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The Volcanic eruption affected the area where we fish for them, there´s about 1 inch of very thin ash all over the ground, anyhow, we managed to get to the river and Fish without mayor issues. The water color was almost normal and the level  extremely high, making casting very difficult.  After some minutes of getting into the water we were already hooking fish and it happened consistently through all the afternoon. Rainbow  trouts were all over the place, most of them still spawning, it seems that everything is bit delayed this year. Luckily we caught what we went for, we had a quiet good number of Landlocked Atlantics in the end of the line, they were really fresh, it seems they just got in from the Lake.

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Since the eruption of Puyehue on June 4th, various locations and watersheds have been affected, the severity of which has depended entirely on wind direction.  As of now, one of the most seriously impacted areas is Villa la Angostura, 38 km southeast of Ground Zero, and directly in line with the prevailing winds. On the opposite side of Lago Nahuel Huapi in Bariloche, ash continues to fall intermittently, but generally in lower proportions. Almost every day we can see the plume of the volcano pass just in front of our city over the opposite coastline.

Due to its proximity to the volcano and immense surface area, Lago Nahuel Huapi has received the lion’s share of volcanic ash. The most affected parts of the lake are the Última Esperanza, Rincón, Machete and Huemul arms.  Relatively unaffected are the Blest, Tristeza and Companario arms, thanks to their more protected locations. In addition to Lago Nahuel Huapi, lakes Totoral, Espejo, Correntoso and Traful have all been seriously affected as well. Thankfully, lakes Gutierrez, Mascardi, Los Moscos, Hess and Roca have received almost no ash at all. Many of the streams close to the volcano have also been blanketed with ash, but owing to the heavy spring run-off, much of the sediment has already been flushed out.

So what will the ultimate impact on our aquatic organisms be? It’s difficult to say, but biologists and anglers alike have witnessed normal spawning activity from trout, percas, and other fish, suggesting that the environmental changes haven’t negatively impacted reproduction. Even in the Limay and Correntoso, which during the worst of the eruption ran color of cement, fishermen are witnessing strong spawning activity. Official surveys conducted by local parks and wildlife agencies have also captured specimens of rainbow, brown and brook trout in optimal conditions, even in the most severely affected areas such as Villa la Angostura. All signs suggest that the catastrophic eruption hasn’t been noticeably detrimental to adult trout or their primary food sources. The real question, however, is how the baseline ecological changes (e.g. oxygen & PH levels), will impact the organisms at the bottom of the food chain, and thus the long term productivity of the ecosystem.

According to a scientific study that haven’t been finalized yet, the aquatic organism most at risk to drastic change is the zooplankton, as it forms the base of the aquatic food chain. Most species of fish and various invertebrates depend on zooplankton as an important food source. In addition to zooplankton, we can include cladocera, copepoda, and amphipods – tiny crustaceans that constantly filter the water in search of phytoplankton. During this process they constantly ingest ash particles (comprised largely of silica), and it appears that this can lead to death by lesions to the filtration and digestive systems.  If this proves to be true on a massive scale, then the long-run impact on our trout could be severe indeed. At the moment, however, this doesn’t seem to be the case, as indicated by the healthy condition of our fish.

Let’s also not forget that with time, volcanic ash can have a very beneficial influence on the ecosystem, acting as a fertilizer and improving its overall productivity. Numerous cases throughout history have shown this to be a very real possibility, so in the future perhaps our fishing will be better than we could have ever imagined.  At least the situation doesn’t appear to be nearly as dire as one might imagine by looking out the window at the occasional plum of ash, but let’s keep our fingers crossed anyhow!

Thanks to Hugo Dezurko and Ruben Martin for the pictures from the scouting in Villa la Angostura area.

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Holding a nice migratory brown. It almost went under bridge, what a battle!!

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Click to enlarge.

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Right after that, Nico, Alex and I became fishing addicts! We used to go fishing when ever we had the chance, to different lakes and rivers. That’s how we end up going to this beautiful lake called Fonk, a pretty small lake in the middle of a cold rain forest and inside the Nahuel Huapi National Park. When conditions were suitable for fishing dries, we found Caddis, Mayflies and Dragon imitations very effective, It was the prefect place to catch lots of trout on dries, we really enjoyed it!

After eight years we finally went back, and find the lake exactly the same way, thanks to Carlos (the fishing ranger) that takes care of the place since 1999. We spent two days fishing and enjoying the scenery, it was a blast!. This time we didn’t have the chance to fish with dries due the bad weather, the temperature dropped form 20 C  to almost 1 C, but hey, that’s fishing!

This time Nico Murua couldn’t go but a new fishing buddy join us, Edu. We really had a great time fishing, and eating asado!

Check out some pics of these moments!

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