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There is a famous popular saying in Spanish that goes “There is a reason for the river to roar”. And when people talk about the Chimehuín River, there is a reason for that too. Not in vain have many anglers from all round the world christened it as the most beautiful river in the world.

January and February are special months for fishing in the Argentinian Patagonia, when the temperature rises during the first hours of the day and water from most courses becomes scarce. Thus, it becomes easier to find out pools and flumes, ideal for beginners.

Therefore, when Darío Damonte suggested that we go floating on the Chimehuín River from down the Devil’s Throat up to the bridge in Route 234, I did not hesitate to say “yes”.

Darío and Héctor, his father, picked us up at the Quinen Inn, in San Martín de los Andes, to take us to the fishery. Among jokes, anecdotes and country music, we slowly traveled the rubble road that leads to the mouth of Lake Huechulafquen.

Without crossing the river bridge, we turned right into a dirt path that heads for the fisheries. Once there, Héctor helped us get the raft down and wished us good luck. At 7.30pm, he would be waiting for us at a few meters from the Route 234 Bridge, in the access to the small and picturesque Junín de los Andes.

Let’s Fish

We took the raft down. The weather was ideal. It was not yet 9 in the morning and we were already stepping into the cold waters.

Darío would row and lead the raft, while Emiliano and I began to cast towards both banks.

The sites and fisheries we were leaving behind were beautiful indeed, with their transparent waters that allowed us to see fascinating rock beds and sand bank edges at first sight.

The Chimehuín is the river of streamers and it is the large brown trout’s job to confirm it regularly, with catches that generally surpass the 3 kilograms.

After sailing along some flumes, the first stop was reached. The boat approached one of the banks and remained at a casting distance from a beautiful blue-water flume. Darío set his fly perfectly and as he would slowly pick up his fly, a large fish would jump over it, but it did not get hooked. We fished for a while and thus we tried all the flumes and pools we were passing by.

The formation of large stones causes the river to have real falls, therefore, natural rafting turns out to be an addition to the attractions experimented by the angler.

We arrived in the famous Piedra del Viento (Stone of the Wind), a beautiful rock formation in brown, grey, red and black, eroded by the wind and the tides.

Darío would point at the spots where the trout could be. That is how the largest trout were in the shallowest sites. My fly fell next to an old willow, by the riverbank, where the river was not even twenty centimeters deep, and the trout immediately took the streamer. The brown trout, which would loosely surpass the one and a half kilo, would fight for freedom at the other end of the line.

Some Delicacies

The ritual of food is something the angler can fall in love with. Darío knows it well. Once on solid ground, the clock would strike 12 and an excellent Patagonian snack was expecting us. Wine, beer and soda would anticipate the main course of the day: barbecued chicken cooked in the fishing site. As the chicken was getting browner, we continued fishing, this time from the shore, in a place resembling paradise.

After the siesta hours, we continued fishing in the raft. The area known as “La herradura” (the horseshoe) is really amazing and sometimes you can see trout weighing over 5 kilos there.

After passing by the area of the CEAN - Centro de Ecología Aplicada del Neuquén (Neuquén Center of Applied Ecology), where the river treasures some flumes and pools of an incredible green, we stopped fishing. Eventually, at 7.30pm, we arrived in a nook of the river where Héctor was waiting for us with the trailer to pick up the raft and go back to San Martín de los Andes.
We enjoyed a spectacular day and indulged ourselves with almost twenty bites, catching some really beautiful specimens that we released back into the water safe and sound.

And so, the “Chime”, like we all call it: a river from out of this world, which thank God is Argentinian. With magical waters, amazing scenery and an ancient volcano keeping watch on it and, of course, packed with brown and rainbow trout which, due to their size, can drive more than one angler crazy.