La Pampa is considered by many in our country the capital of red stag hunting, but does not have much fishing, only warm water fishing for a fish called pejerrey, in a few lagoons, where people fish with bait.
My father used to take me there, but I did not like it much. I found it rather boring, sitting there waiting for things to happen.
I always played a lot of sports, basketball, soccer, rugby, golf, squash so when my father gave me a fly rod, i totally loved it, as it was way more active, and you needed to learn techniques and develop your skills to cast better.
The problem was that in those days, Im talking during the 80´s, being able to buy a fly rod in Argentina was extremely difficult and expensive. My dad had just one rod and reel. A Fenwick rod and a Pflueger Medalist reel, with a Scientific Anglers floating line. He slowly added a few other lines, one more rod and a couple reels. He would give me a spinning rod with a bobber that you filled with water and a fly tied to it. I was ok with it, but it wasn’t fly fishing, which was what i wanted to do. At first for me it was all about learning to cast and perfecting that.
As I grew up, my father finally trusted me with some of his tackle, so by 18 years old, I was doing more real fishing and exploring and learning a lot more. That’s when I really got caught into fishing.