To start the journey to the end of the earth one must know where to start. Nearly 500 years ago a group of explorers from the Old world discovered the coasts of an unknown land. Dispersed fires and columns of smoke seemed to float upon the waters, in the mist of dawn; this mystical setting gave the island its name, Land of Fire. Tierra Del Fuego is the home of the Rio Grande which is a water system completely untamed and home to the precious sea run Brown Trout. It is here that a fly fisherman has the opportunity to fish with one of the seven Estancias and pay up to ten thousand dollars per week and be pampered like an old lady. Or, to fish it the hard way in the allocated 4 kms of free water and work hard for each precious fish; in other words “Our Way.” And, this is how we begin our fish tale. Tierra Del Fuego is a region that holds world records of wind and cold fronts that makes, in my eyes, makes the fly fishing more challenging and amazing. One must enter in from a bridge and walk great distances and have a solid understanding of the tides, in order to get back safely. There can be 24.5 ft tide changes due to various moon phases, and you must know where to cross to fish the pools effectively. As all of the upper pools are private the lower parts are tide oriented and one night four years ago we learned our lesson the hard way. We almost couldn’t make it to our car for a celebration bottle of wine and beer. A few weeks ago Ed, Ray and I set out to spend fifteen days fly fishing and learning new waters in Tierra Del Fuego. In my mind we had great success in relation to learning the ways of the river. We camped at the mouth of the Rio Grande and each day we would walk up river to two hours (on the way back it felt like ten) with backpacks. We would fish five of our favorite pools which meant crossing the river and setting up for ten or twelve hours of incredible hardcore fly fishing. One day it even blew 110 kms but that just added to the fun and beauty of being on the water. The rods we used were both built by Ed and I. We used longer blanks with oversize guides seven, eight or nine weights and fast sinking lines of different grain depending on the tide. The cast did not have to be very long. You just had to be able to make ten thousand casts, that’s all. Flies were prince nymphs, small black beaded wooly buggers during the day at the magic hour big black panthers which are massive bunny leaches that are as ugly as sin. Hooks definitely must be strong and very sharp as these fish are extremely strong and leap out of the water like scud missiles when they realize they have been hooked. Depending on the wind and level of the water, floating lines can be very effective fishing with “pata goma” flies. These flies are nymphs with exaggerated rubber legs and the white legs work particularly well. We all hooked and caught a lot of beautiful fish and met incredible people and truly learned these stretches of water inside and out. It was an incredible trip, one which we will do for the rest of our lives.