Ruben Martin: A better tube fly for steelhead

A unique steelhead experience. The Santa Cruz River, located amidst Patagonia’s expansive plains, offers some of the last untapped steelhead fishing on the planet. Steelhead has often been credited with being one of the hardest, if not the hardest, fighting migratory fish in the world, and the specimens in Santa Cruz are no exception. Fish here can reach well over 20-pounds and will put on a great aerial show once hooked. Chasing a Santa Cruz steelhead is a truly profound experience, and the magnificent river and landscape in Santa Cruz are equally as spectacular. Photo credit Solid Adventures . . .

Santa Cruz River Killer Tube Fly

By Ruben Martin

This fly has demonstrated its effectiveness with the *Santa Cruz River steelhead in Argentina for a few years. These steelhead trout entering the Atlantic Ocean have become an obsession for any fly fisherman because they find it challenging to take a fly and, once hooked, manage their incredible strength.

NOTE: The Santa Cruz begins at the shore of the Viedma and Argentino Lakes, of glacial origin and located in the Los Glaciares National Park, and runs 239 mile eastwards before reaching the Atlantic Coast, 217 miles north of the southern tip of South America, creating a delta. It is one of the last large free-flowing rivers in Patagonia.

Adult Steelhead illustration by Thom Glace. The freshwater form of the steelhead is the rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss). The difference between these forms of the species is that steelhead migrate to the ocean and return to freshwater tributaries to spawn, whereas non-anadromous rainbow trout do not leave freshwater. Steelhead are also larger and less colorful than rainbow trout. Steelhead can weigh up to 55-pounds and reach 45-inches in length. They can live up to 11 years and spawn multiple times

Este modelo lleva unos años demostrando su efectividad con los steelheads del rio Santa Cruz en Argentina. Estas truchas steelhead que entran del Oceano Atlantico se han convertido en una obsesion para cualquier pescador con mosca del mundo, por su dificultad e increíble fuerza.