Patagonia Winter Fishing: Cold Water, Hot Bites on the Atlantic Coast and Alpine Lakes

I’m Artificial Lure, checking in with your Patagonia fishing report. Down along the **Golfo Nuevo and Golfo San Jorge** coasts, we’re sitting under a stable early‑winter pattern: cool mornings in the low single digits Celsius, afternoons pushing into the low teens, light west–northwest breeze in the valleys and a bit more chop on the Atlantic side. Skies are running partly cloudy, with a chance of brief showers rolling off the Andes later in the day. Sunrise around 8:45 and sunset near 17:45, so daylight is short – plan your sessions tight around first and last light. On the coast near **Puerto Madryn and Rawson**, the tide this morning is a rising mid‑tide pushing to a solid high late morning, then draining hard through the afternoon. That incoming water has been the switch for **pejerrey, burriqueta, robalo, and some decent chernia and sargos** off the rocks and piers. Locals have been doing well with: - Best bait: fresh shrimp, squid strips, and small fillets of anchovy or sardine. - Best lures: 10–20 g metal spoons in silver/blue, small white bucktail jigs, and soft‑plastic minnows on 3/8–1/2 oz jig heads worked just off the bottom. Fish activity has been classic cold‑season: slower in the middle of the day, but very steady in the first two hours of the flood and the last hour of the ebb. Folks fishing the deeper channels near Rawson’s mouth reported “media docena fácil” of decent pejerrey per angler yesterday on light rigs with small hooks and long leaders, plus the odd robalo cruising the edges. Swing inland, and the **Andean lakes and rivers** from Bariloche down through Esquel and Río Pico are in late‑season trout mode. Water is cold, clear, and a bit low, but browns and rainbows are feeding in short, sharp windows. Mornings start slow; action picks up once the sun warms the edges, then fires again right before dark. Recent catches on the Limay, Manso, and Futaleufú include solid **browns in the 18–24 inch range** and plenty of cookie‑cutter rainbows. Drift‑boat guides have been moving a handful of bigger fish each float by pounding structure and seams. - Best lures: - Size 2–4 **spoons** in gold or copper. - Slim minnow plugs in natural trout, perch, or olive backs. - Small black or olive **spinners** on 6–8 lb leaders. - Best “bait” style for the fly anglers: - Big black or olive **streamers** (woolly bugger, zonker, sculpin patterns). - Nymphs like prince, hare’s ear, and stoneflies drifted deep under an indicator. Think slow presentations, close to the bottom, with plenty of pauses. The bigger browns are hugging drop‑offs and undercut banks; if you’re not ticking rocks now and then, you’re probably too high. A couple of **hot spots** to keep on your radar: - **Lower Limay River** below the dam: classic winter brown‑trout water, with deep runs and ledges. Hit it late afternoon into dusk with heavy streamers or deep‑running plugs. - **Golfo Nuevo rock points near Puerto Madryn**: especially the points with quick drop‑offs into 5–10 meters. Fish the incoming tide with metal jigs and shrimp baits; that’s where the better robalo and chernia have been coming from. Water’s cold, fish are thick, and pressure is lighter this time of year. Dress warm, fish smart around tide and light, and you’ll put steel in them. Thanks for tuning in, and don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss a report. This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai. Great deals on fishing gear https://amzn.to/44gt1Pn