Having never fished a willow worm "hatch" we really enjoyed stalking rising cruisers deep under the willows. It is a very targeted, sight fishing experience, and there is something hilarious about dry fly fishing with a foam worm. In a good run, we could see 4-6 healthy rainbows patrolling a the bank, waiting to sip a helpless worm. It was not always easy, especially since many of the spots where the fish stack up to eat worms is in the slow, deep sections of runs, where they have plenty of time to inspect the fly and your drift. Our friend Santi knows the Alumine River like the back of his hand as it is his home water in Northern Patagonia, which is always a huge asset. He know where the fish were going to be and was had us in position to make a cast before they came into view. But don't worry, he had some good time on the front of the boat as well to work some magic and get a few strong fish to hand.

While the dry fly fishing was stellar, for whatever reason the larger browns did not want to play that game in the bright summer sun. This got me thinking about fishing streamers to some structure. Santi is a dry fly fanatic, but I was able to sneak on a nice meaty streamer and was rewarded by some nice browns peeling off of cut banks to take a whack! The header photo is one such specimen. A nice hard fighting, wild, patagonian brown!