Fishing Ñireco Creek and Rio Buraleo with SET Fly Fishing in Argentina

This week, I share more of our adventure fishing Ñireco Creek and Rio Buraleo with SET Fly Fishing in Argentina.

This day, we fished the Ñireco, a 21 mile small creek which flows through the Estancia, eventually flowing into the Rio Reñileuvu.

We didn’t have the opportunity to fish here last year because there wasn’t much water in the creek. In addition, we fished the first week of February and the temperatures, both air and water were much warmer.

It’s a beautiful creek, with pocket water and bushes and willows growing over the cut banks, giving Brown and Rainbow trout lots of opportunities to hide from us.

I enjoy fishing this smaller intimate water, walking from pocket to pocket searching for rising trout.

We took turns fishing the water as we walked upstream.

And we found fish…nice, hard-fighting fish.

To my surprise, I actually found caddis flitting around above the bushes when we arrived.

Small water can be surprising and Ñireco held a few of them.

Shortly after arriving at the creek, Dancingtrout was catching several smaller Rainbows with the help of our guide Franco.

Danny did a little exploring downstream. He returned and informed us he’d seen a larger trout in a pool. Off we went to see if we could raise the fish.

We watched while the Rainbow occasionally rose and ate Caddis floating downstream. It would circle in the pool above the submerged bedrock. I placed a cast into the lower portion of the pool with the intent to measure my line length for the presentation and a small fish tried to eat it. I pulled back quickly hoping I wouldn’t hook the fish and spook the large trout. It worked. I waited a little longer and placed the cast and watched the trout turn and move towards my fly. That’s when the circus started!

I hooked the fish and tried to keep it from going downstream in the fast water because I wouldn’t be able to chase it. You can see my line in the image below as Danny tries to position himself below the trout and prevent it from dropping into the faster water.

My only hope was to keep it in the deeper water and quickly play it. This was a BIG fish, at least 24 inches.

But it wasn’t meant to be that day. Danny was able to take a couple swipes with the net, but the fish was deep and not really ready to land. I used lots of pressure and moved the rod parallel with the bank in hopes of keeping different pressure points on the fish, trying to move it. I was able to accomplish that, but the water was too deep to net the fish. Danny took a final swipe and the fish was gone.

Notice how the hook is bent? Yup, lots of pressure with 3X tippet and fast current can do that when playing a large trout. I’ll always remember that fish!

Back to the original plan of walking upstream and fishing along the way.

We found willing trout.

The image below is one of the reasons I enjoy fly fishing in Patagonia. This is a bridge to take goats from one side of the river to the other. I really don’t see that where I fish here in the US!

All this fly fishing tires a person out. Here I am recovering at lunch.

I must say, I really enjoyed fly fishing Ñireco Creek!

Rio Buraleo sits in a wide valley and is much different than the creek. We arrived at our landing spot and quickly disembarked with our guides Tete and Santi along with our gear.

We began fishing in the deep water boulder section…

…and worked our way upstream to find longer runs in the wide valley.

Dry/dropper combinations worked for Dancingtrout in the boulders.

The San Juan Worm was taken by several trout.

Later in the day, someone had success with dry flies.

But for me, I found success with streamers. While I prefer fishing dry flies, I can’t dispute the success I had for larger trout!

Below, Santi is holding a beautiful Rainbow caught by Dancingtrout in a small side channel. I wish I had been there to watch the hunt and fight.

Here is the side channel.

Amazing to me she was able to find that large fish in small water.

And speaking of large trout…

Next up will be our experience fly fishing a couple of days on the Trocoman.

Enjoy…go fish!