Villa Maria Lodge Report Mar 4-16

VILLA MARIA LODGE
Weeks 9 & 10
Mar 4-16, 2017 

The last couple of week in Rio Grande, especially the lower section, have been as challenging as ever. February has been quite particular, as it rained for the whole month. Not very intense rain, mostly just drizzle close to  town, but there were 3 or 4 days of very strong rains, especially in the headwaters what changed the game. These rains made the Rio Grande and its tributaries, like Radman, Menendez, and  Ona to change levels and water clarity constantly. This scenario made the fishing very challenging as we had to change where and how we were looking for the fish. Instead of the deep channels we started fishing the tails and shallower waters as this is where the fish like to sit and rest during those conditions.
We also had to adjust our lines and the typical 10ft of T11 sinking tip we used along the season was replaced for longer and heavier tips like 15’ of T17 and the nymphs and leeches were replaced for heavy bushy tubes, colorful intruders and most of the time, we had to stack 2 or more flies to get a size and silhouette required for those water conditions.
The takes were sparse and very unpredictable so the fishing was demanding and the fishermen were pushed to do their best to seduce the fish as casting big flies and heavy lines for many hours is not the easiest task.
But our guests did a great job and had tons of patience to follow our suggestions for catching that dream fish that everybody has in mind when they step into the river every day.
The river is starting to stabilize, drop and clean, so next week we will be up to another new challenge.

Largest fish of the week, 26 lbs.
Fish over 20 lbs: 4
Fish over 15 lbs: 19