Photo Bryan Gregson

When it’s time for the Thanksgiving turkey in North America, the flyfishing season in Argentinian Patagonia is just getting rolling. The Flyfish Journal editor Steve Duda travels to this trout wonderland to experience everything springtime in Patagonia has to offer, including massive trout, awe-inspiring scenery, gut-busting Argentinian BBQs, delicious bottles of malbec and a few embarrassing breeches of decorum.

There is to be a grand inaugural feast, an asado. Friends and family have been invited, local dignitaries have been summoned, a baby lamb has been sacrificed, the victuals are piled up in the kitchen—cheese, fruit, sausages, cold cuts—a staggering amount of food. As guests trickle in men begin building a fire in the open pit. It’s a rager and I can feel its heat, even under the newly bold, spring sun. It is Thanksgiving day back home. Here in Argentina this is a Thursday night supper.

AJ, however, is not thinking of the food, the drinks, the fish, the river or our new pals. AJ is thinking about his laundry. He appears with a small pile of damp socks and underpants and begins hanging them on the grates of the brand new, gleaming and elaborate parrilla—the stand where or soon-to-be-lamb-dinner will be roasting…

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