Trouty Adventures in a Long Thin Country - Patagonia by Andrew Harris
After having enjoyed a presentation at a NSW Rod Fishers’ luncheon, featuring some exclusive and rather expensive South American fly fishing lodges offering full time guiding, my wife and I diligently explored the internet and then enjoyed seven fascinating weeks in some trouty hotspots in Patagonia on a DIY basis with local guides used on an occasional day basis.
Adventurous anglers wishing to cast a fly in the area locally referred to as El Fin Del Mundo, the “End of the World”, may enjoy what Patagonia has to offer. This area of South America, comprising he southern skinny part of Chile and a large southern chunk of Argentina is literally the end of the civilized world as apart from Antartica, it contains the most southerly habitation on the planet.
Our most southerly landfall was a memorable Zodiac “rubber duckie” landing on Cape Horn, the site of 800 shipwrecks but hardly the place for a dry fly! Tierra del Fuego seasonally offers sea run browns and rainbows in those few streams that are not fed by glacier, nor full of icebergs, penguins or seals.
After our voyage we disembarked at Punta Arenas, then bounced our hired 4wd north, and despite notoriously inaccurate maps, potholed icy bush roads and Spanish road signs, we arrived at Torres del Paine National Park where we stayed in an estancia - (cattle station) beside Lago Azura. There are no sheep now on this property as the wild pumas ate 500 lambs several seasons ago.
Fishing Lago Azura, with the unremitting Patagonian wind, proved a challenge but the Rio Serrano provided some protected areas to chase spawning salmon with nymphs and the locally popular streamers, Woolly buggers, Zonkers, Matukas, Muddler Minnows and Sculpins. Here my preferred dry fly seemed to be forever being blown onto hats, into bushes and everywhere except the river - Matukas and Sculpins were the only flies to bring any action.
Driving north from here in Chile is impossible as the only North- South road peters out several hundred kilometers on, so we flew to Coyhaique, hired another 4wd and had six scenic, but windy days on the superb rivers, Rios Simpson, Emperador Guillormo, Niehuae and several unprounceable spring creeks, as well as stunning lakes, Lagos Elizanlde, Central and Cerro Castillo.
Coyhaique boasts the best dry fly fishing in Chile. Local guide Alex Prior decided that our best bet for fishing dry flies was to travel in his boat 45 freezing minutes up Lago Elizanlde to its outlet river, lizanlde. This stream was gin clear and absolutely teeming with trout meandering around on the bottom and not interested in any of the assortment of flies we threw at them or hours. The frustration at seeing so many uncatchable fish suggested lunch was the best solution.
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Benito and the author lunching streamside
Patagonian style
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Alex introduced me to the standard Patagonian wilderness fare. He set up a camp table laid with linen, cutlery, nuts, cheeses, hot soup, beer and he then lit up a barbeque to cook immense steaks.
While cooking was underway I noticed a fish working a small feeder creek. Sneaking away from the table I fooled the trout with one of eoff King’s Hair & Copper nymphs and the 3lb brownie made lunch taste even better! No trouble at all, draining a superb bottle of red which is mandatory accompaniment to all Patagonian lunches. Standard procedure thereafter is to take a two hour siesta and after a wake up glass”, fish on till dusk, at about 8.30pm. Australians have to get used to dinners starting no earlier than 10pm and finishing in the wee hours.
The Coyhaique streams only produced for me large numbers of maximum 14 inch trout, as predictably we were too late in the season for any surface feeding larger fish. The guides suggested a wind resistant method and that is to trail a #16 Royal Wulff or tiny Nymph a foot behind a large red Chernoble Ant. Most action occurs on the point fly but occasionally some of the larger rainbows smash the ant - good fun but presentation is hardly challenging.
Next we flew north to Chile’s Porto Varas area that is in the midst of glorious lake scenery dominated by three huge snow capped volcanoes.
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Apparently sight fishing is generally impracticable in this area and several days on local streams again only resulted in many small fish on nymphs, wets and streamers. We did however find one almost inaccessible back country spring creek, which held extraordinarily spooky large rainbows clearly finning in gin clear water, only fishable “fine & far out” or by “bow and arrow”casts. Needless to say, I managed to line or terrify most of the larger fish but managed a few minnows on #18 Elk Hair caddis.
Access to this back country involves a long drive under towering volcanos, through eucalypt and native forests on a typical potholed Patagonian bush track, then launching a row boat for a seven hour drift on the Rio Petrohue River which tumbles off the icy shoulders of Vulcan Osorno forty miles down to the Ancud Gulf.
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Having gone out of his way to indulge my passion for sight fishing with dry flies in the Spring creek, my extraordinarily helpful guide Robert Parker convinced me to change my floating line to my Teeny sink tip. I soon got the hang of tossing Wooly Buggers and Zonkers and caught several keepers on streamers, but I wanted to get back to a smaller fly so I tied on to my 6lb. Maxima tippet a #6
wool head Sculpin that looks like a Muddler Minnow. Immediately my results improved with a number of reasonable trout being taken in the deeper parts of the main channel. Robert, tiring of unhooking these feisty trout crimped down the barb with his pliers. At that moment in the main channel there was a huge splash and Robert explained that the King Salmon - Chinook, had started their
annual spawning run up from the ocean.
Robert had just commented that in the next week or so he aimed to come out salmon fishing with his 35lb line, when another surface commotion nearby spurred me into intemperate action with one false caste over Robert’s ear, the little sculpin hit the surface and was immediately engulfed.
Robert said, “well, that’s the end of your beaut Aussie fly!” as the fly line and nearly all the backing vanished. Over the next 20 minutes or so I was agreeing with him but after being spooled half a dozen times and with Robert rowing like crazy up current when the monster was hurtling upstream, the fish suddenly surfaced and we saw a big flash of silver about forty yards abeam .
Having seen silver I thought for the first time that I might have a slight chance if I could keep him away from the numerous snags by frequent use of side strain techniques learnt in losing many Tongariro battles. Fortunately I was able to slow some of his runs by wearing a “palming” groove in the heel of my right hand as the rear third of the drum had been exposed in another memorable but clumsy adventure on the Tongariro’s aptly named Silly Pool. Tripping over, I smashed my one day old seven weight rod and broke off part of the rim of my late father’s forty year old Hardy Princess reel. Filing off the rough edges exposing a “palming” area that actually turned it into a much more potent weapon. Maybe I should write and suggest modifications to Mr. Hardy, London!
Meantime the battle continued with screaming runs and bottom hugging sulks and when eventually I gently pumped the fish up near the boat, we were both amazed at its size, given the frailty of the tippet. Predictably there were further lunges, so we decided there was no possibility of landing him near the boat so as we neared the bank Robert jumped in and got enough of his net under our Salmonidae friend to heave him up on the bank, almost an hour after the battle began. Euphoria!!! |
The “Chinook King” and 30 lbs of King salmon |
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The truly memorable 30lb. King Salmon was duly slobbered over, admired, photographed, and after a long resuscitation swam slowly off upstream to complete his spawning duties. Memories of Moby Dick prevented any farewell kissing!
For once in my life, luck was on the side of my 6 wt. Loomis travel rod, modified old Hardy reel, 6lb. tippet, and the wondrous barbless wool head Sculpin.
There was great excitement later back in town as admiring Chileans “oohed” “ over the photos and muchas ceverzas - many beers flowed for the next week.
Several days later we left Chile crossing the Andes into Argentina by the fabled Cruce del Lagos route. This involves two fabulous days of travelling through some of the worlds most stunning scenery, three buses over precipitous mountain passes alternating with three ships on different lakes and overnight in the ancient, once grand Puella Hotel.
After sampling the legendary asados and parillas -(barbeques), wines, scenery and chocolate delights of Bariloche, We bussed four hours north to the famous Junin de los Andes area of Argentina. Readers familiar with Ernest Schwiebert’s classic angling books and Chris Hole’s “Heaven on a Stick” will appreciate the fabulous trout streams we encountered flowing 12,000 feet below the snowy peak of the majestic Vulcan Lanin.
There we were looked after by the most marvellous guide, Benito Perez of the Mendoza Fly Shop (www.mendozaflyshop.com). Benito is a retired Notary, author of an exceptional entomologically accurate “match the hatch” book, artist, poet and bon vivant who had organized a sensational cabin for us at Spring Creek Lodge. We stayed for three blissful days while Benito and I fished the famous rivers, Rios Chimehuin, Alumine and Malleo. Back at the cabin fish rose constantly in the spring creek at our door step and several were happy to take Peter Leuver’s tiny Parachute Adams.
Wet flies and streamers are favoured at the latter part of the season but as Benito shares my passion for the dry fly, we persevered and caught a number of fish on the Malleo and Chimehuin with a variety of #12-20 dries.
To Benito’s surprise my most successful flies were #18 Pale Olive Duns and #16 Blue Quill Baetis, both superbly tied for me by Bruce Pryor and Geoff King’s ever reliable Shaving Brush emergers.
We were too late for the February peak season and mainly caught keeper sized fish with only a handful over the 2.5lb. mark. From photos and Benitos’ stories I am sure that a week in February in this Nirvana would present plenty of large fish on small dries.
The ever present Patagonian wind is used in an unusual manner in this part of Argentina. When the fish are rising to the prolific insect life it is customary to fish even the dry fly downwind, this often means DOWN stream. Cast well above your targeted rise, keep mending so you achieve a drag free drift on your tiny fly as it skitters across the surface and, if you’re lucky, a 3lb rainbow will smash the fly. Great fun and maybe a technique we could try on a windy day on our Monaro streams and Tassie lakes.
After farewelling Benito we crossed the Andes back into Chile and after a visit to Pucon with its constantly smoking volcano and warning lights in the main street that informs locals when it is grumbling and dangerous, we drove north to the The Rio Cautin in the grounds of the historic Termes de Manzanar hot springs hotel. This beautiful stream produced three plump pre-breakfast rainbows on a #12 Adams, interestingly just below the confluence of the volcanic hot water and the freezing mountain stream. This is not a water mix I have experienced in Oberon, NSW.
Our drive north to Santiago took us through the highest ski resorts in Chile, on mountains up to an amazing 21,000 feet with unfortunately limited fishing as at this height all the streams are glacier fed, however the beautiful lake at Portillo did produce small rainbows.
If you are thinking of a Patagonian adventure the upmarket lodges can be readily accessed through AFFF, Frontiers or international outfitters on a myriad of websites. If our type of DIY travel appeals I can recommend several teriffic guides and suggest areas and accommodation. Readers are welcome to email me at NSW Rod Fishers - info@nswrodfisherssociety.com or catch up
at any Rod Fishers’ function.
Generally Argentina is far cheaper than Chile but excellent accommodation in both countries, frequently stream or lakeside, can be found at rates often considerably cheaper than in Australia. Restaurants offer great beef and lamb dishes very affordably and the wines are excellent and cheap.
Argentinian Malbec is sensational, so pack a corkscrew.
Light weight Chest waders, Gortex jacket, thermal unders and shirts, scarf and warm hats are a must. I got by with one 6 weight Loomis 4 piece travel rod and an old Hardy Princess reel with a 7wf. floating line as well as a Teeny 200 sink tip loaded on a spare spool.
You can find several websites that list local “hot” flies, but you can certainly get by with Aussie flies. In fact in the Northern part of Patagonia I had more success with Aussie flies beautifully tied up for me by three of our NSW Rod Fisher members, Peter Leuver, Geoff King and Bruce Pryor.
Plan to visit between November and February. In the deep south we found lots of hosterias, planes, boats, trains etc closed after 1st. March. Surface insectactivity, which is far more prolific and
predictable than in Australia and New Zealand, also obviously abates as it gets colder. Biting insects ie. midges, sandflies, black-fly etc are not nearly as troublesome as in Australia and New
Zealand but pack some repellant and suncream as well.
Beware of weight limits on internal flights. Lan Chile is reputed to insist rigorously on a 20 kg suitcase limit and 7 kg in the cabin. Stories abound about fishing rods and heavy waders having to be left behind.
If your trout fishing is suffering from Australia’s terrible droughts then drop everything - fly to EL Fin Del Mundo and fish your way north - you won’t regret a moment of your adventure!
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