k_e_v
Well-known member
Hi everybody, miss me?
A report of my recent South American trip to Jurassic Lake or Lago Strobel. I have included abbreviations and airport codes because i found in my research that it can get confusing.
This was my first overseas trip and I built a couple of days on the frontend and backend of the trip so I was not worried about making/missing connections and as such i had a very relaxing time getting to Jurassic Lake and getting home with a couple of wonderful evenings in Buenos Aires . I flew out of Peoria on 12/27 and after a quick connection in Atlanta i flew overnight and arrived in Buenos Aires (BA) at 9am local time or 6 am Peoria time after a wonderful flight by Delta.
A common theme this trip was to pay a little extra for time and/or comfort and the money spent to upgrade my seat on Delta to what they call Delta Comfort was well spent IMO. It gives you a better seat, more legroom, dedicated overhead storage ( which was perfect for my Orvis Carryall) and the best part is it gets you off the plane ahead of a couple of hundred people behind you and lets you get to immigration/ customs ahead of the crowds. A very nice perk i thought. Also another tip, i used Seat Guru to pick out my seat. There i was able to read a description of the seat location and read reviews from people who have had that seat on that plane, pretty neat website.
Note that flying into Argentina you can carry on fishing related items but once you land and transfer to the domestic airport these items must be checked for further domestic Argentina flights. whether they charge you to check these items is unclear, i was 50/50 on that. Paid once and free once.
In BA i met my buddy Dave, a fishing guide from the Green river, and we were picked up by the LOL Argentina travel service. When flying into BA you land at the International airport, EZE and must transfer to the Domestic airport, AEP for further flights around Argentina. Opinions vary on how long the transfer across town takes so we spent the afternoon in BA and made the connection to AEP on Friday morning rather than have to hustle to make the flight that afternoon. All the arrangements were efficiently and proffessionly taken care of by LOL travel and while they are not cheap I found value in their services and especially on the return trip where there was a small hiccup with the arrangements and LOL got me thru the airport bureaucracy very quickly and my bags safely on the plane with no fees incurred. Also they are a great translator when checking into hotels and offering non spanish speaking people tips on what to do and where to go in BA.
Friday morning we made the 4 hour flight from AEP to El Calafate,FTE which is the jumping off spot for Jurassic Lake and also a main southern tourist hub and gateway to the Perito Moreno glacier which is a feature in the southern end of Los Glaciares National Park. A nice, little, busy town with anything you could want and several ways to see the glacier. I took a private taxi on the 1 hour drive to the glacier and spent 2 wonderful hours in a special place.
https://flic.kr/p/228GKwF
https://flic.kr/p/23shWe5
https://flic.kr/p/Fndpvy
https://flic.kr/p/DR8mGp
The next morning we were picked up for the 4 1/2 hour trip to Jurassic Lake. A quick note on fishing operations and access at the Lake. As far as I can tell there is not a DIY option for Jurassic Lake. There are 4 ways to fish the lake.
A small hotel on a highway on the SE side of the lake has access and he will take you to the lake to spin fish or whatever you like. This is not really a fishing operation but he takes a couple of tourists to the lake after they see pictures of big fish at the front desk. Another landowner owner has access and will grant it occasionally to locals.
And then the big two. Jurassic Lake Lodge, JLL is the big boy on the block. They dont have much access, and what they have may be granted by the previous landowner i mentioned, thats a little unclear, but they have the best. JLL has the best internet presence and if you google Jurassic lake you will likely see JLL. They sit right at the mouth of the Barrencoso river, the major river that supplies the lake and the river used by the big lake fish for spawning. They have very little access to the river or the lake but what they have is undeniably the place to go for the biggest and the most fish. A large number of the big fish pictures you see on the web come from here.
The final place with lake access is Estancia Laguna Verde, EVL. Besides the 2 Todd Moen videos, both awesome must watch videos, they have a much smaller web presence. EVL has access to a huge section of the lake and miles of the river. EVL is a lodge thats sits off the lake and in addition to Jurassic lake and the Barrencoso river it has numerous other lakes and smaller lagoons each filled with trout on their property.
The following is editorial comment and my opinion based on my my research and conversations with 2 anglers that have fished both JLL and EVL. While JLL offers the biggest and most fish it comes at a price. There is little to no variety. You are fishing side by side with 10 other anglers in the same places day after day with very little variety. They only fish a very small portion of the coastline and the very bottom run of the river. The guys i have talked to said it is initially very fun but gets repetitive quickly, although their fish pics from there dwarfed mine
Both anglers also commented on the accommodations and both gave better marks to EVL for food, hospitality and lodging. Both agreed that JLL is a fishing "camp" while EVL is a fishing "lodge".
We chose EVL for the above stated reasons and found the variety to be the best part of the trip. The program is as follows. On Saturday after arriving at noon you are introduced to your guide for the week and very conveniently you are able to load all of your fishing tackle and clothes into the truck for the week so wherever you end up fishing you always have what you need depending on the current conditions. You spend the first Saturday at the lagoons close to the lodge catching eager, light biting rainbows. Sunday the week starts. Breakfast at 8 and at 9 you head out to wherever you have chosen to fish for the day, lunch at 2 and then fish till 7 or so and back to the lodge for appetizers at 8 and then followed by dinner at 9.
They take very good care of you and throw copious amounts of food and wine at you all throughout the day to keep you happy. There is wifi but no cell service, although a sat phone is there and available when needed.
On to the fishing. It was very windy during our trip, even by Pategonia standards. I spent 6 days with my new fly rod and I still have no idea how it casts:redface:. Either we were making 60 foot roll casts with the wind or throwing headlong into 30-40 mph winds. At times it was hard to stand and you learned quickly to not stand on the rocks above the water because you would be blown off them
Our guides were pretty good at finding the fish and we spent most of the time sight casting to cruising rainbows. Our group had good days and tough days but the fish we got were real fighters when you got into one of them. Because of the tough weather no one in our group broke into the 20 lb club but several 17-18 pounders were caught and many hooks were reeled back in that straightened out after a long fight and a lost fish. Fishing was pretty basic, floating lines with nymphs and streamers hung under an indicator half the time and the other half you slowly retrieved them. We started using big foams bugs as our indicators and caught quite a few big fish on topwater which was awesome. A common theme thru out my trip was a reluctance by the guides to use the bigger hook sizes but we found they worked well and were much easier to use. In the river the big foams bugs performed well but you almost had to argue with the guide to put one on.
I really enjoyed the river portion of the trip and spent a large portion of my time there much to my guides amazement. He just could not comprehend why I would be happy catching 10-16" fish in the river when the big ones where in the lake. For me the lake was nice but the river was special and you will see in a bit that I found some bigger fish there as well.
A last word before the pics, the roads around the lake and the last half hour drive into the lodge are no joke. I mean they can really get to you. They will be probably be the reason I dont go back. Its no ones fault but it is so darn bumpy that i dont really have words to describe it. The area is so extreme and the geology is so tough that the trails cut into the rocks are primitive at best.
A couple of the "average" fish out of the lake
Typical conditions we fished
The upper Barrencoso River
https://flic.kr/p/DR36b4
Pretty, pretty
https://flic.kr/p/228Sr6x
The middle Barrencoso
https://flic.kr/p/228AH46
A great fish from just below there on a 4 wt.
https://flic.kr/p/22qgVXC
The "mousetrap" hole
https://flic.kr/p/23stsVA
and a beauty from there on a 5 wt
https://flic.kr/p/DR31oP
One of 3 lunch shanty's on the Lake
https://flic.kr/p/Fn7SeW
On the rim overlooking "Monster Bay"
https://flic.kr/p/22qxSP1
Transportation around the lake
https://flic.kr/p/23suzP3
What a landscape!!
https://flic.kr/p/JymUSV
What a great Place!!!! The people were wonderful and very friendly. The staff at the lodge was overly accommodating. And most of all I really enjoyed sharing a bottle of wine with other nationalities at the lodge. Swiss, Dutch, South African, Brazilian, Argentinian and Americans all enjoyed each others company.
Hope ya liked it
kevin
A report of my recent South American trip to Jurassic Lake or Lago Strobel. I have included abbreviations and airport codes because i found in my research that it can get confusing.
This was my first overseas trip and I built a couple of days on the frontend and backend of the trip so I was not worried about making/missing connections and as such i had a very relaxing time getting to Jurassic Lake and getting home with a couple of wonderful evenings in Buenos Aires . I flew out of Peoria on 12/27 and after a quick connection in Atlanta i flew overnight and arrived in Buenos Aires (BA) at 9am local time or 6 am Peoria time after a wonderful flight by Delta.
A common theme this trip was to pay a little extra for time and/or comfort and the money spent to upgrade my seat on Delta to what they call Delta Comfort was well spent IMO. It gives you a better seat, more legroom, dedicated overhead storage ( which was perfect for my Orvis Carryall) and the best part is it gets you off the plane ahead of a couple of hundred people behind you and lets you get to immigration/ customs ahead of the crowds. A very nice perk i thought. Also another tip, i used Seat Guru to pick out my seat. There i was able to read a description of the seat location and read reviews from people who have had that seat on that plane, pretty neat website.
Note that flying into Argentina you can carry on fishing related items but once you land and transfer to the domestic airport these items must be checked for further domestic Argentina flights. whether they charge you to check these items is unclear, i was 50/50 on that. Paid once and free once.
In BA i met my buddy Dave, a fishing guide from the Green river, and we were picked up by the LOL Argentina travel service. When flying into BA you land at the International airport, EZE and must transfer to the Domestic airport, AEP for further flights around Argentina. Opinions vary on how long the transfer across town takes so we spent the afternoon in BA and made the connection to AEP on Friday morning rather than have to hustle to make the flight that afternoon. All the arrangements were efficiently and proffessionly taken care of by LOL travel and while they are not cheap I found value in their services and especially on the return trip where there was a small hiccup with the arrangements and LOL got me thru the airport bureaucracy very quickly and my bags safely on the plane with no fees incurred. Also they are a great translator when checking into hotels and offering non spanish speaking people tips on what to do and where to go in BA.
Friday morning we made the 4 hour flight from AEP to El Calafate,FTE which is the jumping off spot for Jurassic Lake and also a main southern tourist hub and gateway to the Perito Moreno glacier which is a feature in the southern end of Los Glaciares National Park. A nice, little, busy town with anything you could want and several ways to see the glacier. I took a private taxi on the 1 hour drive to the glacier and spent 2 wonderful hours in a special place.
https://flic.kr/p/228GKwFhttps://flic.kr/p/23shWe5 https://flic.kr/p/Fndpvyhttps://flic.kr/p/DR8mGpThe next morning we were picked up for the 4 1/2 hour trip to Jurassic Lake. A quick note on fishing operations and access at the Lake. As far as I can tell there is not a DIY option for Jurassic Lake. There are 4 ways to fish the lake.
A small hotel on a highway on the SE side of the lake has access and he will take you to the lake to spin fish or whatever you like. This is not really a fishing operation but he takes a couple of tourists to the lake after they see pictures of big fish at the front desk. Another landowner owner has access and will grant it occasionally to locals.
And then the big two. Jurassic Lake Lodge, JLL is the big boy on the block. They dont have much access, and what they have may be granted by the previous landowner i mentioned, thats a little unclear, but they have the best. JLL has the best internet presence and if you google Jurassic lake you will likely see JLL. They sit right at the mouth of the Barrencoso river, the major river that supplies the lake and the river used by the big lake fish for spawning. They have very little access to the river or the lake but what they have is undeniably the place to go for the biggest and the most fish. A large number of the big fish pictures you see on the web come from here.
The final place with lake access is Estancia Laguna Verde, EVL. Besides the 2 Todd Moen videos, both awesome must watch videos, they have a much smaller web presence. EVL has access to a huge section of the lake and miles of the river. EVL is a lodge thats sits off the lake and in addition to Jurassic lake and the Barrencoso river it has numerous other lakes and smaller lagoons each filled with trout on their property.
The following is editorial comment and my opinion based on my my research and conversations with 2 anglers that have fished both JLL and EVL. While JLL offers the biggest and most fish it comes at a price. There is little to no variety. You are fishing side by side with 10 other anglers in the same places day after day with very little variety. They only fish a very small portion of the coastline and the very bottom run of the river. The guys i have talked to said it is initially very fun but gets repetitive quickly, although their fish pics from there dwarfed mine
Both anglers also commented on the accommodations and both gave better marks to EVL for food, hospitality and lodging. Both agreed that JLL is a fishing "camp" while EVL is a fishing "lodge".We chose EVL for the above stated reasons and found the variety to be the best part of the trip. The program is as follows. On Saturday after arriving at noon you are introduced to your guide for the week and very conveniently you are able to load all of your fishing tackle and clothes into the truck for the week so wherever you end up fishing you always have what you need depending on the current conditions. You spend the first Saturday at the lagoons close to the lodge catching eager, light biting rainbows. Sunday the week starts. Breakfast at 8 and at 9 you head out to wherever you have chosen to fish for the day, lunch at 2 and then fish till 7 or so and back to the lodge for appetizers at 8 and then followed by dinner at 9.
They take very good care of you and throw copious amounts of food and wine at you all throughout the day to keep you happy. There is wifi but no cell service, although a sat phone is there and available when needed.
On to the fishing. It was very windy during our trip, even by Pategonia standards. I spent 6 days with my new fly rod and I still have no idea how it casts:redface:. Either we were making 60 foot roll casts with the wind or throwing headlong into 30-40 mph winds. At times it was hard to stand and you learned quickly to not stand on the rocks above the water because you would be blown off them
Our guides were pretty good at finding the fish and we spent most of the time sight casting to cruising rainbows. Our group had good days and tough days but the fish we got were real fighters when you got into one of them. Because of the tough weather no one in our group broke into the 20 lb club but several 17-18 pounders were caught and many hooks were reeled back in that straightened out after a long fight and a lost fish. Fishing was pretty basic, floating lines with nymphs and streamers hung under an indicator half the time and the other half you slowly retrieved them. We started using big foams bugs as our indicators and caught quite a few big fish on topwater which was awesome. A common theme thru out my trip was a reluctance by the guides to use the bigger hook sizes but we found they worked well and were much easier to use. In the river the big foams bugs performed well but you almost had to argue with the guide to put one on.
I really enjoyed the river portion of the trip and spent a large portion of my time there much to my guides amazement. He just could not comprehend why I would be happy catching 10-16" fish in the river when the big ones where in the lake. For me the lake was nice but the river was special and you will see in a bit that I found some bigger fish there as well.
A last word before the pics, the roads around the lake and the last half hour drive into the lodge are no joke. I mean they can really get to you. They will be probably be the reason I dont go back. Its no ones fault but it is so darn bumpy that i dont really have words to describe it. The area is so extreme and the geology is so tough that the trails cut into the rocks are primitive at best.
A couple of the "average" fish out of the lake
Typical conditions we fished
The upper Barrencoso River
https://flic.kr/p/DR36b4Pretty, pretty
https://flic.kr/p/228Sr6x The middle Barrencoso
https://flic.kr/p/228AH46 A great fish from just below there on a 4 wt.
https://flic.kr/p/22qgVXCThe "mousetrap" hole
https://flic.kr/p/23stsVA and a beauty from there on a 5 wt
https://flic.kr/p/DR31oPOne of 3 lunch shanty's on the Lake
https://flic.kr/p/Fn7SeWOn the rim overlooking "Monster Bay"
https://flic.kr/p/22qxSP1 Transportation around the lake
https://flic.kr/p/23suzP3What a landscape!!
https://flic.kr/p/JymUSVWhat a great Place!!!! The people were wonderful and very friendly. The staff at the lodge was overly accommodating. And most of all I really enjoyed sharing a bottle of wine with other nationalities at the lodge. Swiss, Dutch, South African, Brazilian, Argentinian and Americans all enjoyed each others company.
Hope ya liked it
kevin
Last edited:
