The Middle Limay begins below the Pichi Picún Leufú Dam and runs about 50 miles downstream to the Ezequiel Ramos Mexía Reservoir, better known as El Chocón. Flowing through the province of Neuquén along the border with Río Negro, it sits between two very different bodies of water that together define everything about how it fishes.

Landscape and Characteristics

The Middle Limay is a tailwater, and it behaves like one. The Pichi Picún Leufú Dam releases consistent flows of clean, clear water at prime temperatures for trout and the insect life that supports them, giving the river a stability that few Patagonian waters can match. Downstream, the sprawling El Chocón Reservoir—315 square miles of surface area and up to 200 feet deep—acts as a nursery for enormous brown trout that migrate up out of the lake to spawn.

The river itself carries broad riffles, long runs, and deep pools within a landscape of open steppe and scattered cliffs. Because its flows and temperatures stay remarkably steady year-round, the Middle Limay doesn’t experience the same seasonal swings in character that define its neighbors upstream.

Fly Fishing on the Middle Limay

The Middle Limay has a reputation for producing large resident brown trout, strong rainbows, and, above all, enormous migratory browns that push well into double-digit pounds. Fishing here spans the full range of technique: dry flies fished as attractors or matched carefully to a hatch, nymphs worked through fishy runs, and streamers stripped to imitate baitfish or pancoras, the small freshwater crabs that make up a significant part of the diet of the river’s biggest fish.

Season (Early November – End of May)

Because it is a tailwater fed by a dam rather than a lake outlet, the Middle Limay fishes with unusual consistency across the entire season, from opening in early November through the close in late May. Dry fly and nymph fishing remain productive throughout, while streamer fishing builds through the season as migratory browns stage and move up from El Chocón.

Late Season and the Big Fish Run (March – May)

As with the rest of the Limay system, the closing months of the season bring the river’s most famous run: giant brown trout moving up from El Chocón Reservoir to spawn. These fish, some reaching well over 20 pounds, are what have earned the Middle Limay its reputation as one of the great trophy trout fisheries in the world.