Reflections on Ireland

We had a wonderful group of people join us on our recent Ireland trip. Our fishing started out in the Conmel area with Andrew Ryan and his guides from Clonanav Fly Fishing. We stayed at the Hotel Minella and fished Andrew's water for three days and caught lots of beautiful brown trout. On the fourth day we took the scenic coastal route to Galway and Ballynahinch Castle. The Owenmore River flows through the castle grounds and we fished for Atlantic salmon for three days. The salmon were not as cooperative as the trout, we saw lots of fish roll and show, but were only able to put two in the net. The castle accommodations were elegant, food and service over the top, and we all loved the estate grounds and the river. We will be back to try again. This is a great trip for the non angler as they have their own guide and itinerary. Please let us know if you're interested in joining us in 2018.

Click here to see a few of the photos from our trip

2018 Hosted Trip Schedule

Next year is coming together for us. We have a couple dates to confirm and some finishing touches to put on the itineraries for a couple of the destinations, but overall this is what 2018 is going to look like:

January 13-20   Estancia de los Rios, Chile (trout)
February 6-21   South Island, New Zealand (trout)
March 3-10   Estancia Tecka, Esquel area, Argentina (trout)
March 11-17   Hosteria San Huberto, San Martin area, Argentina (trout)
March 17-24   Limay River Lodge, San Martin area, Argentina (trout)
May 8-18   Grand Slam/Campeche, Mexico, (baby tarpon, etc.)
June (TBA)   Ireland (and hopefully Scotland), (trout/salmon)
August 3-12   Reel Action, Alaska (silvers, pink, chum, etc., trout)
August 18-25, 25-2   Kingfisher Lodge, Bighorn River, Montana (trout)
October (TBA)   Spain, E. Pyrenees (trout)
December 1-8   Tres Valles, Argentina, Esquel area (trout)

We hope you can join us! Please let us know if we can answer any questions or provide additional information on any of these destinations.

RIO's How To: Terrestrials from a Drift Boat

Welcome to Episode 9 of the RIO How To series. RIO ambassador, Rob Parkins, shows how to fish large terrestrials from a moving drift boat. His tips and information reveal how easy and effective this big flies are in the heat of summer. Enjoy.

Ireland Recap

Ireland was amazing - as everyone said it would be. The country is stunningly beautiful — green and lush. The trout were bigger than we expected going in, we thought the average would be 12-14" with few above, but we found lots of fish in the 16-20" range thanks to Andrew Ryan and his Clonanav guides. We fished dry flies on small to medium size rivers, stayed at the lovely Hotel Minella, and enjoyed the countryside each day. The second part of our trip took us to Ballynahinch Castle and the Owenmore River which flows through the property. Unfortunately, the river was high due to recent rains and the salmon fishing was off. We saw fish roll and jump and hooked a couple that got off, but it was enough to make us want to return for another try. The guides, who themselves were most delightful and entertaining, did everything they could to get us into fish but it was not to be.The castle stay was an extravagance in accommodation, and all the staff were warm and hospitable people, and we'd go back in a minute. There's nothing like meeting in an Irish pub after fishing to talk about the day. We will return.

We're including a few photos from the trip here in our blog, but if you'd like to see more, feel free to check out the Group's Gallery here

From Ireland

We heard from Barry & Cathy. Their group is with Andrew Ryan and his guides and are trout fishing for a few days. We'll have more next week but we can say that everyone loves the new Sage X, the new fast rod just released-- fast but not so stiff, a joy to cast is the report we're getting

Tournament Helps Punta Allen Kids

Many of you have traveled to Isla Hotbox and/or Campeche and Grand Slam Lodges in the Yucatan with us. In this short video clip you'll see some familiar faces, but more important is the reason for the tournament - to help the children and the school at Punta Allen. The smiling faces on the kids say it all. Our congratulations to the sponsors, the winners, the guides, and most of all the kids in Punta Allen!

We're having an interesting week here at Coyhaique River Lodge in Chile. Our first day was rainy, chilly, and windy and we all suffered through it and hoped for better weather ahead. And we got it - As it turned out the first day was our worst day and now we are more than half way through an absolutely beautiful week of weather, guides, and fishing. Our group is fishing an interesting combination of rivers, spring creeks, and lakes.  We've seen winds gusting up to 40 mph (first day), beautiful mayfly hatches, big rainbows on the lakes, and lots of fish landed. After the first day, the weather straightened out and we've had lots of sunshine and moderating breezes. The dry fly fishing has been very good using a lot of parachute Adams and today we caught a number of big fish on Super Buggers on the lake. It's been a perfect week for the Sage Method and ONE rods throwing foam flies. We've put both to work everyday. It's nice to have a rod that steps right up to the plate when a little more backbone is called for in these Patagonia breezes! On one lake we found big rainbows cruising just under the surface and had a lot of fun casting big beetles to them. The take was very slow and gentle, but immediately upon being hooked they would explode and take off across the lake. Great fun. Actually our guide, Gaston, asked what line we had on the ONE. It was the RIO Perception, a beautiful line on either rod. In addition to the interesting fishing, Coyhaique River Lodge is new, spacious, and comfortable with an excellent staff and amazing guides. I suspect this will be a week we won't soon forget and we'll look forward to coming back.

Thinking of new destinations, we're working on two new trips for 2016, Ireland and the Seychelles. Our itinerary for Ireland will include several castle stays with private trout/salmon fishing at each. This will be much more than a fishing trip, we'll tour the castles, enjoy the accommodations, and take advantage of the fishing. Timing will be summer. Details will be forthcoming. Please let us know if you're interested. It won't be a big group.

It's been at least ten years since our last visit to the Seychelles and it's way past time for a reunion. We loved the amazing fishing and accommodations on our first trip and we don't know why we've waited so long to go back. If you've thought about Giant Trevally and the Seychelles, we'd love to have you join us. Planning is still in the very early stages, but if you've an interest in the Seychelles, please let us know and we'll keep you posted as we finalize plans. It's bound to be an exciting destination.

We also have one room still available (1 or 2 people), at Tres Valles, Argentina for March 1-8, 2015.  It's a great destination and a great time of year to be there.  Trout fishing in the Andes, beautiful scenery and lots of fish.  Give our office a call at 877-278-5638 if you'd like more information.  

We'll talk more next week.

Cathy