Fishing trip to one of Fishmaster travel destinations; Ramganga River in India with Fishmaster guide Ilkka Lehtinen. We had booked a 10  days/11 nights Mahseer tour on the Ramganga River in three different places. The river runs through the Corbett National Park approx 300 km North-West from Delhi. We fished for 8 days and had an exellent fishing for Golden Mahseer. We caught approx total 20 mahseer, the biggest was 10 kg. Mr Lehtinen hooked and lost after short fight approx 20 kg monster Mahseer. The fishing was done both from riverbank and also some of it by wading. We used varied fishing techiniques between Fly, Spinner, Wobbler and Ragi Paste. The bottom of river was mostly hard stones and not too deep and thus suited well for wading. In some places we could cross the river by wading and thus reach the better side of the river for fishing. The water was very clear and had a beautiful greenish colour. The Ramganga river and the valley were very beautiful and a lot of different animals and birds could be seen during our trip. The water temperature must have been over 20 degrees because the water didn't feel cold at all. There was some excellent fishing very close the camps but we also fished for some remote places, reached by Jeep and walking.

The weather during our trip was fine and sunny almost every day, daytime temperatures varied round 30 degrees celsius and night time temperatures round 10 degrees. The wind was calm or moderate so there was no trouble with hard wind and fishing was easy. The accomodation varied between Hotel and two different tent camps. The hotel was very nice and stylish. Tent camps were a bit primitiv but cosy anyway and were located in excellent, beautiful places close the best fishing places. The tents were by the riverside and we had an excellent view over Ramganga river and valley. In the tents there were good beds with sleeping bags or blankets with sheets. The food in Corbett Suman Grand Hotel and tent camps was delicious and was a mixture between local Indian and continental food including for example chicken, lamb, sausages, vegetables, rice, potatoes and fruits. Special thanks for our cook Sharma, who proved to be the 'master of the food'. The personal and guides were friendly and willing to help in all matters. Special thanks for Mr Gaurav Kataria who was in charge of arrangements of this trip. All transports booked in advance were well in time and schedule. The fishing guide was local called Ashram and proved to be very skillful and he knew the water of the long Ramganga River and all different fishing techniques very well.

I fished for two days on Parana river for Golden Dorado and some other species like piraija and pirapita. San Pedro consists of a delta where hundreds of streams and channels get together. The place is located only about 160 km from Buenos aires, about 1 hour and a half car drive. The landscape in Parana River San Pedro area was extraordinary and beautiful. My guide and host Pablo Mazza proved to be an excellent professional fishing guide and besides that he showed many useful skills of cooking excellent local meals between fishing. I fished with single handed fly rods, using both 5 and 7 class 9 foot rods and other equipment. The flies I used were big and colourful streamers stripped fast just under surface. Golden Dorado is a beautiful fish with good fighting spirit. They often take the fly very aggressive way and make high jumps when trying to get rid of the fly. The fishing was done by casting from from a boat, quite much similar they use in Caribia for flats fishing. During those two fishing days I caught 9 dorados and 8 piraijas and 2 pirapitas. The biggest dorados were about 2,5 kilos, very nice fights with light tackle. The biggest piraijas were about 1 kilos. Besides those I caught, I hooked, jumped and lost a good number of dorados and piraijas.

Rio Gallegos 11-18.2.2006

After couple days of fishing in San Pedro I took a domestic fly from Buenos Aires to Rio Gallegos. I spent a week in fishing Guer Aike and Carlota Lodges, which both are owned by the same company. The camp manager is called Alejandro de Tomaso, who proved to be a friendly and skillful person. Both Lodges offered first class seatrout fishing, accomodation and delicious meals served with local wines. The company has a great advantage by owning two lodges, one in lower river and the other in middle river. The fisherman can fish both those lodges during the week and thus have acces to altogether 38 km of Rio Gallegos. An additonal extra is fishing on Gallegos Chico tributary, which seems to have a great amount of brown trout. I fished for two first days in Guer Aike and the next two days in Carlota and then rest of the week again in Guer Aike Lodge. The Patagonian landscape is something different and very beautiful. My guide called Javier proved to be a skillful fly fishing guide and an excellent fly tyer too. His friendly advices about casting techiques and drifting methods helped me to catch a good number of silver seatrout running straight from the sea. I fished both with single and double handed rods. I used my 10 foot 7 weight G.Loomis GLX rod always when there was not too much wind and on windy days I used my 13 or 15 foot G.Loomis GLX rod. The flies I used were most rubber leg nymps like EMB nymph or black Wooly Buggers or tube flies made of fox tail. The pools were easy to wade and fish and cover well with fly. I enjoyed a lot of my week on this beautiful and one of the best seatrout rivers in the whole world, Rio Gallegos. During my fishing week on that magnificient river I caught 13 seatrout, biggest one weighing 7,5 kilos. I caught about the same number of brown trout as well, weighing 0,5-1,5 kilos.