LAND OF FIRE - FLY FISHING FOR ROBALO

RAISING ROBALO LAND OF FIRE

WORDS & PHOTOS BY KATKA ŠVAGROVÁ & DIEGO CASTILO

Tierra del Fuego, the Spanish words for The Land of Fire, is located on the southernmost tip of the South American mainland. Tierra del Fuego is divided between Chile and Argentina and was discovered in 1520 by Ferdinand Magellan. Everyone knows this part of the world is full of contrasts, the vast wilderness and of course the biggest Seatrout in the world. These fish migrate annually into the famous Rio Grande, Irigoyen and the Rio Gallegos rivers. You travel half way across the globe to fish at Tierra del Fuego for their famous silver Seatrout and you've probably never heard about the saltwater “flats” possibilities just around 1500 km from Antarctica.

I traveled to Argentina from Europe, which to date has been one of the longest journeys I have ever made. Once you reach Buenos Aires, after more than 14 hours in the plane, you have to take a three hour flight to Rio Grande or Ushuaia in a light aircraft. From there you transfer to a 4x4 truck only to be taken to the World´s End lodge. Yes, the end of the world, that is the most accurate description for this place. In this part of the world nature has really bizarre appearance. This area is surrounded by Lenga forest, which is only native to Chile, Argentina and Tierra del Fuego. All of the trees owe their tortured existence to the strong wind with the end result looking like something out of a horror movie. The wild horses, bulls, foxes and condors don’t seem to mind living on the set of horror movie. A cozy wooden lodge is located just on the river bank with an outstanding view over the river and the sea side. This place blew my mind right from the moment we arrived, and I was now, more than ever, curious as to how the fishing will be.

I was supposed to fish for Seatrout at Irigoyen River every day for the duration of my trip, but when I was told that besides Seatrout and Brown Trout in the river there is the possibility of catching a saltwater species called Robalo, I didn’t hesitate! On the very first afternoon we went and fished the shallow beaches not far from the estuary of Irigoyen River. The shoreline is totally different to any other saltwater destination I ever fished before. Cold Arctic winds do not allow for a perfect cast, the high tides push quickly across the shallow flats and the water is as cold as ice. Regardless of all of that it was a great idea, we used the free afternoon hours between Seatrout sessions and experienced superb fishing.

Robalo (Eleginops Maclovinus) are a common fish in the littoral estuaries of Southern South America including the Falkland Islands. ROBALO is a taxonomically isolated fish. If I had to describe this fish it would be a combination of a mutant Seabass and a Cod with the feeding behavior of a Bonefish. They feed by searching the flats and nearby river mouths on an incoming tide for crustaceans, small fish and sea worms. The average size is between 2-5lbs, but they can grow a lot bigger and have been caught up to 30 lbs. Once you hook a Robalo on fly their run is crazy, sometimes they will make few jumps, but usually they fight following the contours of bottom. Their large pectoral fins allow them to move fast with incredible power. The fight will doesn’t last very long time, but it is really explosive. The locals enjoy these as a favorite table fish. We even got to taste their delicate white meat one on our first night’s dinner and it was delicious!

For these Robalo I recommend using #8WT rods matched with sink tip floating line for using lighter flies or a floating line to use with weighted flies with dumbbell eyes or tungsten beads. Just keep in mind not to bring your usual saltwater or flats fly lines because the ocean temperature is pretty cold and warm water fly lines will get damaged very quickly. My favorite is InTouch Striper 30ft sink tip fly line from Rio Products paired with at least 20lb Fluoroflex tippet.

Robalo feed on almost anything. The most successful flies were Woolly Buggers sized #4 - #6 with rubber legs in black, yellow, orange, or tan. I was fully loaded with flies from Fulling Mill for Seatrout, but I also got them to add in some big Woolly Buggers with gold coneheads in olive. These olive conehead Woolly Buggers proved the most successful flies for me on this trip. Over the next few days we also found that another successful fly for these Robalo was the Squirmy Worm in size 10. Yes, you read right, Squirmy Worms also work in saltwater. It seems pretty crazy, but that day it was undeniably the best fly. I would think that most Bonefish patterns in a smaller size would also work just as well.

When fishing for Robalo the most successful technique is blind casting. Once the fly reaches the bottom start stripping long and slow, it doesn’t take long to get a bite. Some people don’t like Robalo fishing because they think it is just too easy, but I don’t agree with that. If you get the tide right you can have an unbelievable session like we did on our first day, catching around 20 fish within one hour, most averaged 2-4 lbs. Sight fishing is a challenging way to fish for the bigger single fish which cruise the shallows. The best conditions for Robalo sight fishing are sun and no wind which is very rare at Tierra del Fuego which also happen to be called the windiest place on Earth! So good luck.

I wasn’t lucky enough to experience “perfect” conditions and had mostly cloudy, windy days on the beach when the surface turns into an impenetrable glare and the wind makes it impossible to see nervous water or the Robalo´s fins. The colour of the water, even when it’s sunny, will never compare to the flats of the Bahamas, Belize or the Seychelles. I managed to land one decent size fish around 10lb and released more then 30 average size fish overall and spotted some real monsters. As a consolation while fishing for these Robalo you always have the chance of hooking a super silver fresh Seatrout which I was lucky enough to catch a couple of times before they managed to enter Irigoyen river. If you are looking to visit a very special place, with an unprecedented landscape and want to catch a new species on fly, which is not that common in fly fishing world, Tierra del Fuego is the place to go!