LOCALadk Magazine

46 Fall 2019 LOCALadk Magazine LOCALadk The other concept Don introduced me to was "catch and release"—the idea being to put the trout back in the water to let them live to be caught another day. Today I am tying my own flies; what a thrill it is to catch a trout on one of your flies and then release it. I think ever y fisherman goes through several stages of development in their lives: Catch fish. Catch a lot of fish. Catch the biggest fish. Then you may reach enlightenment. You learn that it is enough to enjoy yourself in the moment, the beauty of your surroundings, and the chance to share it with a close friend. Before the Adirondacks was indiscriminately logged of its trees for lumber, and before the Midwest industrial plants spewed their pollutants into the air—Adirondack trout would regularly reach 6 pounds or more in size. Through deforesta- tion and the onslaught of acid rain, the native populations of trout were all but eliminated in many Adirondack lakes and ponds. As anyone who fishes the Adirondacks today knows, a "big" Adirondack brook trout these days is anything over 12 inches. I have caught them over 18 inches, and my personal best is one just over 4 pounds, 22 inches long. In the last 5 years the New York State brook trout record has improved from 4.5 pounds to the current 6 pounds. Things are slowly improving, and I hope that in my children's lifetime they will see a return to the glor y days. Back to Argentina. The monster brook trout of Rio Pico are the same trout that were once native to the Adirondacks and Canada. Early North American immigrants to the countr y stocked the lo- cal rivers and lakes with the eastern brook trout in the early 1900s. The rest is histor y. They are like brook trout on ste- roids. With pristine waters and the lack of industrial pollu- tion, the trout thrived. The Rio Pico fisher y was practically unknown to anyone but locals until fairly recently. Over the last 25 years the fishing guides of North America began to hear stories about these big trout, and thus spent their winters exploring the area. Fast-for ward to today, and it has become a Mecca for trout enthusiasts. The fishing lodges and guiding business have had a tremendous positive effect on the local economy. The guides today are locals who know the area well and know how to catch the browns, rainbows and brook trout that pop- ulate Rio Pico's waters. My son Jay and I had been planning our trip to Argentina for over a year, and we felt like kids waiting for Christmas. Of- ten, we wondered if the day would ever arrive. We had done our research, selecting Hemispheres Unlimited, run by Jus- tin Witt, as our outfitter. The "Trout Bum" package sounded

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