Fly fishing with Joe Humphreys

Joe on Lake Tromen (click image for detail)

 

 

FLY FISHING WITH JOE HUMPHREYS 

   Many years ago I read Joe Humphreys book “On the Trout Stream” and even though I was a good fly fisherman at the time, his book taught me many things I didn’t even think about when I jumped in the water to do my thing.

His book also opened my eyes and showed me a new nymphing technique that rewarded me, and many anglers, with beautiful trout.

Living in Patagonia, Argentina was like living in the dark ages as far as getting good tackle and literature related to our sport so we pretty much learned from trial and error, from visiting anglers mainly from the US and from hard to get books, and to us, Joe Humphreys, the fly fishing writer, was GOD (We are kind of polytheistic as we have many gods like Mel Krieger, Tom Rosenbauer, Vince Marinaro, John Lennon and Maradona).

Anyways, when Charlie Charlesworth from Outdoors on the fly TV show called and asked me if we could do an Argentine show with Joe Humphreys I almost died.  Think about it!  God wanted to come to earth and fish with me! Jesus, Moses, Ala, all got together to make my dream come true and I said:  When?

  We finally met at the Bariloche Airport a couple of weeks ago to do the shooting and I was amazed to find out that God was real and actually a really nice guy.  He even had a mundane dream.  He said: “for thirty years I’ve been dreaming about fishing the Chimehuin River, and now I will finally do it because of you..”  I didn’t know what to say, since the Chimehuin River was as high as it could be in early season and then some, but hey, God is God and we all want to live under his grace forever. 

I was a little scared to tell him the truth about the conditions of the River of his dreams, and when I actually told him, his stare almost sat me down in my chair, so I politely delayed the event as much as I could.

  The first morning we decided to float the Collon Cura River below la Rinconada bridge.  I know we needed good footage and I know where to find trout in high water conditions.

By the time we got to the river the water was really high, overcast skies and a lot of chilly wind.  Not the ideal conditions to float this river, but we were there.  We tried the typical set ups for the Collon Cura:  A dropper hopper combo on a floating line and a sink tip with a streamer.  Joe of course decided to use his nymphing technique despite my suggestion that it might not work under this conditions. 

After 5 ‘ float a really good stretch of water and no hits I decided to look for backwater, eddies and any water that looked calm enough to support trout.  My bet was correct, the first backwater had rises.   Trout were sipping Blue winged Olives on all the predictable places.  Joe switched to a BWO # 16 while Charlie fished a Stimulator on top with a Pheasant tail 4’ below.  Both techniques prove effective.   I was actually watching/guiding GOD and watched him do his thing.  Amazing I thought.  I told God were to put the fly and the moment it landed we had a fish on.  Charlie did very well as well with plenty of fish subsurface. 

We had a wonderful day on the Collon Cura  with lots of fish caught and released.  When I asked Joe if he liked the river he said “yes, I did, are we fishing the Chimehuin tomorrow?”

The next two days were really good.  We fished the Malleo River and since its wading only and I didn’t have to row, I had the chance to watch Joe put his unique nymph fishing technique into practice.  It was revealing to say the least.  Here was Joe, using a level fly line, a long leader with a Rosary of split shot near his tippet and NO strike indicator catching fish in really difficult water.  He explained that the combination of a long leader with a thin fly line and split shots was very effective to present the fly near the bottom, or to put it in different words, in the trout’s face.  Lots of trout in the 14” to 20” range. 

I was more amazed to see that he used his technique sight fishing for 20” rainbows on the mouth of the Malleo River with an egg imitation and he caught every single fish he say.

That night we were putting an order of level fly lines via Internet.  We asked Joe if he liked the fishing and he said: “I loved it but tomorrow is our last day and I HAVE TO FISH THE CHIMEHUIN RIVER” with a look in his face that put me into Guide mode and decided we should fish the BOCA of the Chimehuin.

  The Boca fishing is very tough.  There are huge brown trout, some really nice landlocked salmon and rainbow trout.  To catch the large browns we had to use a lead core shooting head with monofilament running line in order to get the fly to where the fish were.  Joe didn’t fancy the idea of this setup.  So I suggested we go to my secret little place downstream from where most people fish.  This place always holds rainbow trout in until mid December.  These trout have spawned a few weeks ago and were feeding and getting strong to start their migration to the lake. 

I told Joe that no matter what technique he used, if he put the fly in that shallow gravel bar and let it sink, he will catch fish.  I suggested a Pancora imitation on a long leader and floating line and the first cast produced a 20” rainbow, his second an 18”, his third a 22’, his fourth a 18” and so it went for almost an hour whe he said “ my dream came true, now I can go home…”  He was not crying, but his face showed an emotion that I didn’t see the previous days.  We left the spot to Charlie, where he caught a few more rainbows and while he did it, I sat with Joe and talked about how we fished when we were kids, about the condors flying above, about the Lanin volcano and that Chimehuin means place of the Chimes (Chee-mess) a Mapuche Indian mythological figure that growled and blew to scare away people who wanted to harm the land.  I suggested that the Mapuche may have heard the Lanin Volcano roaring and thought that the constant Western wind as the blowing of the Myth and he agreed.  Then I truly believed in the story because God said so and he was happy.