Fly fishing the Rio Maullín
My postdoc sponsor here in Chile had spent months organizing a conference near Puerto Varas, in the South of Chile. Months prior to the conference, I was speaking with some of the invited speakers and the topic of fishing came up. And indeed, during the week of the conference, fishing came up again, and I was invited to join three fellow astronomers for an afternoon of fly fishing outside town. I had never fly fished before, but had been told it was a fun sport (especially compared to bait fishing, which I find fairly boring).
Arrangements were made for the Sunday after the conference, and a van met us at the hotel to take us to the guiding outfit, where boats were waiting for us.
We split up into pairs and hopped into the boats, Dave and myself in one, Nick and Elena in the other.
Initially we attempted to head upstream, but the rapid current meant maintaining position was the best the guide could manage while rowing. So, “if you can’t beat it, join it”, and we floated downstream, fishing for rainbow trout and the native peladilla. Dave caught the first fish of our group, and we were off.
A few hours later, we wrapped up the day, as the sun began to head towards the horizon. My final count was four fish – two trout and two peladilla; not bad for my first time fly fishing!
Elena had caught two fish big enough to keep, so we put them in a bag and brought them back to the hotel. The chef at the hotel restaurant was kind enough to cook them up for us with some butter and lemon. It was easily the best meal of the week, to cap off a great afternoon on the water.