Some relevant points to be outlined:

- The 2001-2002 season has been remarkably excellent on the whole river. It was due to very low water conditions throughout the whole season.

- The 2002-2003 season was quite difficult for fishing due to very high water conditions. The last two months of the season the river was flooded, when usually we have the best fishing in regards to numbers. At Cameron Lodge we had to cancel the last 4 weeks of the season. Downstream, in Argentina, there were lodges that cancelled some of their weeks too.

- During our 2003-2004 season, from mid February until mid March, roughly, the weather in Tierra del Fuego was unusually hot. In our normal Summer time the peak hot days are in December with few days of 24°C - 26°C. In March we have freezing temperatures in the morning. But this season the warm December days didn’t leave us at all and, finally, we had temperatures up to 30°C during February and March. In those days while the normal river’s water temperature is between 6°C and 8°C it rose up to 18°C!! Too hot for any activity in the river. Therefore, the fishing records for many of those days are blank.

- At our María Behety's records we don't find resident brown trouts because it's very unusual to see them on this section of the river. Upstream in Chile, instead, we have quite a large population of resident browns, but, sadly, we haven't collected this kind of information during our first years.

After studying these numbers and comparing Maria Behety's with Cameron's our opinion is the following (we are comparing the last season recorded to the average of the previous ones):

- There is an increase, a very steady one, on the numbers at Maria Behety, year after year. It is steady due to a longer control of the fishing. This means, more years of strict control than upstream in Chile.

- At Cameron the numbers are more erratic as regards to the sea run brown trouts, but the increase is bigger.

Also, in Chile we have a lesser Average Weight because we have more young, first time on the river fish, in the up to 15 pounds class.

At Maria Behety we had an increase of 7,48% in the Over 15 pounds Class but at Cameron we had an astonishing 25,9% increase.

We even had at Cameron an unbelievable increase of a 775% in the Over 20 pounds Class!

But, instead, the Average Weight went down by a 7,5%. The reason is that we have in the river the results of the strict control we have done on the poaching and uncontrolled fishing since we took over the fishing operation there: the increase of the sea trout of up to fifteen pounds. If there is more control on the river, there are more fish spawning and, consequently, there are more young fish returning to the river. We are very happy and proud for it!!
This can also be seen comparing the Total Fish Caught (Quantity) and the Total Weight (Total kg) of them. While the former increased a 44,5 %, the latter increased only a 28,9 %.

The same increase of a 28,9 % is seen on the Biggest Fish of the Season (Max. kg). While the average weight of the past seasons was 9,3 kg, the biggest fish of this season was a 12 kilos’ beauty!

The improvement in the fishing can be seen also on the resident brown trouts' fishing records. There are more and bigger fish in there now due to the strict fishing controls we are doing!!

We think that these are good news for our prospective guests and for the old time guests as well. So, please, use this information at your own discretion in order to inform our fishing community of the really good news we have for us all at the Cameron lodge, on the Rio Grande in Tierra del Fuego, Chile.

Thank you!!

Marcos Czerwinski & Rafael Gonzalez

www.MagallanesFlyFishing.com

www.AnglersTDF.com.ar