Sea Run Brown Trout in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina

Kau Tapen was the first fishing lodge on the Río Grande, opening its doors in 1984. Its name means “House of Fishing” in the Ona Language and here, in the heart of the Río Grande watershed, live the best pools on the river.

If the walls of this magnificent lodge could talk, they would tell story after story of battles with huge trout over thirty-plus years. Kau Tapen Lodge embodies the fly fishing experience and to hundreds of anglers, it is their fishing home. On the river, short walks and shallow wading are the norm. Single or two-handed rods are both effective. Skate a bomber over a resting lie, or drift a nymph next to a cut-bank for Sea-Run Trout you’ve only seen in your dreams.

THE FISHING

At Kau Tapen we fish for Sea-Run Brown Trout weighing an average of 7 lbs and ascending to 30lbs and above. Our waters cover on 22km of the Río Grande as well as 20km of the Río Mendendez; both with private access.

The river offers easy wading on fine gravel bottom. Although most of their lives are spent in the ocean, sea-run brown trout seem to retain more of the eccentricities of resident browns than, for instance, steelhead do of resident rainbows. Moody fish, they must be shown flies the way they want to see them at the precise time that they’re ready to take.

The Río Grande isn’t a big river. Thus, it’s compatible with a wide range of techniques; critical since a large sea-run brown trout may demand that a fly be fed to it on the bottom one hour but rise to a skating fly the next. Water levels can change from week to week and they generally drop as the season progresses.