This is Artificial Lure with your Patagonia fishing rundown.
Across northern Patagonia, dawn broke cold and clear with light frost in the valleys and just a light breeze on most rivers and lakes. Along the coast around Puerto Madryn and Golfo Nuevo it’s calm early, with a gentle southerly picking up by midday and a small swell, perfect for small boats and kayaks working close structure. Sunrise came early over the Andes and you’ll get decent light until late afternoon, but the real bite windows have been tight around first light and last light.
In the trout country near San Martín de los Andes, Junín, and Bariloche, rivers are running low and clear. The Limay below the dam and the Malleo have been the top producers. Rainbows and browns are still active, but they’re picky: fewer fish than a month ago, yet good quality. Locals on the Limay are reporting a handful of solid browns in the 50–60 cm range each outing, plus a mix of smaller rainbows when the nymph game is dialed in. On the Malleo and Collón Curá, anglers are seeing pods of fish mid‑morning, but you have to work for them.
Best freshwater approach: go **small and subtle**.
- Nymphs: size 16–18 pheasant tail, hare’s ear, and small perdigones under a light indicator or euro setup.
- Streamers: olive or black woolly buggers, size 6–8, swung deep off the seams.
- Spinning: 5–7 g silver and gold spoons, tiny Rapala‑style minnows in natural trout patterns.
Bite pattern on the rivers has been: a quick flurry right at first light, then a lull, then another short window mid‑afternoon when the water warms a touch. If you’re only fishing a few hours, commit to the edges of the day.
Hot river spots right now:
- The **Limay Medio**, working the deep outside bends and any soft pockets behind mid‑river rocks.
- The **Malleo** around the deeper pools and undercut banks; long, careful drifts with small nymphs are paying off.
On the stillwaters, like Lago Nahuel Huapi and Lago Lácar, trolling deep with lead‑core or weighted lines has turned up a few big lake trout and browns, not huge numbers but enough to keep it interesting. Most fish are coming 8–12 meters down. Best bets are dark streamers or small silver plugs pulled slow and steady. Shore anglers are picking off rainbows at creek mouths with small spoons and marabou jigs.
Now to the salt. Along the Chubut coast—from Puerto Madryn down toward Rawson—the tidal swing overnight and into this morning set up a nice moving‑water window around the morning mid‑tide and again on the evening change. Those moving periods have been the key for **robalo** (snook‑like corvina rubia), **pejerrey**, and the odd **lenguado** (flounder) tight to the sandbars and channel edges.
Recent catches from local docks and small boats inside Golfo Nuevo:
- Robalo up to 2–3 kg on soft plastics and live bait.
- Good numbers of pejerrey on light tackle.
- Scattered flounder and smaller mixed reef fish for those soaking bait on the bottom.
Best saltwater offerings:
- Lures: 3–4 inch soft plastics in white or chartreuse on 1/4–1/2 oz jig heads, small metal jigs in silver/blue, and slim minnows worked with a stop‑and‑go retrieve.
- Bait: fresh shrimp, squid strips, and small fillets of pejerrey or sardine. Keep the leaders light and the rigs simple; these fish are seeing plenty of gear.
Coastal hot spots to focus on:
- The sandbars and channel mouths just outside **Puerto Madryn**, especially where the current wraps around points or rock outcrops.
- The **Rawson river mouth area**, working the mixing zone where river water meets the sea for robalo and flounder around the tide changes.
Overall fish activity is moderate: not a wide‑open bite, but if you match the size, stay stealthy, and time the tides or the light, you can put together a very respectable day both in the mountains and on the coast.
That’s the report from Artificial Lure down here in Patagonia.
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