Have you ever driven along the costanera en route to Jorge Newbery airport, cast your eyes off to the right for a last look at the river and wondered: “What is that lone tudor structure perched majestically on top of the water?”
Depending on the light, it can resemble either an English seaside estate or an eerie manse from a Chas Addams cartoon, but it’s actually the Club de Pescadores; one of the few places in the city to enjoy the Río de la Plata close-up. And don’t let its seclusion fool you; this sporting club is alive and kicking. On a sunny day, you’ll find as many as 150 members out on the pier, chatting with friends, sunbathing, and, of course, fishing.
Fisherman on the pier (Photo: Meghan Stone)
Guillermo Iaria has always been passionate about his pastime, and recently sidelined from other sports due to a knee injury, he’s spending more time at the club. “The fun of being here goes beyond fishing,” he says. “The wind, the tranquility, and the sound of the water,” are for him, what makes the experience so pleasurable.
Over a hundred years ago, the area was merely an extension of Ayucucho street, which terminated in an old dock named ‘Los Franceses’ after the French ships that used to unload coal there on to trains travelling from Retiro station.
But one day in 1903, a group of men who liked to fish from the dock put up a sign at the entrance that read ‘De Pescadores’, staking their claim to the spot. Those few men unknowingly became the founders of what is now a 1,800-member club.
Almost 30 years on, construction began to replace the small clapboard house with what is the club’s current home. Designed after a Belgian castle destroyed in World War II, the building you see today took seven years to complete, and besides the addition of a glass paned balcony added in the 1950s to afford better views of the river, hasn’t undergone any further architectural modifications. Last year the clubhouse was declared a National Historic Monument, insuring that this iconic structure will remain largely unchanged.
Inside, the club has the look of a traditional institution, but is surprisingly unpretentious. The marble floor and mahogany staircase in the front hall hint at formality, yet club members can be seen casually dressed in shorts and laden with fishing gear. Neither is it a men-only club; women have been invited as members since the 40s.
“In fishing, everyone is equal,” says the president of the club, Julio Bragulat. “You can get here by bus, bicycle or Mercedes-Benz, but once you walk out on to the pier, there’s no competition.”
Inside the club's upstairs restaurant (Photo: Meghan Stone)
Downstairs the clubhouse has several communal areas including a games room, a library, a sitting area with a large-screen TV, and a newly completed historical room. Opened during this month’s Noche de los Museos on 12th November 2011, it displays treasures such as club trophies, antique reels and hooks, old photographs of the club’s founders, and even an original bus ticket from 1932 as evidence of how people reached the dock in pre-costanera highway times.
Upstairs is a restaurant, run under separate management from the club, and a large events room, where dances, concerts, and other social affairs are often held.
A small aquarium, housing nearly every species of fish inhabiting the Río de la Plata, is open to the public along with the historical room and restaurant. An impressive corridor decorated with vintage fishing rods opens out on to the water leading to the club’s main attraction - its 565-metre long pier.
The first thing one notices about the pier is its simplicity. With no protective railings, the trenches that line the edges satisfy a double purpose – safety, but also a comfortable niche in which to sit closer to the water. Those who want to take a break from the sun, or prefer to sit at a table for lunch, can take refuge in one of several huts along the dock.
Last year, the construction of a new coastal road resulted in the loss of 50 metres of pier extending from the shoreline; a loss which the club compensated for by extending the pier a further 115 metres out over the river and building a bigger refuge at the end that now seats nearly 50 people.
Club rules are simple. No radios or motorised fishing boats are allowed. So except for the sounds of rippling water, birds calling, and an occasional plane taking off from the nearby Jorge Newbery airport, the surroundings are peaceful.
Club vice-president Ricardo Jürgensen and president Julio Bragulat (Photo: Meghan Stone)
Here, sportsmanship is everything. Members use only one rod, since anchoring multiple rods to a fixed spot and watching from afar is considered unsportsmanlike. Additionally, the club’s catch and release policy means all caught fish must be returned to the water, unless a member catches a particularly large fish, in which case he may keep it, but only one per day.
“Our aims, first and foremost,” says the club’s vice-president Ricardo Jürgensen, “are protecting the environment, preserving the ecological balance, and avoiding depletion of the fish population.”
On a recent Saturday afternoon, club member Miguel Ángel cast his line off the north side of the dock hoping to catch a dorado. He feels a tug, reels in his line and pulls out a tarpon that got hooked, not by a direct bite, but by a snag on its side. With the help of a net, Ángel frees the fish and sets to work unhooking his catch.
Clearly, he enjoys the process. When he tries to explain what it is about fishing that he loves so much, one word seems to sum it up: “It’s an illness,” he says. “I just wait. I just wait for Sundays because that’s when I can go fishing.”
The club is open for fishing 365 days a year, 24 hours a day. It hosts regular fishing competitions as well as inter-club tournaments, and members also have use of the club’s four other locations in the provinces of Buenos Aires and Entre Ríos.
