World’s End Lodge

The fishing schedule, of approximately 9 hours; is split in to two sessions – a morning session and an evening session. The morning session typically starts around 09.00 just after breakfast and you will fish until around 13.00 where lunch will be served back at the lodge. After lunch, you may enjoy a siesta and prepare for the evening session which will typically start around 17.00 and fish until dusk.

Tierra del Fuego is home to some of the largest sea run trout in the world with the Rio Grande perhaps the most famous sea trout destination in the world. Nor does it come as a surprise that fishing for them involves wading wide rivers with a double handed rod on the famous Rio Gallegos and Rio Grande. The Rio Irigoyen, however, is a much narrower river and tree-lined system which is better fished with a single hand rod and good accurate casts of no more than 20m. All fishing is whilst wading but distances from the car is no more than 200-300m in extremely easy wading conditions, making it comfortable for all capabilities. For those less able, the guides are known to drive you as close as possible to the action.

The Irigoyen river has 24km of fishable water, split into 5 zones, or beats where zones 1-3 are easily accessible via a 4×4.  The average drive is 15 minutes from the lodge to the pool with the closest pool being a mere 5-minute walk and the longest drive being approximately 45 minutes to reach zone 4 and 5 (the two uppermost zones) which can be done by walking from the car or going onwards taking the amphibious ATV. During your week you may also have the opportunity to fish the Malenguena river – which in the lower pools acts like an estuary of the Irigoyen, and we would say, a trip not to miss!

The tree-lined river appeals to the technical angler, where you will get to enjoy deep pools, underwater structures, including logjams, faster water all whilst wild horses watch from the bank.

The Malenguena river is a much slower paced river, more akin to Danish rivers or the rivers of the flat areas of southwest Norway. Typically, this river is reached by 4×4 driving along the shoreline and the lower pools are fished on the tide, giving you a chance to try something totally different. The upper pools are more like the Irigoyen, with trees lining the banks of the river.

You will find your guides to be dedicated and have grown up fishing for trout and sea trout and are very well versed in speaking English. The guides have years of experience fishing in Tierra del Fuego and will provide invaluable support towards your success on this technical and hypnotising river. As the guides have been there for several years, they are well worth listening to and will have many tricks up their sleeve. Please do not hesitate to speak to them, should you want to try something new – be that either dry fly, skating or nymphing, they know it all. The guides are equipped with nets and will assist guests with measuring and safely releasing their catches. With 4 rods and 2 guides; you will typically rotate your guide each day. This leads to fishing a wide range of different techniques that may not only help you land that dream fish on this trip.

Unlike the Rio Grande, where a double handed rod in the 12-13 foot range would be the norm, the Rio Irigoyen is a small river where a single-handed fast action 7-8# rod of 9’6” – 10” would be the recommend tool of choice with a small switch rod to compliment it. Even though the wind can be ferocious on Tierra del Fuego, with gusts easily reaching over 100km/h, here you will find more trees to break the wind especially on the middle and upper zones. But even on the windiest days – the inherent winding nature of the river means that you will normally find a pool which will not have the wind in your face. Fishing the Irigoyen River requires accurate casting with a single-handed rod and floating lines. The river is intimate and full of holding structure on the banks and below the surface – perfect places for sea trout to hide.

Fishing the Irigoyen is not a river for numbers, but every fish hooked is a reward for hard work and the next one could well be that fish of a lifetime, both in terms of size and memory. World’s End Lodge is one of the most unique and rewarding trophy sea trout fly fishing destinations we know of. Although fish over 25 pounds have been caught, anglers should expect an average catch rate of 2 fish/day, and an average size of 8-10lbs.

In addition to the sea-run browns, there is also an opportunity to fish for robalo (sea bass) in the river mouth. These fish range up to 15 pounds and, depending on the tide, can be caught in good numbers.