This
is the favorite river for American and European anglers, given its
outstanding features such as being ideal for dry-flyfishing, its great
population of free-rising browns and rainbows up to 5 or 6 pounds, the
variety of pools, spring creek-like stretches, delightful freestone
riffles and runs, rapids, etc. which make fishing so entertaining and
active along its thirty available fishing miles. Large trout rise to
small mayflies and caddis, surfacing their intriguing snouts and
dorsals.
The river is small and wadable except in spate. It
fishes well for fish in the 4 to 6 pound range, specially right before
dark. Record brook trout are caught at Lake Tromen, the source of the
Malleo close to the border with Chile. Average catches for rainbows
and browns are of 22" - 23". A woolly bugger cast under the
overhanging willows is likely to provide a 6 pounder rainbow or brown.
At the beginning of the season, during the months of November and
December, the Malleo's beautiful tributary, the Huaca Mamuil, offers
great fishing with light-weight # 2-3 rods. In its gin clear waters it
is common to land 5 pound rainbows with flies tied to a # 18 hook and
a 6x tippet.
The Malleo offers probably the finest spring creek
dry-flyfishing in the world. The river flows under the imposing Lanín
volcano, plunging through a basalt canyon, the countryside varies from
open spaces as the productive meadow pool, where casting is very easy
to parts covered with willows where only roll-cast is possible. The
Malleo is a stream that leads the angler on like a carpet of green
velvet. Willows and tall grasses, riffles and deeper pools - it is a
river that appears in every flyfisherman's dreams. Accommodations are
at San Huberto Lodge, reminiscent of a European inn offering exclusive
access to miles of private water, a cozy retreat for anglers who year
after year return to enjoy the unique fishing and beauty of the
countryside and, Estancia Lolen, a typical and comfortable Patagonian
estancia on the fabled Malleo river.