it is also unset-tling to angling professionals. Afterall, how does one cope with a cashflow that varies from $5 to $4,400 forthe same angling service. That is therange of tips traveling anglers saythey have paid recently for five daysof guide service on a sea-run browntrout river in Patagonia!

Ultimately, our tipping survey isnot going to solve anyone’s tipping“problem.” Every angler will have todo that for himself. All our surveyreally does is tell you what a crosssection of traveling anglers is currentlyhanding out in the way of tips for awide variety of angling services.Personally, I found the results helpfuland reassuring. I hope you have thesame reaction. – Don Causey.

Our Tipping Survey Is Ready!

-4-January 2009 Volume 22, Number 1

THE ANGLING REPORT

Close-Up: US West

Understanding Major Hatches - Part IBy Bill Cenis

Aires, I flew to Bariloche in northernPatagonia early the next morning, ar-riving about 9:30 am. I was picked upand driven three hours north to Juninde los Andes, where I was met by myguide, Gustavo. Once I’d checkedinto the hotel, we grabbed a quicklunch, got my fishing license from thetourist office and headed for theMalleo River, a wade-only stream 15minutes from town. We spent a lovelysunny afternoon catching 12- to 14-inch trout on both wet and dry flieswith the spectacular Lanin volcano asa backdrop. Very pleasant indeed!

Over the following three days Idrifted the Collon Cura and Chime-huin Rivers and fished Lake Tromen.All three fisheries were superb. In aten-hour drift on the Collon Cura, I

don’t believe there was a 15-minutestretch when I wasn’t into fish, exceptwhen we stopped for lunch. I caughtmostly rainbows in the 1½- to four-

pound range but also landed somenice browns, the largest about fivepounds. On the rivers I had two rodsset up, a three-weight with dry flies

(small caddis imitations) and a five-weight with streamers. Whenever wesaw any surface action, we wouldbring out the dry setup. We ended upgetting about half our fish on dryflies, which surprised me a little bit,given that it was still relatively earlyin the season, spring in Argentina.

Lake Tromen is a large lake at thefoot of the volcano in Lanin NationalPark, right on the Chilean border.This is spectacular country with the12,000-foot snowcapped peak of thevolcano (long dormant) dominatingmost vistas. The lake is known for bigfish, rainbows, browns and brookies,and lots of wind. On the day I wasthere, the fish weren’t huge but thewind was. Nevertheless Gustavo man-aged to beat into the steadily build-

(Editor Note: The dead of winter is a good time to bone up on themajor western fly hatches, with an eye toward determining whereyou can enjoy the fishing they produce, what flies imitate them andwho to call for guiding service. Correspondent Bill Cenis filed thereport. Next month, Cenis says he will shed similar light on thesalmonfly hatch. Stay tuned….)

times black. Only the females have wings. When not inflight a Skwala’s wings extend the length of the body.

Because the stonefly’s life cycle passes through onlytwo stages, the nymph stage and the adult stage, and be-cause of their comparatively large size, stonefly hatches aresimple to fish in comparison, for instance, to midges andmayflies. The stonefly’s large size makes the imitationseasy for the angler to follow on the water.

Over the years, local fly tiers have developed manySkwala imitations. Fly shops and guides can tell you what’sworking. Personally, I’ve found a floating size 10 or 12green-bodied Stimulator works as well as anything. Ifyou’re into nymphing, a stonefly nymph or Hare’s Earfished just off the bottom works well. Some anglers go bothways, using a dry imitation on top in tandem with a nymphimitation beneath.

Despite the relatively large size of the Skwala, they arenot showy emergers. You may not even see one while fish-ing, but they are there and the trout know it.

Typically, a fishing guide will float you about 20 to 30yards off the shoreline and have you cast toward theriverbanks. Don’t expect a 20-fish day; four or five trout isa good day. But the browns and rainbows will likely be inthe 14- to 18-inch range - nice fish.

The Bitterroot is prime Skwala water for visiting an-glers. Two of my sons live near the Bitterroot, and bothhave fishing rafts, so I’ve fished the Skwala hatch heremany times. Access is easy. The east and west forks of theBitterroot come together a few miles south of the town of

From now into early March is the heart of winter in theRocky Mountain region. With the exception of those fewhardy souls who accept the challenge of fishing in thecold and snow, many anglers use this downtime to tie fliesand plan for the upcoming fishing season. I’ve found thebest way to begin planning is to pinpoint the timing ofkey insect hatches.

In this column, I’ll take a look at the first major hatch,the Skwala stonefly, which is probably your best bet forgetting an early start on stream fishing in the West. Localsand a growing number of visitors target the Skwala hatchon Montana’s Bitterroot and Clark Fork rivers as theirfishing season’s kickoff event.

The Skwalas do their thing in early spring, prior torun-off. The hatch usually begins in late February as win-ter fades and stream temperatures rise to a minimum of 45degrees. Depending on weather, of course, eager anglersusually begin their assault the first week of March. Thehatch peaks around the first two weeks of April. By May,the Skwala fishing is finished.

Like the larger and better known Salmonfly, theSkwala is a stonefly. The Skwala averages about one inchlong, the body is usually dark brown or olive and some-

-5-January 2009 Volume 22, Number 1

THE ANGLING REPORTing breeze along a somewhat pro-tected shoreline so that I could fishthe drop off that varied from 10 to 50yards from shore. Using the five-weight rod and a Teeny 300 line Ilanded 10 to 12 rainbows from threeto 5½ pounds in less than two hours.Gustavo was a bit disappointed thatwe didn’t get either browns orbrookies, but I didn’t mind. The‘bows were all quality hard-fightingfish with several serious aerialists intheir number.

On Saturday morning, before Icaught my midday flight back toBuenos Aires, Gustavo took me to seeAndes Outfitters’ new Chime Lodge,which was in the final stages of con-struction and scheduled to open inlate December, 2008. The lodge is lo-

cated on the banks of the UpperChimehuin River, near the famous“Boca del Chimehuin” where (accord-ing to Andes Oufitter’s promo piece)

“countless giant trout were caught bypeople like Joe Brooks, Billy Pate,Ernest Schweibert, Mel Krieger, BebeAnchorena, Prince Charles Radziwill,

Jake Jordan, and many more....” Setin a broad valley, 17 km from Juninde los Andes, the lodge offers greatviews of both the river and Lanin vol-cano. The accommodations look likethey will be first-class.

This part of northern Patagoniaseems to me to be pretty much a troutangler’s paradise. The rivers and lakesare full of willing fish. The weather isexcellent; yes, the wind blows, butit’s manageable. The scenery is trulyspectacular. And what struck me per-haps most of all is the fact that thereare so few people. The rivers weredefinitely not being over fished whenI was there. In fact, we fished virtuallyalone, all day, every day.

I would rate the Andes Outfittersoperation here excellent. My guide,

Darby to form the main river. Highway 90 parallels the“Root” for its entire length, about 70 miles, with manypublic access points along the way. The towns ofHamilton, Stevensville, Florence, and Lolo offer full ser-vices. The river feeds into the Clark Fork a couple mileswest of Missoula.

Weather is critical in fishing the Skwala hatch. Latewinter/early spring in Montana often brings quick changesof weather which can turn an otherwise uneventful floatinto, for lack of a better word, an adventure. When my sonand I launched this past spring, for example, the weatherwas wonderful – no wind and not a cloud in the sky. Lessthan two hours into the float we had a staunch wind blow-ing into our faces and snowflakes plastered onto our cloth-ing. Getting to our takeout required some strenuous row-ing against the wind for over an hour. But before thesquall hit we caught a few nice rainbows and a 16-inchbrown, so the hardships were worth the hassle (easy for meto say, my son was rowing). The lesson here: Dress in lay-ers and always be prepared for cold weather when fishingin the Rocky Mountain region in early spring.

Though the Bitterroot has become the most popularstream to fish this hatch, local anglers and guides knowthat the larger Clark Fork River also has a Skwala hatch.Spend a couple of days in the Missoula area and you canfish both streams. If the Skwala hatch doesn’t produce,fishermen have another option: mayflies. Blue Wing Ol-ives begin coming off as early as late February, with peakhatches in April and May. Hungry trout eagerly rise to theoccasion after a winter of inactivity. This occurrence ofbug-meets-fish is widespread, from small creeks to largerivers, in most western states. Two other spring hatches, thePale Morning Dun (PMD) and Western March Brown

(WMB) provide similar options.Mayfly hatches produce two fishable stages. First, the

bottom-dwelling nymph (best imitated by a small, size 16-22, Pheasant Tail or Hare’s Ear) swims to the surface. Dur-ing this stage, watch for trout flashing near the river bot-tom, or tailing just under the surface for the emergingnymphs. This typically occurs mid-morning.

Stage two has the recently emerged mayfly, now knownas a dun, fluttering above the stream or riverbank, or float-ing on the water as they lay their eggs. The Blue WingOlive resembles a mini pup-tent while riding the wavesdownstream. You’ll often see trout snouts breaking the sur-face as they feed. This dry-fly action normally takes placefrom mid-morning until late afternoon.

The adult Blue Wing Olives, Pale Morning Duns andWestern March Browns are small, measuring three-quartersof an inch or less. Small flies and light tippets (6x) are inorder. A drag-free drift is essential. These spring mayflyhatches don’t draw hordes of fishermen to western riversand streams. But they can be a productive backup when thelarger stoneflies fail.

Now is the time to make arrangements to fish theSkwala hatch. Here are a few guide services in Missoula andBitterroot Valley: In Florence, try River Otter Flyshop & Out-fitters (866-800-4858; www.riverotterflyfishing.com). InHamilton, The Flyfishing Center (406-363-3801; www.montanaflyfishingcenter.com). Missoula has The Kingfisher,(888-542-4911; www.kingfisherflyshop.com) and GrizzlyHackle, (800-297-8996; www.grizzlyhackle.com)

In next month’s column, I’ll take a look at the West’sbiggest angling event, the salmonfly hatch, plus a fewother key hatches that take place in summer and fall. En-joy! – Bill Cenis.

-6-January 2009 Volume 22, Number 1

THE ANGLING REPORT

WGustavo, was a terrific oarsman and apassionate guide who obviouslyloves what he’s doing. There wasquite simply nothing negative to sayabout my stay in Junin. The accom-modations and food were excellent.The people I crossed paths with wereall friendly and helpful. What’s not tolike? Overall I had a hell of a goodtime and I can’t wait to go back. I’dlike to thank both The Angling Re-port and Andes Outfitters for givingme this wonderful opportunity to ex-plore another great fly fishing experi-ence. - Bob Tyrrell.

DATELINE: LOUISIANA

Honor Roll ReportThe “Real Skinny” OnThree Redfish Guides

(Editor Note: If subscriber Bob Dahlbergweren’t already on our Subscriber HonorRoll , we’d sure put him there for this“warts-and-all” report on three Louisianaredfish guides. Dahlberg’s report under-scores the importance of our efforts to getsubscriber feedback on trips. After all, whoknows better what is important to travelinganglers than a fel low traveling angler?

Thanks, Bob, for the report. See Page 2 formore on our Honor Roll Program.)

hen I read Lefty Kreh’s“Louisiana RedfishingField Note” in the Jan-

uary, 2008 Angling Report, I knew Ihad to give this fishery a try. Whocould resist what The Master called“…the best redfishing I’ve seenanywhere.” Multiple shots a day atunsophisticated fish weighing over20 pounds! 20- to 30-fish days! Allright here in the US!

In February 2008, my fishingpartner and I booked three guides:Gregg Arnold who lives in NewOrleans and fishes out of Hopedale;Gary Taylor who usually fishes theLake Borgne area out of Slidell; andBlaine Townsend who fishes out ofChauvin. Prime time for a redfish tripto Louisiana is mid-November to mid-January. Gregg Arnold told me thatideal conditions are “new moon andfalling tide.” Those constraintscombined with holiday madness meantwe wound up picking early November2008 as the date of our trip.

Before we get to the individualguides and lodging, I’d like to giveyou some general notes on thefishery. Sight casting for Louisianaredfish is technically easy. Casts areusually less than 20 feet. Becausecasts are short and you often getmultiple shots at a fish, I wouldrecommend a redfish trip to new-comers to saltwater fishing, especiallyin preparation for your first bonefishtrip.

The Louisiana marshes are toosoft to wade, so fishing is doneexclusively from a boat. All three ofthe guides I fished with use Hell’sBay flat boats, with tunnels. Theboats are less than 18 feet long, soonly one angler can cast at a time.

We used 8- and 9-weight rods withfloating lines. Redfish are not leader-shy; we fished with 20-pound-test orgreater (except with Gregg Arnold,who uses 12-pound-test for record-setting purposes).

The fish were not fussy about fly

The Angling Report has alwaysvalued feedback from its subscrib-ers. And the reasons are clear. Forone thing, Angling Report subscrib-ers are some of the world’s most ex-perienced fishermen. Hence theirjudgments about places are broad-based and sound. On top of that,most subscribers’ insights have a re-freshingly candid air about them.That’s because they are written froma point of view that no other publi-cation embodies – namely, the pay-ing-client point of view.

So, here’s the deal. We have be-gun to encourage lodge owners,guides and others to offer us FREEvisits to their facilities with the un-derstanding we will turn these invi-tations over to Angling Report sub-scribers who convince us they arecapable of writing useful and accu-rate reports on what they experi-ence. At this point, more than 30subscribers have been invited onFREE fishing trips here in the US orto places outside the country suchas Argentina and Christmas Island.The total value of all that travel isin the hundreds of thousands of dol-lars. And the good news is, more andmore outfitters are offering us FREEtrips in return for reviews.

If you want to get in on this op-portunity, all you have to do is up-

grade your subscription to OnlineExtra. The cost is only $2 a monthfor a service that includes: unlim-ited access to our custom-search-able, 5,000-page database of sub-scriber reports and previously pub-lished articles; early-bird electronicdelivery of your newsletter eachmonth; and access to periodic newsbulletins of importance to anglerswho travel. At least one of thosebulletins each month will describe aFREE FISHING OPPORTUNITY,and it will invite you to tell us whywe should select you to take advan-tage of it.

Sound like fun? Well, what areyou waiting for? Sign up right nowfor Online Extra and get on the listof people invited to go fishing free.The easiest way to sign up is to goto our web site, www.anglingreport.com, and click on “Upgradeto Online Extra.” Or, you can call usat 800-272-5656. Just be sure, whenyou sign up, you send us an e-mailaddress that you check often. Also,be sure your spam filter is set lowenough to let our bulletins getthrough. Enjoy! – Don Causey, Edi-tor/Publisher.(Postscript: Online Extra subscrib-ers now also get invited to reviewtop-quality fishing tackle and thenkeep it. See our web site for details.)

Want To Go Fishing Free?

All About Our Free-Fishing Program

-7-January 2009 Volume 22, Number 1

THE ANGLING REPORTpatterns. Each of our guides had apersonal favorite fly: Gary Taylorrelies on a brown shrimp attractor;Gregg Arnold likes a purple crabattractor; and Blaine Townsend ispartial to an orange/white Clouser.Presentation is more important thanthe fly you use. You have to makeyour fly pass within a foot in front ofa fish. But if you don’t, redfish inLouisiana are forgiving. My friendand I often got second and third castson our trip.

Most fish in Louisiana are sightedoff points or other structure as singlesor pairs, and they are easy to see. Insome respects, this is like a Montanafloat: You cast against a grassy bankwhile the guide poles the boat alongthe shoreline. Prime sighting andcatching time is from 10 am to 2 pmwhen the sun is overhead. In the fourdays we fished, it was windy enoughto muddy the water by the end of theday, which made it very difficult tosightfish.

All three guides we used werevery professional. They all got usfish. I have no reservation inrecommending any one of them.However, they each had differentpersonalities and service levels. Whatfollows is a description of theexperience we had with each one.Perhaps it will help you pick the onethat’s right for you and your skill level.

Lefty Kreh, in his report, indicatedhe fished with Gary Taylor andBlaine Townsend, likely because theywork together through Dulac Charters(985-563-2843; www.gaidry.com/dulac/. E-mail: ledet@basicips.net).Dulac Charters is operated by Lanceand Maggie Ledet who house theirguests in a large mobile home restingon ten-foot pilings. Maggie does allthe cooking, and prepares sandwichesand drinks for the day’s outing. GaryTaylor (985-641-8532; www.goforitcharters.com. E-mail: fishinla@bellsouth.net) is a hard-working, full-service guide. When we booked himin February, he was primarily fishingthe Lake Borgne area out of Slidell.What attracted us to Taylor was that

he not only fishes a flats boat, but healso uses a larger boat to cross LakeBorgne and reach less fished areas.Unfortunately for us, HurricanesGustav and Ike tore up Taylor’s big-fish territory this year. A few daysbefore we arrived, he told us he wascurrently more familiar with thefishing around Dulac, so we fishedwith him there.

When we booked Taylor, we toldhim we were experienced bonefishers.He told us we’d have no troublecatching redfish, which put us at ease.Indeed, Taylor was tireless in gettingus to fish, netted our fish and changedour flies. He’s a patient, under-standing guide who likes to share hislove for fishing in the bayous.

The first day we fished with him,we went for quantity. We each caught

a half dozen redfish, a few black drumand a sea trout. The second day wewent for larger fish, and we caughthalf that number. The largest fish wecaught weighed eight pounds. Garycharged us $500 per day for hisservices.

Day three, we fished with BlaineTownsend, who has a very directpersonality. He tends to get rightdown to business on a charter.Townsend primarily fishes out of hisown facility called “Sportsman’sParadise” (985-594-7772; www.redfishflyfishing.com. E-mail: CandBcharters@bellsouth.net) near Chauvin, which iswhere he wanted us to fish.

It is worth noting that Townsendhas had both knees replaced, so hesits on his raised platform as he polesthe boat. Since his mobili ty isrestricted, you need to net your own

fish and tie on the orange and whiteClousers that he provides. Bring yourown drinks and lunch, too, as Town-send does not provide them.

Despite his limitations, Townsendworked hard to get us to fish. Weprobably sighted as many as he did.The water was muddy, and I ended upblind casting around points andstructure, and I caught a few that way.For the day, we wound up with abouta dozen fish between us, with thelargest weighing in at eight pounds.We had heard that Townsend doesn’tfish past 2 pm, but we fished to 3 pmand by then the fish had stoppedbiting, so we were fine with quitting.

When we got back to the dock,Townsend (ever the businessman)headed straight to the bank to cashour $500 check for the day’s fishingwhile his wife, Connie, gave us a tourof the lodging options. In addition toguiding, The Sportsman’s Paradiseoffers lodging and a restaurant.Hurricane Gustav had put therestaurant under six feet of water, andit was still closed during our visit inNovember.

Basic-Level rooms here run $60 anight with three twin beds. They arelocated adjacent to the restaurant in acinder-block building dating from themid-1950’s when Townsend’s fatherbuilt the place. The rooms are veryclean, and they had been recentlyrepainted. There’s no TV in therooms, however, and room lightingseemed pretty minimal. So, bring ahead lamp if you plan to play cards orread in the room.

The “premier” lodging here is in anew mobile home placed on raisedpilings about 50 yards from therestaurant. It can hold up to sixpeople at $200 per night. For somereason, Townsend’s wife, Connie, didnot tell us about the lodging andmeals available at Dulac Charters.Instead, she told us that, with theirrestaurant out of commission, we’dhave to buy our meals in Houma (45minutes away). So we decided to stayin Houma, and drive to Dulac andChauvin each morning.

-8-January 2009 Volume 22, Number 1

THE ANGLING REPORTWe stayed at the La Quinta hotel

in Houma. In retrospect, I’d havestayed at Dulac Charters to avoid the45-minute drive in the morning, aswell as the afternoon traffic jams. IfDulac Charters has no vacancy,consider booking the Comfort Inn inHouma, which is 15 minutes closer toChauvin or Dulac than the La Quinta.

For dinner in Houma, the localguides recommended Big Al’s (stickto their steamed fish menu). We alsotried Boudreau and Thibodeau’s,which has a college-town restaurantatmosphere, Cajun-style. I had thefried alligator; yes, it tasted likeflavorless chicken. Our waitresssteered us clear of the pecan pie. Aformer local we met at our hotelrecommended the 1921 Seafood andOyster Bar. “Just don’t let the outsideappearance scare you off,” we weretold. My fishing partner and I agreedthat 1921 had the best gumbo of therestaurants we tried. I enjoyed thefresh oysters and a seafood samplercalled “The Trash Basket.”

For our fourth day of fishing, wemoved from Houma to New Orleansand our third guide, Gregg Arnold(504-237-6742; www.fishinthelandofgiants.com. E-mail: garnold3@cox.net). Arnold’s helpful website has agood checklist on what to bring, alink to tide tables, preferred NewOrleans hotels with discounts and anonline calendar to view which dayshe has open.

Arnold picks his clients up in NewOrleans at 5:30 am, then stops forcoffee/breakfast/sandwich pick-up atPenny’s Café in Violet, LA, beforeputting in at Hopedale. When hepicked us up in the French Quarter,Arnold didn’t say a word to us whilehe re-arranged the back of his pick upto make room for all our gear andluggage. 15 minutes later, we wereinto the Ninth Ward where he spokeup for the first time to point out acorner where pre-Katrina crackdealers did their business. OnceArnold had some coffee, he warmedup to us, and for the rest of the daywas quite friendly.

Once on the water, Arnold ran theboat about 30 minutes before westarted fishing. At that point, we werein skinny water, and we began to castto sighted fish along the grass banks.Fishing with a guide who owns thedomain name, “Fish in the Land ofGiants,” we were expecting big fish.Gregg told us that a client the daybefore had caught a 30-pound redfish,but that it was too rough for us to ridefurther out where the giants lurked.We had what was for us a typical dayof fishing: about a dozen redfishaveraging around five pounds, withthe largest weighing about 8½pounds.

Arnold encourages clients to usehis gear, an 8-weight Scott rod with a9-weight floating line. He wanted usto fish with 12-pound tippets for

record-setting purposes. For the mostpart, we tied on our own flies that heprovided, and we landed our own fish.He was more openly frustrated than theother guides by our limited “in-the-clutch” casting ability, but he alwaysapologized a few minutes later.

Arnold encouraged us to fish until3 pm., but we ended our day at 2:30to have plenty of time to get to theairport. The week before we arrived,we asked Arnold if he would take usto the airport. He replied by e-mailthat he would do it. Once we got nearNew Orleans, however, he did nottake the well-marked route to theairport; we assumed he was taking alocal short cut. But we soon foundourselves in a residential district, andhe pulled up in front of what turnedout to be his home. He asked us atthat point if it was okay if we ordered

a cab to the airport from there. Whatcould we say? Despite reneging onhis promise to us, he and his wifewere generous hosts. They let us usetheir shower, offered us food,including some of Arnold’s very tastybirthday cake, and the CaciqueVenezuelan rum he had raved aboutwhile we were fishing. We found outfrom Arnold’s wife that they rent outthree rooms to guests who fish morethan one day. I am not sure what theycharge for room and board. I do knowthat we paid $550 for the fishing, andthat the flat-rate taxi fare from townto the airport is $30.

The essence of the Louisianaredfishing experience is remoteness.At most, we saw one or two otherboats fishing for redfish. In the end,we didn’t come close to duplicatingLefty Kreh’s multiple shots at redfishover 20 pounds, and we caught onlyhalf the 20 to 30 redfish a day Leftyhad caught. But it was fun to sightcast to six- to eight-pound fish thatwere forgiving enough to give ussecond and third chances. All thepeople we met showed us “good oleSouthern hospitality.”

All things considered, Louisianaredfishing is a terrific option toconsider if you have a non-fishingspouse, because the wildlife isplentiful (blue crabs, oyster catchers,egrets, blue herons and pelicans), andit’s close to urban dining and hotels.– Bob Dahlberg.(Postscript: Dahlberg tells us he hasposted photos from his trip at: http://b o b d 2 h . s m u g m u g . c o m / g a l l e r y /6682165_dQJbw.)

SPECIAL REPORT

News AnalysisAre Modern Pirates A

Threat To Motherships?(Editor Note: All the reports about piracy offthe coast of Africa have sparked concern thatan angling mothership somewhere in theworld may eventually fall victim. What actu-ally happened recently to a Seychellesmothership has added fuel to the fire. Readon….)

-9-January 2009 Volume 22, Number 1

THE ANGLING REPORT

I t’s a thankless task, but here atThe Angling Report we believe itis our job to sound the alarmwhenever we think a new danger hasemerged. Actually, danger may be toostrong a word for the subject of thisreport – namely, the mild risk that pi-rates, or ocean robbers, will attack amothership one day.

No, we did not go digging for thisreport in the interest of creating a sen-sation. The story came to us in theform of an e-mail from GerhardLaubscher, the Managing Director ofFlycastaway (011-27-82-334-3448;www.flycastaway.com), a South Afri-can booking agency/outfitter thatspecializes in trips to Africa and envi-rons, including Seychelles. Here isthe text of that e-mail:

“We have recently received somecalls from concerned clients, askingwhether our new charter vessel hasbeen hijacked by pirates in Sey-chelles. Obviously, this type of rumorcan stir great anxiety and unease inpeople looking forward to their up-coming or possible trip with us toCosmoledo or Providence in the nextfew months. We can assure you thatthese statements are simply incorrect,as there has been no attempt to hijackany vessel in Seychelles waters. Goodnews is that our new 150-foot vesselhas arrived safely in Seychelles and isready to start the season on the outeratolls! We hope this puts any feelingsof insecurity to rest and we look for-ward to guiding you in Seychellessoon.”

Why would an outfitter issue a re-assuring statement like this? Whyeven bring the subject up? Beforecontacting Laubscher, we did a bit ofpoking around and came up with theunsettling fact that Mogadishu, So-malia, is only 837 miles fromVictoria, the capital of Seychelles.Some reports indicate that the re-cently hijacked Saudi oil tanker,Sirius Star, was captured closer toSeychelles than to Somalia.Hmmmm….

We immediately got on the phoneto Laubscher, who confirmed what we

already thought – namely, that therewas some fire behind the smoke ema-nating from his e-mail. According toLaubscher, his company plans to usea brand-new, 150-foot mothership, theMV Flycastaway, to host anglers inSeychelles this season. The ship willhold a maximum of 12 anglers andfour guides in seven en-suite cabins,he says. Each guide will have a pur-pose-built tender for fishing. All fourtenders can be carried on the deck ofthe ship.

Now for the interesting part. TheMV Flycastaway is a former researchvessel, which was purchased and refit-ted in northern Europe. To get toSeychelles, it had to pass through theSuez Canal. As it sailed by the Gulf ofAden, i t was chased by pirates,Laubscher says, going on to report

that the captain was able to outma-neuver them. Aiding him were nearbywarships from both the Indian andFrench navies.

“To avoid further problems we re-routed the ship away from the Africancoast toward India, then south toSeychelles,” Laubscher says. “Thatcost us thousands in extra fuel andput us a week behind schedule. Worsethan that, the fact that the boat waschased by pirates fueled a rumor thatthe boat had been captured. That ru-mor ran rampant in the South Africanfishing community which provides 20to 30 percent of our clients. We feltwe had to reassure everyone that thenew ship had reached its destinationsafely.”

Laubscher says emphatically thatthere have been no incidents of piracyin Seychelles territorial waters. The

area his mothership will be operatingin this season (December throughApril) is nine degrees south of theequator, he says, and far from the dan-gerous waters along the Somali coast.There is absolutely nothing forwould-be clients to worry about.

Indeed, Laubscher appears to beon solid ground when he says therehave been no incidents of outright pi-racy in Seychelles waters, thoughthere were some scary incidents thererecently. More on them in a moment.In our view, we think his e-mail - theone that caught our eye and inspiredthis report - would have been more ef-fective if it had told the whole storyinstead of glossing it over by leavingout critical information.

As for those scary incidents inSeychelles, we dug them up on theweb site of the International Chamberof Commerce’s Commercial CrimeService (www.icc-ccs.org), which listsincidents of piracy worldwide. Seemsa yacht anchored off Mahe, Sey-chelles, was boarded by a lone robberrecently. Several other boats werealso attacked that same night. As a re-sult, the piracy reporting centre “ad-vises all vessels/yacht/boats to becautious when visiting Mahe….”

Another web site we visited toflesh this story out, www.yachtpiracy.org/en/index.htm, has detailed mapsand lists of yacht piracy incidentsthroughout the world. There arescores of incidents listed on the website. The east coast of much of CentralAmerica is a hotspot for piracy. So isthe mouth of the Amazon River, vari-ous Caribbean islands and the coastof Venezuela. Whether any of the in-cidents listed on this web site in-volved motherships is not clear, but itis unlikely a mothership has been tar-geted or we would have heard about it.

While searching the internet, wealso discovered some recent reports ofpiracy in Papua, New Guinea, not so farfrom the home waters of CarpentariaSeafaris (011-61-7-40693254; www.seafaris.com.au), a mothership operation onthe York Peninsula of northern Aus-tralia. We printed a positive report on

-10-January 2009 Volume 22, Number 1

THE ANGLING REPORTon Carpentaria in the December issue.We also found many incidents of pi-racy in Indonesian waters.

We asked Greg Bethune ofCarpentaria Seafaris if piracy was aconcern in his area. His reply: “Piracyis absolutely NOT an issue in Austra-lian waters even though we are in avery remote area and very close toNew Guinea. Australia is the safestplace on the planet. There is no needfor us to take special piracy precau-tions. We are extremely cautious ineverything we do already. We havegood satellite communications andcan have rescue helicopters to our lo-cation in 50 minutes if we dial 000which is your 911 equivalent.” Bethune concludes that everythingis fine in his area. Indeed, it does ap-pear he has taken all of the necessary

Briefly NotedThings To Do... Places To Go... New Developments

steps ahead of time if the unthinkablehappens. Satellite communication isone key. Equally important, we feel,is a tendency on the part of a skipperto “war game” his situation in ad-vance and create a realistic responseplan. Given world conditions, this isthe kind of attitude and behavior wewould look for in a mothership opera-tion anywhere in the world at the timeof booking. The outfitter we wouldworry about is the one that laughs atthe risk of piracy, or ocean robbery.Or the one who tries to convince yousuch worries are non-existent. Theyaren’t. – Tim Jones.(Don Causey Note: Mothership opera-tors may want to know that GlobalRescue, the medical evacuation andrescue company we recommend, hasmaritime security experts available to

train captains and crews headed intodangerous areas on how to deal withpiracy threats. They can also place se-curity personnel on board. In partner-ship with Johns Hopkins Medicine,Global Rescue provides the besttelemedicine solutions in the worldfor injured and sick people at sea and,as part of their regular service, coordi-nates rescue and medical evacuation.Clients headed anywhere away fromhome may want to note this capabil-ity of Global Rescue. The companyhas emerged as the gold standardamong medical evacuation compa-nies. In my view, no one should gofishing away from home without cov-erage from this company. You can getmore details on our web site, or di-rectly from Global Rescue at: 617-459-4200; www.globalrescue.com)

So, are those endless bonefishflats in Cuba finally going to be ac-cessible to American anglers? With anew and very different administrationabout to take over in Washington,speculation to that effect is runningrampant. Already, Obama has said heis going to lift controls on Cuban-American travel to Cuba and restoreeducation-related travel. Can the lift-ing of the tourist flood gates be farbehind? Maybe. Maybe not.

We don’t pretend to have theWashington contacts that are neces-sary for this kind of reporting, but wedid make a couple of calls last monthto people who should know what theyare talking about. The first of thosewas to a gentleman by the name ofWayne Smith, who hangs his hat at athink tank called Center For Interna-tional Policy. Smith headed the USInterest Section in Havana from 1979to 1982 and is widely viewed as oneof the most senior Cuba-watchers inWashington. Our second call was toAnthony Boadle, who has spent thelast six years as Havana Bureau Chieffor Reuters.

The good news is, both of theseobservers think unrestricted travel toCuba is just around the corner.Boadle thinks it will come morequickly than Smith does because hepredicts that Congress is simply go-ing to cut off funding for the TreasuryDepartment’s enforcement actionsagainst Americans who spend moneyin Cuba. Indeed, Congress has that

authority and it could wield it fairlyquickly.

Indeed, there are signs the touristflood gates will be opened, but we re-main skeptical. In the past, datingclear back to the Ford and Carter ad-ministrations and continuing through

the Clinton Administration, it has notbeen the US Government that hasscuttled efforts to normalize relationswith Cuba. It has been Fidel Castro’sreluctance to give up his Americanscapegoat. Faced with potentially los-ing it, he has abruptly cracked down ondissidents and even shot down planesbelonging to the Cuban American searescue group, Brothers To The Res-cue. Boadle says he does not see a re-peat of that kind of behavior thistime. Raoul is a very different personthan his brother, Boadle says, and hebelieves Raoul Castro will be callingthe shots.

Again, in our view, maybe. Maybenot. The key person to watch in com-ing months, we think, is not Obama,or Raoul, but Fidel, who is rumored tobe re-emerging as a decision-maker.We think he will weigh in on thismatter. And, frankly, it will surpriseus greatly if he gives up his Americanscapegoat and allows an unrestrainedflow of American tourists. The Ameri-can proponents of unlimited travel toCuba have long pointed out that theCastro regime will lose control of Cu-

-11-January 2009 Volume 22, Number 1

THE ANGLING REPORTban society under such an onslaught.And that is our point: Fidel Castroknows that. And he is unlikely to al-low it to happen.

If we are wrong, and we hope weare, the folks at Avalon Fishing Cen-ter (www.avalons.net) say they areready for an invasion of American an-glers. The company has a total of 38Dolphin skiffs ready for action, plusseveral motherships. It controls mileafter mile of protected and verylightly fished marine park in theQueens Garden Archipelago and Ar-chipelago de los Canarreos. It cur-rently caters to about 1,100 clients ayear and has the capacity to expand.On top of all that, nearer to Havana,there is the Bay of Pigs fishery. Themost active agent there is a companycalled Cuba Welcome: (www.cuba welcome.com).

Stay tuned. We’ll let you know ifthis cornucopia of new fishing oppor-tunity finally becomes legally avail-able to American anglers.

So, what is the latest on that ashfall in the area of Lago Yelcho inChile? Last May, you’ll recall, we re-ported that ash fall from a volcaniceruption in that area was threateningfisheries in parts of Chile and Argen-tina. We’re indebted to Honor RollSubscriber Robert McMeekin for thefollowing update. Thanks, Robert, forchecking in: “When the Chaitén vol-cano erupted on May 2, 2008, send-ing a plume of toxic ash that de-stroyed the town of Chaitén andspread over Lago Yelcho and itstributaries, many of us who considerthe Yelcho fishery the best in Chile(and one of the best in the world)were deeply concerned for its future.Well, I visited Lago Yelcho this pastDecember with Gonzalo Cortés to seewhat effect the ash was having. I’mdelighted to report that the fishingwas good and, for now, the damagefrom the ash appears to be limited.

“We stayed at Gonzalo’s ChucaoLodge (011-56-2-2018571; www.Chucaolodge.cl/home.html on theYelcho and fished areas close to the

lodge where the Rio Yelcho begins,at the Bahía de Los Leones (a primearea well known to those who havefished Yelcho), and at one of the bigeddies on the Rio Yelcho where troutcruise in sight just beneath the sur-face waiting for the river to bring infood. In all the places we fished theaction was good to very good. Thetrout seemed strong and healthy, if alittle on the thin side.

“The water was very high and wewere there during an unseasonablehot spell, so conditions were not typi-cal. All the reeds that are home todragonflies – for which the trout leapclean out of the water – were underwater and it was not easy to observeinsect life. When you rubbed the bel-lies of trout you could feel the snailsin their stomachs. This is important

because snails are normally the keycomponent of the trout’s diet duringthe winter when there are no flyinginsects and few nymphs.

“When we approached the lakefrom a distance, the water seemed tohave a turquoise or aquamarine colornot characteristic of the lake beforethe ash fall. From a boat the water wasslightly turbid. We could clearly seethe column of vapor rising from thevolcano on the horizon.

“There were no other fishermen onthe water and Gonzalo’s ChucaoLodge/Yelcho seemed to be the onlyone open. The caretaker at the BahíaLos Leones Lodge said they were ex-pecting clients on December 5.

“You need to be aware that accessto Yelcho is difficult now. We flew toCoyhaique’s Balmaceda airport anddrove to Gonzalo’s new lodge on

Lago Rosselot, called Chucao Lodge/Rosselot. The trip takes five hoursfrom Coyhaique. It is not a long tripmeasured in kilometers but the goingis very slow on a very difficult part ofthe Carretera Austral. Yelcho is an-other two hours south of the Rosselotlodge, where we stopped over on theway. The airport that served Chaiténis closed, so the former access viasmall plane from Puerto Montt is notpossible at this time.

“Will Yelcho continue as it is, getbetter or have greater problems in thefuture? No one really knows. The lakeis very deep and 24 miles long, but itis possible that the long-term and cu-mulative effects of the ash in the wa-ter will cause more damage to fishand their diet than is evident now.There’s also the possibility of furthereruptions and additional ash fall. Fornow, however, the fishing on Yelchois very good. You can contactGonzalo Cortés for accurate, up-to-the minute information. His e-mailaddress is: gcortes@flyshop.cl. He’sdeeply involved in Yelcho and intouch with authorities about mattersof access and so on.”

If you are a bonefish fanatic, youprobably remember subscriber SteveBlake’s report in the July 2006 issueabout a stopover trip he made to theisland of Aitutaki in the Cook Is-lands. Blake lives part of the year inNew Zealand, you’ll recall, and helikes to fly Air New Zealand on hisway back to Los Angeles, at least inpart because the company allows onefree stopover. He’s taken advantageof that benefit several times by stop-ping over in Raratonga, where he getsa 40-minute flight over to Aitutaki.

In Blake’s 2006 report, he re-marked positively on the number andsize of the bonefish he caught in aspecial reserve that his guide, JubileeReu, had pushed local authorities tocreate. Reu, you may recall, toldBlake he had helped a client take a12-pounder there. Another guide toldhim of landing a 32-inch bonefish.

Well, the latest news from Aitu-

-12-January 2009 Volume 22, Number 1

THE ANGLING REPORT

OUTFITTER CRITIQUES

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly(This section of The Angling Report is based entirely on subscriber-written Angler Network Forms. Our policy on these forms is we publish excerptsin the newsletter of Angler Network Forms as received and exert no censorship. Agents, guides, lodge operators and/or outfitters who disagree withanything said about them in this section are free to submit a rebuttal. As a subscriber, you can help extend the reach of this program by filing anAngler Network Form yourself. You should have found one inside this issue of your newsletter. Alternately, you can file a report online by goingto our website, www.anglingreport.com. Click on File A Report. For details on how to order printouts of Angler Network Reports, see page 2 ofthis issue.)

taki is not good at all. Blake says hejust fished there again and, in thecourse of two days, saw maybe 15bonefish and hooked one. “I had notcontacted Reu before arriving, as Ineeded an island break regardless,”Blake writes. “Upon my arrival, Reutold me there were simply no morebonefish left, and he was correct.Jubilee says his efforts to establish anarea where the locals were notallowed to net bonefish had not beensupported locally. So, I ended upcasting poppers for giant trevally. Ihad good success, but that does nottake the sting out of what hashappened to the bonefishing.”

And, finally, if you travel to flyfish, you assuredly know of the OrvisELOG (Endorsed Lodge, Outfitter,Guide) Program. In all, Orvis cur-rently has nearly 200 fly fishing com-panies and individuals enrolled in theprogram in North America – 50lodges, 40 outfitters, 14 expeditions,16 guide services and 73 guides. Youcan get the entire list of ELOG flyfishing members by going to: http://www.orvis .com/intro.asp?subject=1723. The company has been evalu-ating fly fishing operators for 22years and just inducted 23 new mem-bers. Here is a list of the new mem-

bers: Camp Bonaventure; MiminiskaLodge – From Wilderness North; TheLodge and Spa at Cordillera; NorthFork Ranch; The Ocean Reef Club;Broadacres Ranch; Eagle Creek FlyShop; Ketchum On The Fly; Black-foot River Outfitters; Midnight SunTrophy Pike Adventures; GunnisonRiver Expeditions; PRO Outfitters;Bowman Bluewater; Back CountryGuide Service; Capt. Matt Thomas;Dan Cone; Billy Trimble; Capt. JeffCrumpton; Capt. Frank Catino; Capt.Eddie Potter; Capt. Scott Cormier;Capt. John Hand; Capt. NewmanWeaver; David Hise; Patrick Fulkrod;and Nick Volk.

They say you can’t please all ofthe people all of the time, but some-times, apparently, you can. We havein hand six reports which give anacross-the-board “Excellent” rating toan August trip to the remote SalmonHole Lodge (902-835-8872; www.salmonholelodge.com) on the LapoileRiver in Newfoundland. The reportsare from Nova Scotians HaydenBowles (who was returning for hisfourth time), Kevin Hovey, NathanMcCarthy, Jim Murphy, FloydPeterson and Chris Spears, all ofwhom drove to North Sydney, NovaScotia, where they boarded the Ma-rine Atlantic overnight ferry (www.marine-atlantic.ca) to Port au Bas-ques, Newfoundland. From there, itwas an hour’s drive along New-foundland’s remote southern coast toRose Blanche, where they were pickedup by a charter boat for the three-hourride to the mouth of the river.

The only grumble about the tripin any of the reports revolved aroundthe ferry being three hours late, cost-ing the anglers part of a day’s fishing.

“The guides waited for us and got usfishing as soon as we arrived on theriver, so I didn’t find it a big inconve-nience,” says Murphy. On the La-poile, they were fishing both for At-lantic salmon (mainly grilse - onlyBowles mentions a large salmon inany of the reports. Only about 10 per-

cent of the salmon run on the Lapoileis multi-sea-winter fish) and both resi-dent and sea-run brook trout. Bothsalmon and trout were listed as abun-dant. The fishing, as on all ofNewfoundland’s scheduled salmonrivers, is fly-fishing-only, barblesshooks only. Seven- and eight-weight

rods got the nod for salmon fromthese anglers, and five and six-weightrods for the trout.

Jim Murphy, a newcomer tosalmon angling, describes the fishingthis way: “During my five-day stay, Ilanded both my first-ever Atlanticsalmon and my largest brook troutever. The number of salmon hookedwas incredible.” Kevin Hovey con-curs, noting: “I hooked and releasedat least 16 salmon during the week.That’s not counting all the long-linereleases. It truly was the best salmonfishing I’ve experienced.” ChrisSpears agrees about the quality of thefishing: “A few of the trout were al-most as big as the grilse (three andfour pounds), and one was almost fivepounds! Unbelievable trout and thebest salmon fishing experience I’veever had.”

Most of the fishing was done bywading, with some casting directlyfrom the banks, all on what amountsto private water. As Spears put it:“There’s nobody else around exceptmembers of your party, so there’s no

-13-January 2009 Volume 22, Number 1

THE ANGLING REPORTcompetition for pools, waiting yourturn, or moving along for someoneelse... you just fish to your heart’scontent, or until you catch your quotafor the day.” Newfoundland law al-lows you to retain two grilse or re-lease up to four in a day.

Apparently, even the weather co-operated, according to NathanMcCarthy: “When we first got there,the water was low, so the best time tofish was early in the morning and lateat night. Our second day there itstarted to rain and the fishing gotvery good after that. When it rains onthis river, the water rises fast. You arein a deep valley, all rock, so the waterjust runs right into the river.”

Repeatedly, our reporters singledout the entire guide crew for praise:“Friendly, helpful guides who did ev-erything they could to make it a greattrip,” “gracious hospitality shown bythe all of the terrific guides,” “Theguides are friendly and not bossy,willing to give advice when asked,”“The guides are just fantastic in everyway. They make you feel at home”.

The boat ride along the southernNewfoundland coast to reach thelodge drew universal accolades, asdid the abundant wildlife (caribou,moose, bear). All of our reporters alsocommented on the star-gazing:“There aren’t any roads or lights formiles, so the night skies are full of thebrightest stars you’ll ever see. Amaz-ing!” Several commented on the un-usual lack of black flies and mosqui-toes — unheard of on a salmon riverin summer.

Hovey summed up the trip thisway: “It truly is a trip of a lifetime.The isolated fishing with no crowds isjust what the soul needs to help meltaway the stresses of everyday life.The air is clean, fresh and pollution-free. It is a fantastic spot where theweek will fly by.”

The cost of the six-day trip isgiven as $2000 (Canadian). At thiswriting, the Canadian dollar has fallento about 81 cents against the US dollar.(Editor note: North Sydney, NovaScotia, where you catch the ferry for

this trip, is about a 13-hour drivefrom Boston, or 4½ hours fromHalifax. A second option is to flycommercial via Halifax into CornerBrook, Newfoundland, and rent a carthere for a four-and-a-half-hour drivesouth to Rose Blanche, which takesyou through some beautiful sceneryand avoids the long ferry crossing.)

Subscribers Kim and DavidFrances have checked in with a de-lightful and informative account of arecent trip to Cat Island, Bahamas,that saw them fishing with and with-out a guide for bonefish and linkingup for some very satisfying offshorefishing. They caught dorado on thelatter, by the way, along with barra-cuda, yellowfin tuna and even a smallwhite marlin. In between the fishingoutings, they poked around the island

in a rented car, beachcombed forshells and generally enjoyed them-selves. The report is an invaluablemini-guidebook to Cat Island, loadedwith lodging, guide and other recom-mendations. It is so thorough and use-ful that a first-time visitor could use itto plan an entire week-long visit toCat Island. We are putting Kim andDavid Frances on our SubscriberHonor Roll for taking the time towrite this report and send it in.

The tips in this report are too nu-merous to list. One of the most impor-tant is the Frances’ kind words for aseries of books called ExplorerChartbooks (www.explorercharts.com). Anyone contemplating an on-your-own trip to the Bahamas will findthese books invaluable, the Frances’

say. They cost $49.50 each, but areworth that many times over, they say.

We won’t try to summarize this re-port. If you like to arrange your owntrips or you have ever eyed Cat Islandas a destination, order this report.And stay tuned. Kim and DavidFrances say they have been exploringthe Out Islands of the Bahamas since1995. Their travels have taken themto Abaco, Andros and Long Island, aswell as to the Turks & Caicos. Theirtravels aren’t over either. Perhapsthey will be inspired by a listing onour Honor Roll to share more of whatthey have learned about the Bahamas.

Now, here’s a spectacular catch re-port: 25 to 30 rainbows averaging 20inches the first day, plus a couple ofsockeyes; the same number of rain-bows the second day, but all of themaveraging over 25 inches. What’smost noteworthy about this catch re-port from subscriber Bryan Whiting isthat he did not achieve it on an ex-pensive, daily fly-out wilderness trip.Instead, he was floating the Kenai Riverbetween Skilak Lake and Soldotna,Alaska, within easy driving distance ofAnchorage, on an excursion that cost$250 per day per person.

Whiting and his son were fishingwith Fred Telleen of Mystic Fishing(907-227-0549; www.mysticfishing.com) based in Cooper Landing. Notsurprisingly, Telleen gets “excellent”ratings in all categories. “Our familyfished with Fred in 2004 and 2006.This trip, in 2008, was my son’s highschool graduation present. On bothprevious trips, we floated the KenaiCanyon from Sportsman Landing toSkilak lake. This year, we asked toexplore the lower river. Fred told us itwouldn’t be quite as good as the can-yon, but we wanted to see new water.”

Whiting says most of their fishingwas from a large drift boat, though henotes that they occasionally fishedfrom shore the first day and wadedabout half the time the second day.“The first day from Moose River toSoldotna was a typical Kenai float.We fished with 6-weight rods, using

-14-January 2009 Volume 22, Number 1

THE ANGLING REPORT

Subscriber Bryan Whiting hasasked us to put out a call for feed-back on a place called JurassicLake in Argentina. He says he re-ceived an e-mail about the fisherythat directed him to the followingweb site: http://www.loopadventures.com/website2/1.0.2.0/1/1/index.php. “I think the outfitter hasa spot lower down in Argentina forsea-run browns. Jurassic Lake hasbig rainbows. I did a google searchand found a small video about Ju-rassic Lake on a booking agent’sweb site: www.wherewisemenfish.com. Jurrasic Lake sounds like anintriguing place, but it appears tobe a new venture. One always getsa l i t t le cautious about newspots. Given your extensive reader-ship, perhaps a fellow subscriberhas fished there. I would appreciatefeedback. Thanks.” - Bryan Whit-ing, whiting@sopris .net.(Don Causey Note: Please copy meon any feedback you send BryanWhiting at: doncausey@msn.com.)

Feedback Sought On Jurassic Lake

bead eggs. Though it was early July,there were no hatches and the fishwere already into eggs. The secondday, we planned to float from SkilakLake to Moose River. However, theKenai, normally tinged green withglacier water, was crystal clear as itexited Skilak Lake. Fred said this wasthe first time in 15-plus years he hadseen this. Apparently, a late springhad delayed the melting of the gla-ciers feeding Skilak Lake.”

Because of the clear water, Whit-ing says they concentrated on the firstthree miles of the river as it exitedfrom Skilak Lake, an area called theDunes. “The Dunes are waves ofgravel across the entire river about100 yards apart,” says Whiting. “Thetop of the gravel wave has two tothree feet of water above it; the deeptrough between is way over yourhead. Rainbows were sitting both infront of and behind the dunes. Westarted with beads but changed to big

dark streamers. We would float along,spot a fish and cast to it with astreamer; it would follow and usuallyhit. We spent nine hours just floatingdown these dunes sightfishing to bigrainbows, motoring back up to thefirst dune and doing it again. We werethe only boat fishing this stretch ofwater, and we spent so much timethere we didn’t even float down toMoose river where we had the trailer.Instead we motored back up throughSkilak Lake.”

Whiting’s final assessment isnothing short of glowing: “Anytimeyou can float the Kenai, it is worththe effort. Going with a professionalof Fred’s caliber makes it all the morespecial. He knows every inch of theriver; knows where the fish hang out;can handle the boat; and his excite-

ment as you catch fish shows howmuch he enjoys his work. Fred isquite simply an extraordinary guide.”

Subscriber Jim Duke has goodthings to say about two days ofguided fishing he enjoyed this pastOctober on two different rivers in Ar-kansas. He started his trip with a dayof boat fishing on the White Riverjust below Bull Shoals Dam withguide Larry Babin, who he bookedthrough Blue Ribbon Fly Shop (870-425-0447; www.blueribbonflyfish.com). According to Duke, everythingabout Babin’s performance was excel-lent, including his equipment, knowl-edge of water, general fishing knowl-edge, ability to communicate andoverall personality. He says both rain-bow and brown trout were abundant

and eager to take egg patternsweighted with shot and drifted belowa strike indicator in eight to 12 feet ofwater. The day’s catch totaled ap-proximately 20 rainbows measuring12 to 16 inches, two browns measur-ing 17 and 19 inches and one 15-inchcutthroat. Duke gives the cost of hisday of fishing as $450, includingguide, license and tip.

Two days later, Duke says hefished the Little Red River bothabove and below Lobo Landing withOrvis-endorsed guide Jamie Rouse(501-250-1275; www.jamierouse.net).Duke rates Rouse’s equipment asgood, everything else about his abili-ties and services as excellent, andnotes that he would recommend thistrip to a friend. “I had a good daywith a personable, competent guide,”he writes, going on to note that helanded between 20 and 25 fish, allmeasuring 10 to 15 inches. This wasfishing from a boat, drifting a No. 12San Juan Worm in pink or red along thebottom with a small shot below a strikeindicator. The tab for his day on the wa-ter was $400 for guide and tip.

Down in Chile, Tres Rios Lodge(www.tresrioslodge.com) gets topmarks from subscriber John Pollard,who fished the Rio Petrohue, Yelcho,Rosselot, Figueroa and upper andlower Futaleufu for wild brown andrainbow trout. Pollard booked his tripthrough Patty Reilly’s Guided Con-nection (307-734-2716; www.guidedconnections.com).

“I would not categorize the fish-ing as abundant, but it is certainlyway above average because of thequality of the fish,” Pollard writes.“All our fishing was done fromcatarafts. We covered a lot of waterevery day and seldom got off the riverbefore dark.” Though the area was ex-periencing a drought, Pollard indi-cates it didn’t have any impact on hisenjoyment. “The fish are large andthey act like it. They hit hard andwere reluctant to come to hand. Wesaw a few hatches (mayflies, size 14or 16) and caught a few fish on dry

-15-January 2009 Volume 22, Number 1

THE ANGLING REPORT

(Editor Note: In the October issue we toldyou about the new lodge Rod Schuh hascreated on the Hoodoo River on the AlaskaPeninsula of Alaska. In that report, weasked for reader feedback on the lodge,specifically on the late-season steelheadseason. Well, subscriber John Baskin – 84and still fishing hard – checked in nearpress time with this assessment. Anyone elsehave a different view?)

bears there, as well as wolverines andother predators such as lynx andwolves. Rod is trying to put a secondstring to his bow by adding fishing. Iliked Rod. He is a straight-shooterand the hardest-working man that Ihave ever met.

There were about nine fishermenat the lodge and that was a bit of aproblem the day Rod flew us in to anassigned beat for the day. As he hadlimited seats on his plane, some an-glers had to wait for him to return tobe flown out. Once my partner and Iwere caught on the Hoodoo when awindstorm came up. We had justpassed a small cabin (we were driftingin a rubber boat with no motor) and

the guides decided it would be saferto spend the night on shore. With noshelter, I don’t think that I wouldhave fared so well. At 84, I am not ashardy as I used to be. Fortunately,Hoodoo Lodge has permission to usethe hut in an emergency (it belongs tosome hunters), with the usual provisothat it be kept clean and all food, etc.be replaced. I wore two of everything:socks, pants, shirts, sweaters, and Istill never felt comfortable. It wasn’tcold, in the 40s, but I think that thehumidity was high.

The cabin had two bunks. The cli-ents got the bunks and the guidesslept on the floor between them.Cramped quarters. On getting out ofbed during the night to pee, I acci-

dentally stepped on a guide’s head. Iam sure that was not appreciated. Thecabin is surrounded by an electricfence to keep out grizzlies. We werewarned not to piss on it or risk beingelectrocuted. There was no prescribedarea to defecate. Just take the shovelprovided, walk a reasonable distanceaway, dig a hole, do your thing andcover the hole. Shit, shovel and shutup. I thought that a crapper placedover a hole in the ground would havebeen better.

One day we fished the DavidRiver. It’s a nice little stream. Mightbe classified as a creek in Washing-ton. I put away my 15-foot Spey rodand got out my 9-foot, four-pieceSage rod. Just right for this smallriver. Things were the same there ason the Hoodoo - lots of spawningcoho but no steelhead. The cohomales were continually fighting anddisturbing the steelhead. During mytrips all the rivers were at least a foottoo high. This may have contributedto the poor fishing. High water allowsfish to scatter throughout a river andmakes them harder to find.

Will I go back? Don’t know.There are other places to go where Ican catch fish. This season was ex-ploratory. Next year, I believe thecost will go up considerably. In all,there were about nine clients at thelodge. Some were seasoned steel-headers; at least one was not. He hadnever caught a steelhead before. Ontying into one, he dropped his rodand grabbed the reel with both hands.Not an approved method of playing afish. Still hasn’t caught one. Probablynever will unless he drasticallychanges his method of playing afrisky fish.

The guides carried handguns theycalled 44s. Supposedly capable oftaking care of a grizzly at close quar-ters. It might be a good idea for a cli-

Feedback On Hoodoo Fishing Lodge

With reference to your request forinformation about Hoodoo Lodge, Ifished there this past October 10-17.Here is my account of the experience:

On arriving at Cold Bay, I met theparty that had been there the previousweek. I recognized a former acquain-tance that I had fished with in SouthAmerica and BC. I asked him how hehad fared and he replied ‘caught onesteelhead and lost two.’ This man isan excellent fly fisher, and if that wasall he got, the fishing could not begood.

As it happened, I did not fare welleither. I am not a good steelheaderand I got just one strike on my lastday. I think that I was not getting myfly deep enough. Other fishermen didsomewhat better, some getting acouple of fish a day. I have no ideahow many each caught in total. Myfishing partner did well, averaging acouple of fish a day. The fish that Isaw were in photos. They looked tobe about 30 to 33 inches (10 to 12pounds): good fish but not record-breakers. It is a long way to go tocatch this size of steelhead. I cancatch larger fish on the Columbia andits tributaries.

Hoodo Lodge’s Rod Schuh actu-ally has two lodges - one at Cold Bayand the other on the Hoodoo River.He has done an outstanding job inbuilding both lodges. They are reallyfirst class. Great accommodations andgreat food. Excellent staff. Rod isheavily into hunting, which is verygood, as there are monstrous grizzly

flies, but the majority of the fishingwas with sink tips and streamers.”

According to Pollard, the trip cost

$3,060 per person. He recommends ithighly: “This was our first trip toSouth America and we didn’t know

what to expect, but this trip exceededall our expectations. We had the bestguides ever and good fishing.”

-16-January 2009 Volume 22, Number 1

THE ANGLING REPORT

Back of the Book(All items in this section are paid advertisements. Ads cost $1.50 per word. They are published as a reader service. For more details on our ad rates and policies,

contact: Edi Bell, The Angling Report, 9200 S. Dadeland Blvd., Suite 523, Miami, FL 33156-2713. Tel. 305-670-1361. Fax 305-670-1376.)

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ent to ask for a demonstration beforeventuring out. If the guide shouldperform in an emergency the way thenovice steelheader did on his firstfish, things could get interesting! -John Baskin.(Postscript: Given the nature ofBaskin’s comments, we thought itonly fair to give The Fly Shop achance to weigh in. Here is what theshop’s Ryan Peterson had to say:

“Thanks for forwarding us JohnBaskin’s report on his steelhead tripto Hoodoo Lodge. John’s humble oldworld charm is, well, charming. He’sbeen a customer and friend of ours onmany trips over the years and is amuch hardier and a more broadly ex-perienced steelhead flyfisher than heallows. After having spoken to nearlyevery other angler who visitedHoodoo during the 2008 steelheadseason, and having spent a week theremyself (the week preceding John’s), Ifeel as though his report could de-scribe any other steelhead angler’sexperience this year. It is spot on. I’dlike to comment on a couple of tech-nical points, though, and then lay outplans for the 2009 steelhead season,which take into account the experi-ences of John and other anglers thispast fall.

“Firstly, where John notes otheranglers during his week ‘averaged acouple fish per day,’ this should becorrected to ‘averaged one fish perweek…if that.’ The numbers are nowin, and there was not a single weekwhen more than eight steelhead were

landed by a group.“Second, John notes there were

‘about nine fishermen at the lodge.’The maximum capacity of HoodooLodge is eight during king season,nine during silver salmon season andsix during steelhead season.

“Third, while John’s descriptionof the hunter’s hut that he was ma-rooned in for a night is accurate to atee, I hope readers recognize (as Johndoes) that they were only in this hutbecause of an unexpected extremeweather event. In fact, the night Johnspent in that hut was the only nightanyone spent in it all year. The nor-mal accommodations, at either thelodge or the (optional) upriver spike-camp, are decidedly more deluxe.

“Finally, other than the two day/one night upper-river float that in-volves a floatplane put-in shuttle, andimpromptu free fly-outs to the DavidRiver which Rod added to the weeklybeat system this year, the bulk of thebeats are accessed via jet boat fromHoodoo Lodge.

“As John notes in his report, ‘Thisseason was exploratory.’ Despite thelow numbers of hookups on steelheadin 2008, we will host continuedsteelhead exploration in 2009. Therationale is that our data points wereinconclusive this season given theenormous silver salmon run. Thisaffected our steelhead fishing in thatyou couldn’t keep the salmon off thehook. Consequently, a real sense ofsteelhead numbers may have beenobscured. For instance, one day while

floating the upper river, I had verygood spotting light from the boat andsaw an estimated 30 steelhead in a two-mile stretch, and most of them were inthe middle of a hoard of silver salmon.

“In sum, we don’t know if thisyear was typical, or a fluke. What weplan to do is extend the silver salmonseason by two weeks in 2009, and wewill offer just two weeks (instead offive) of steelhead exploratories, Octo-ber 2-16. Contrary to Mr. Baskin’sprojection of a price increase, theprice for that trip will go down sig-nificantly in recognition of the factthat this season did not turn up asmany steelhead as anyone wouldhave liked. A full week exploratorywill cost $3,950.

“In order to better accommodateanglers on the choice water that wasdiscovered in the upper HoodooRiver, Rod Schuh has decided that hewill put in a second outpost campthere in 2009 and offer optionalthree-day/two-night float trips. Thiswill shorten daily float time and in-crease daily fishing time on this fan-tastic stretch of water. Additionally,fly-out explorations of the DavidRiver and of one other new river willbe exciting, optional side trips forthose who are interested.

“Thanks again for the opportunityto respond to Mr. Baskin’s trip report.I hope at age 84 I am still travelingthe world, as John is, casting into thewind and snow, mouth watering at theprospect of a wild steelhead on mynext cast. - Ryan Peterson.

-17-January 2009 Volume 22, Number 1

THE ANGLING REPORT

CUBAN FLY FISHERSCuba - Las Salinas

Fantastic bonefishing, permit, tarpon.One guide per fisherman. Excellent rates.

Tel. 011-44-207-731-6871 (England)E-mail: mike@cubawelcome.com

Web: www.cubawelcome.com

CHILEAN PATAGONIANow booking 2009 - 2010 (we do have afew openings for this season because ofcancellations - please contact us for detailsand special pricing).Floating lodge - PUMA II - Brand-new,custom-built mothership. Capacity: sixfisherpersons. Fish the bays and rivers, in-cluding the Futaleufu, on the 28-mile-longYelcho Lake. Mostly DRY FLY fishing fortrue trophy rainbows, browns and brooktrout of three to 15 pounds. The closestthing to flats fishing there is in fresh water.Our second lodge is located about halfwaybetween the lake and the ocean (18 milesfrom the lake) on the Yelcho River. Pris-tine river fishing for browns and rainbows,with occasional cohos, chinooks, Atlantics,and sea-runs. Also available: Other lakes inthe immediate area, including the lake thatclients since 1998, including legendaryguide Capt. Bill Curtis, said “was the bestdry fly fishing they ever experienced.” Wealso offer a river estuary reached by a 45-minute horseback ride up the ocean beachthat has been amazingly productive, espe-cially for double-digit steelhead andAtlantics. This first-class lodge (we evenhave a hot tub) is reached by boat and has acapacity of eight fisherpersons. We offer nature and glacier treks and ex-cursions to Doug Tompkin’s world-ac-claimed eco park, Parque Pumalin, adjacentto the lodge.

PUMA FISHING LTDAwww.pumafishing.com

Contact: Stephen Selway, D.V.M.Tel/Fax (May 1 - Nov 30)

516-775-0827Tel/Fax (Dec 1 - April 30)

954-922-5389E-mail: fishhorsesjs@aol.com

Fish Australia’s northern t ip of CapeYork, where freshwater r ivers f lowthrough Mangrove jungles into huge es-tuaries and then on to pristine sand flatsand beaches, all of it teeming with over50 different kinds of game fish.Trevallies, barramundi, queen fish, per-mit, tunas and big barred mackerel arejust a few of the headline species. Justoffshore in the shallow Gulf ofCarpentaria, pelagics bust bait under sea-birds.All of this is fished from guided skiffswhile l iving and dining in comfortaboard Carpentaria Seafaris mothership,Tropic Paradise. This is a fishing adven-ture that no fly or light tackle anglershould miss.Bring an appetite for fabulous fishingand gourmet food. With the present ex-change rate, it has never been so reason-able to visit Australia.Join us for the “Best Week of Fishing on

the Planet!” Call for a DVD,a color brochure and available dates.Tel. 888-409-2008 - 305-872-0179

E-mail: Howard@fishabout.com

SPANISH PYRENEESDry fly fishing traditional concept wading,upstream and using fine l ines, whilediscovering the most hidden and beautifulPyrenees Mountains r ivers, f ished byHemingway

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Non-fishermen vacationsExclusive guiding services for adventureanglers since 1999 in a lost primitiveWestern Europe area. Brown, rainbow &brook trout.

Contact us for complete brochures SALVELINUS LODGE

info@salvelinus.com

4th

Generation Guides. 32 years in businessin Alaska and 19 years in Kamchatka,Russia. Rafting and Fishing – Wild and

Scenic Rivers.Ouzel Expeditions Incorporated

Paul and Sharon AllredP.O. Box 935, Girdwood, AK 99587800-825-8196, Fax: 907-783-3220

www.ouzel.com, E-mail: paul@ouzel.com

mailto:mike@cubawelcome.comwww.cubawelcome.com

-18-January 2009 Volume 22, Number 1

THE ANGLING REPORT

Our lodge is a beautiful Mediterranean-style villa, amid a 16-acre estate in thelower Florida Keys. Our chef, Mike,treats guests to sensational cuisine,making good use of fresh local seafood.Our guides are all experienced, youngprofessional fishermen and very friendly. Wefish for trophy tarpon, bonefish and permit.March through July. Book Now!

Visit us at: www.bahiahondaclub.com.Call us at: 305-395-0009

E-mail: fish@bahiahondaclub.com

World’s Greatest RedfishingFly fishing and light tackle.Corporate groups welcome.

Call Gulf Coast Outfitters in SE Louisiana.Tel. 877-redfish (733-3474)

Trophy RedfishFly fish 25 miles from New Orleans inskinny water year round. Specializing incatch-and-release sight casting. Accommo-dations for up to eight guests, includesmeals. I have four flat boats running. Twoof the boats are fully booked. Two boatsavailable for the trophy redfish season, Oc-tober through February 2008.

Capt. Gregg Arnold – 504-237-6742

FISH PATAGONIA THE RIGHT WAYFor the quintessential Patagonia trout fish-ing adventure come to where it all beganover a half-century ago – and do it in styleat the brand new Chime Lodge on thebanks of the legendary Rio Chimehuin.From there we have unlimited access to thegreatest trout water in the world, includingthe Alumine, Malleo, Collon Cura, Trafuland Quillen rivers and countless lakes. Our20 years guiding experience in the area isyour guarantee of success. Chime Lodge –superb accommodations, great food andwine, exemplary service, sensational fishing!

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