ESTANCIA MARIA BEHETY LODGE
&
LA VILLA DE MARIA BEHETY LODGE
Feb 11-18, 2017
Estancia Maria Behety Lodge Report, Feb 11-18, 2017
We just ended week 5 on the Rio Grande here at the Estacncia Maria Behety Lodge. We had tough fishing, with some some really good sessions and some very slow ones. We had lots of weather changes during the week with west wind some days, east wind, south wind on Thursday and Friday and a lot of rain.
We landed a total of 103 fish with an average weight of 11.1 pounds. We had 29 fish over 15 pounds and 4 over 20 pounds.
Top rod: Paul Sheenan and Jim Nicholes with 11 fish to the net.
Biggest fish: Nadine Lee landed a 25 pounder.
Water Conditions:
Water color and visibility: The week started with the river 7-8 inches higher than the week before, dropping and clearing up a little every day. Water visibility went from 5-6 inches on Sunday to 3-4 feet on Friday.
Water temperature: 44°F to 60°F
Water levels: By Friday the river dropped about 5 inches. Still a few inches higher than last week
Weather Conditions:
The weather was unstable the entire week. From Monday to Wednesday evening wind changed from west to north to east and sometimes all the same time. We had a south wind and a heavy rain on Thursday and Friday.
Air temperature ranges through the week: 40°F to 76°F
Fishing Conditions:
Flies that are working the best: Big flies for the first 3 days – Leeches, intruders, Paul Millers, and big tube flies. Then medium size buggers, Yuk Bug, Tdf Taxi. We fished nymphs the last 2 days of the week: Red Butt, Tdf prince, Aurelia Prince.
Fly lines (tips, heads, lengths, densities, etc.): Light tips and Scandi heads for low water conditions. Poly-leaders and Spey versi-leaders. Heavy tips and Skagit heads for high water conditions, with different lengths of T-14 and T-17 worked the best and we also used T-20 in some pools.
Length and strength of tippet and leaders: Short leaders for heavy tips, 3 to 5 feet and long leaders for heavy tips, 10 to 15 feet in length
Fish Statistics:
Number of anglers for the week: 12
Total number of fish landed for the week: 103
Weight of the biggest fish landed: 25 pounds
Number of fish landed over 15 pounds: 29
Number of fish landed over 20 pounds: 4
Notable catches:
Nadine Lee landed a 25 pounder.
Ian Clark landed a 20.5 pounder.
Paul Seehan landed a 20 pounder and a 20.5 pounder.
By Federico Molinolo – Head guide @ Estancia Maria Behety Lodge
La Villa de Maria Behety Lodge Report, Feb 11-18, 2017
The fishing was good this week, despite the dirty and high water had. A combination of tube flies and sinking lines were the weapons of choice this week. We landed 91 fish of which 25 were over 15 pounds and 4 over 20 pounds. Average weight was 11.8 pounds.
It was a great group of friends, super fun week, all good anglers. All of the group members fished very hard this week under difficult conditions, and we got very good result. The river started to clean out on Thursday and the fishing got a bit slower, was better with dirty water.
Biggest fish on top was 12 pounds.
Top rod of the week was Nuno with 24 fish to the net.
Jon landed the biggest fish of the week at 22 pounds..
Water Conditions:
We pretty much had dirty water all week, Sunday and Monday with little or any visibility. The river started to clear on Tuesday.
Water temperature: 7⁰ – 14⁰ Celsius (44⁰ – 57⁰ Fahrenheit)
Water levels rose 20 cm (8 inches) and got dirty.
Weather Conditions:
The wind blew from the northwest most of the week, and it wasn’t too strong. On Friday the wind blew from the south and got stronger.
Air temperature ranges through the week: 5⁰ – 22⁰ Celsius (41⁰ – 71 Fahrenheit) We had very good weather during the week with pleasant temperatures, although on Thursday and Friday it got colder.
Fishing Conditions:
Flies that are working the best: big leeches, intruder and tubes flies.
Plastic tubes in tandem were the best weapons and got a lot of fish in really muddy water.
Fly lines (tips, heads, lengths, densities, etc.): Skagit heads with different lengths of T-14, T-17, Scandi with poly-leaders.
Floating lines worked well Thursday and Friday on top with plastic tubes.
Length and strength of tippet and leaders: 4 to 7 feet,12 to 15 pounds.
The most successful way of caching fish was fishing big flies and sinking lines. Most of the fish were in the lower and middle part of the river, we found a lot of fish in the upper part of the river; every week we are fishing more and more fish in the upper stretches.
Fish Statistics:
Number of anglers for the week: 6
Total number of fish landed for the week: 91
Weight of the biggest fish: 22 pounds
Number of fish landed over 15 pounds: 25
Number of fish landed over 20 pounds: 4
By Diego Motter – Head guide @ La Villa
