Hello Everyone,

 

It looks like I’ve finally settled into a schedule for this whole newsletter thing; should be annual and always in the fall.  I’ll try my best to stick to that and get it done.  The challenge is always of course dropping the oars or putting down the rods long enough to hit the keyboard!

It’s truly been another great year.  Multiple explorations, new program developments, major magazine publications, hosted trips, videos created, and solid seasons at all the usual destinations in our catalog.

So take a look and then everyone shoot me the news from wherever you are (hopefully fishing) in the world; I look forward to hearing from you soon!  
Gallegos Bum Exploration a Resounding Success!!!
Starting off with one of the more time-sensitive pieces of news, our exploratory trip to the Rio Gallegos this last April was a far greater success than I think any of us expected.  The fishing was spectacular, the lodge and amenities more comfortable and luxurious than what we’d initially imagined for the price, and the group’s experience as a whole ended up being the cover story of this last issue of Fly Fishermen magazine.
If you’re not a subscriber then pick up a copy of that wherever you buy your reading material, or just click here or on the image above for a downloadable PDF.

 

Host Chad Agy’s writing and guest Zach Heath’s photography combined to give a very accurate and comprehensive look at what that week was like for the group, and what that fishery is as a whole. Another great read on this one is the original trip report – also posted here.

 

Available dates for this year on the Gallegos Bum program are:

 

March 30th – April 6th 2024
April 6th – April 13th 2024 

 

Get in touch right away if you are interested in this one; I don’t expect these spots to last too long.
Jurassic Bum Program’s Second Season Report, Another Magazine Piece, and Available Dates/Spaces for 2024

 

This program was an addition to the Bum catalog that was a lot of years in the making, but all that work has really paid off. There is nothing else anything like it available, and the response has been amazing.  For decades May was a “guide’s only” end-of-season event at the mouth of the Rio Barrancoso on Lago Strobel.  Now we are able to offer a small number of spots to select guests each year and have them join the party!  

 

Going into our third season on that one and have plenty of good trip reports and videos already posted, but check out this recently published article by Ryan Sparks in Safari magazine for a look at what the whole thing is all about.

 

Available dates for this next May are:

 

May 11th - 18th: 5 spots left
May 18th - 25th: 8 spots left 

 

Shoot me an email or give me a call right away if you are interested in joining us; I am planning to be there for most of it myself!

 

Rates and details can be seen on our website by clicking here.
Trout Bum Rio Pico 2022/23 End of Season Report

 

Most of you reading this are already familiar with the Trout Bum Rio Pico program.  It’s where the whole thing started fifteen years ago and is still our most popular offering in the catalog.  For those of you who haven’t been with us yet for that or don’t know the story of how it came to be, I encourage you to come down and check it out, and will be happy to tell how my seven month walk from Cape Horn to San Martin de los Andes back in 2007 left no doubt in my mind about exactly where in Patagonia to come back and start the business.

 

This last season we had higher water levels farther into the summer than we’d had in quite a while which was definitely nice.  The guest rooms and seats at the table were as full as ever, and with the exception of the usual couple of rainier colder weeks we had pretty good weather throughout.  Lots of hoppers in the middle of summer and good hatches in all the right spots.  Some good back-country trips were made into the Brook Trout Range, dusk/dawn flats fishing from the campsite on Lago 2, and Karina and Carla had an original song written about them and performed live in the lodge by Eric Athey and the whole guide staff.

 

Too many good fishing stories to pass along, but here’s a brief selection of photos that paint the picture in broad strokes. Click on the photo below for the entire slideshow:
2022-23 at Trout Bum Rio Pico

And here is a video of Dr. Greg Talbot and I landing the only King Salmon of the season caught on a fly from the Rio Pico drainage!

 

We were throwing a more or less medium streamer into the big pool below the canyon (you know the spot) looking for a nice brown I’d spotted earlier in the week when suddenly this beast bent Greg’s seven weight to the cork and ripped fifty yards of line off his reel before leaping four feet out of the water and crashing back into it like a kid doing a cannonball.  I’ll never forget that moment.  Greg turned around and looked at me with his eyes as wide as I’ve ever seen them and said “What the hell is that thing???”  Many more jumps and a half hour of tug-of-war through some seriously stressed 0x later the fish left the big pool and tried to make for the Pacific but instead ran into the measure-net literally (I swear) just as the nearly straightened hook pulled free.  Greg and I both agreed later it was a good thing we were the only two guys there because we were both jumping up and down and squealing like five-year-olds who just broke the pinnata at a birthday party.  We got some pictures then the Doc got all 42” of the Chinook rested up and back in shape to continue his journey Eastward, and off he swam.

 

As of now it looks like this coming season’s water levels are going to be even better.  It was a tough, tough winter this year, which always bodes well for summer, so if you have any thoughts whatsoever about fishing with us out of Vasco’s place give me a call or shoot me an email right away – we’d love to see you but space is definitely limited!
Upcoming Mongolia Hosted Trip ~ Fall 2024
I’ve been looking forward to this one for a loooooong time….  Ever since my first trip to Mongolia back in 2018.  This coming year the plan is for me to host two groups back to back at the end of September/beginning of October, in my opinion the best time for Taimen in and the most beautiful part of the year in Mongolia’s northern river country. 
Our September 30th - October 7th week is already almost full with just one spot left available, but I’ve got five spots still open for the week of September 23rd – 30th.  
Get in touch if you’d like to be with me on that one; it is absolutely one of my favorite place sand fisheries on Earth, and worth everything it takes to get there.  The video below pretty much says it all.
Mongolia Taimen Camps
Tierra del Fuego Exploratory Mission Renders Unexpected Results
Back in December Dave Sherwood and I travelled down to Tierra del Fuego to explore the possibility of setting up a Bum program there for sea-run browns.  That didn’t quite work out, but the flipside of the trip was a second independent exploratory that resulted in our finding one of the most incredible Brown Trout fisheries either of us had ever seen, punctuated by Argentina’s winning of the World Cup!  Plans are to head back sometime soon and continue that exploration to hopefully set up a Beaver Pond Bums Program.  Check out the video below and stay tuned on that one – it’s going to be a blast. 
That's it for this year folks.  I'm serious though when I say shoot me the news, regardless of whether or not you are thinking of coming fishing with us anytime soon.  I would love to hear from everyone and hear about whatever you're up to wherever you are.

 

Looking forward to it,

 

~Justin Witt and the whole Hemispheres team