The rest of the flight went smoothly with no further interruptions, as did arriving into Santiago, clearing immigrations, grabbing my luggage, clearing customs, getting checked in for my domestic flight to Puerto Montt, finding my departure gate, grabbing a cup of coffee and finally hooking up with the rest of my party – three couples from southern California – all of which took less than 1 hour. The new airport in Santiago is amazingly simple, well laid out and painless…

Our first week would have us exploring the waters fished by Patagonian BaseCamp (PBC) owned and operated by the Flying Dutchman Marcel Sijnesael. Getting to PBC is a little more involved than getting to most Patagonia lodges. From Santiago we would fly to Puerto Montt, then board a private twin engine aircraft and fly to the coastal town of Chaiten. There we would jump in a vehicle and drive 2 1⁄2 hours southeast to the lodge, just outside the village of La Junta, off the Carretera Austral, (Southern Highway, in English, part of the Pan American highway and the name given to Route 7, the gravel road constructed by Augusto Pinochet that opened up much of remote Patagonia to fly fishers).

PBC sits tight on the banks of the Rio Palena, and is a well constructed, stick-framed, two story, tastefully decorated building, built specifically for fly fishers. It features seven in-house spacious bedrooms, each with a sitting area, full bath with unlimited hot water, comfortable beds and 24-hour power. Huge picture windows allow fabulous views of the river and steep mountains covered with impenetrable forests of wild rhubarb, ancient beech trees and bamboo. The main gathering room of the lodge is anchored with a massive European-style fireplace that anglers can relax around, enjoy a cocktail and share their day’s fishing stories.

The food at PBC is fabulous; a creation of Carolina, a trained and imaginative culinary wizard, whose passion for life and food are truly inspiring. Her dishes blend traditional Chilean Cuisine featuring fresh vegetables from her greenhouse, seafood, meat dishes, homemade pasta, and the most wonderful homemade bread you ever spread fresh-churned butter on. The food at PBC is sophisticated without being pretentious and blended with an extensive selection of fine Chilean and Argentine wines, a sure way to gain no less than 5 pounds in a week. But enough about lodging and accommodations, which are excellent by any standard, let’s get into the fishing program.

Marcel, an avid fly fisher, world traveler and adventurer, explored and fished Chilean Patagonia for the better part of a year in search of the ultimate locale to base his fishing operation from. And all his due diligence paid off. The PBC fishing program is incredibly diverse. There are no less than a dozen different moving waters to explore and fish and that’s not counting the stillwater fisheries he has at his disposal. I fished with PBC last March for a week, and this year another week (11 days total). I still haven’t seen it all or repeated a fishery other than the overnight Palena float, which I did by choice, because it is a incredibly unique angling experience in Patagonia that is only offered at PBC. Here is how my fishing week went.

Day 1
River “D” (swore I would not divulge the name)
Marcel and I floated and wade-fished this beautiful little freestone river, a tributary of the mighty Palena, that to our knowledge has not been fished before. River D is loaded with browns and rainbows that averaged an honest 16 - 17 inches. I moved bigger fish in the 20 inch range, but never brought one to net. River “D” was a little up and colored, due to a major rain the night before, so I opted to pull streamers on a 24’- 150 grain sink-tip and I hammered the fish. I didn’t count how many I landed, but it was well in excess of 30 fish. This river is perfect for two anglers that like to wade-fish an intimate, easy to read and fish piece of water, with no competition. I would bet in a season it gets fished less than 20 times – total!

Day 2
Lake “X” another secret fishery
We mountain biked into this fishery (it’s an easy hike or horseback ride, but biking sounded fun and different). Marcel has a cool wooden boat stashed on the lake, and as our guide rowed around the reed-studded parameter of this big lake we sight-casting to fat rainbows and browns chasing and eating dragonflies. The lake was stuffed with trout and all it took was a tan Fat Albert cast within 15 feet of a fish to bring a savage strike and reeling screaming run. We took dozens of trout apiece, the biggest a 24-inch rainbow that literally jerked the rod out of my partner’s hand. The lake was gin-clear, we saw every single fish eat our flies and as much as I am not a stillwater fisherman, I might change my ways in the future if I can find more lakes like “X”.

Day 3 & 4
Rio Palena Overnight Float
This has to be one of the most enjoyable and unique floats in all Patagonia. We fished two long days, overnighting at a beautiful little riverside cabin complete with two bedrooms (sheets and linens supplied –no sleeping bags), and a full bathroom with flush toilet and shower. The guides cooked an amazingly delicious dinner over an open fire and we toasted the Southern Cross with great wine and stimulating conversation – all the while being serenaded by the whispering of the river and crunching sound of cows and sheep chewing their cud.

The Palena is a relatively large river, about the size of the Lower Sacramento and offers every conceivable type of water you could possibly imagine. The river is choked with massive logs, root wads and boulders – perfect habitat for wary brown trout to melt into, staging for their next meal. In addition, there are many long stretches of willow-lined banks, gravel bars, slots, pockets, riffles, holes, seams and runs that hold equal numbers of rainbows and brown trout. You can pitch streamers back into the logs and strip like mad, run a dry-dropper rig down the seams or cast hummingbird size terrestrials and twitch them into being devoured – it doesn’t really matter, you will catch a ton of fish and experience some of the most remote and beautiful country in Patagonia – all at the pace of the river. Our overnight float ended right at the doorstep of the lodge, where we were met by the staff with a cold beer and hot empanadas, followed by a long hot shower and another delicious dinner by Carolyn.

Day 5
River “B” yet another secret fishery
Marcel and I got up early the last morning and made the two hour drive to Lago Verde, a stones throw from the Argentine border. From the town of Lago Verde we crossed into no less than three different estancias and half a dozen gates before hitting one of the sexiest and clearest little streams I have ever laid eyes on. We then bushwhacked our way upstream, peering over precipices to view holding browns and rainbows in excess of 20 inches. When we finally dropped down to river level we fished our way downstream casting big, gaudy foam-bodied dries, taking fish after fish until before we knew it we were where we began; time seemed to steal away while fishing. We didn’t take any of the big fish we spotted from above, but many, many brown and rainbow trout in the 14 – 18 inch class were landed. The banks were loaded with tiny little hoppers, no more than 1⁄4 inch long, and by mid-February this fishery will offer incredible hopper fishing. The plan for the remainder of the season is to drive into the headwaters and raft-float and wade this fishery back to the take-out. The river is extremely remote and I would bet that there has been less than half a dozen fly fishers (PBC guides, Marcel and I) that have ever chucked a fly in it – truly a magical place.

Our week’s fishing at Patagonian BaseCamp can be summed up with one word – Variety. I don’t know another fishing destination in all Chilean Patagonia that has so many different and diverse fisheries within easy striking distance. The overnight float further adds to the seemingly endless list of fisheries to take advantage of at PBC. I fished at Marcel’s lodge for 11 days and I know there are at least a dozen more waterways to explore and fish. It would take a month to see it all… Exceedingly comfortable accommodations, gourmet food, old world customer service and an endless supply of energy and effort to make guests happy keeps PBC at the top of my list for southern hemisphere fisheries.

The second part of our Patagonia Adventure would begin with a spectacular 3 1⁄2 hour drive up and over the spine of the Andes, dropping into the rain shadow desert landscape of Argentine Patagonia where the Welsh village of Trevelin has tinkered away for the last 150 years. We would be fishing with the Montana Boys and expatriates Rance Rathie and Travis Smith who have carved out an utopian fly fishing life in the heart of trout country, the Chubut Province of Argentine between the 42nd and 46th parallel south. The name of their operation is Patagonia River Guides and we were lodged at the fabulously beautiful, rugged and luxurious 50,000-acre Estancia La Paz located on the banks of the Rio Grande (Rio Futaleufu in Chile).

I had met & fished with Rance and Travis 8 years earlier at Trevelin Lodge when they were still cutting their teeth on Argentina trout fishing as guides. Rance and Travis run one of the most successful and widely accepted outfitting companies in all Patagonia. The secret to their success is simple; similar to that of The Fly Shop’s. “Surround yourself with good people, take care of your help, pay attention to detail, and take care of clients as if they were guests in your home.” It works and you must book at least two years in advance for the few openings that become available each season.

We would spend 6 days fishing the magnificent and extremely diversified waters in Los Alerces National Park and surrounding countryside.

Day 1
Arroyo Pescado
Arguably the most famous spring creek in all Patagonia, Arroyo Pescado boils from massive springs and meanders miles through a lush valley of native bunch grass. The aquatic biomass in this waterway is dense beyond belief and the sheer number of rainbow, brown and brook trout is just as staggering. Pink flamingos, black neck swans (Cisnes” in Spanish) and myriad of South American waterfowl add a certain magic to your fishing experience as you sight-cast high-floating dry flies, nymphs and the occasional streamer to holding trout. Down on the flats, unprotected from the constant Patagonia winds, this fishery is an interesting exercise in delivering the fly accurately to holding fish. However, nine times out of ten, if you get a big dry fly within 5 feet of a fish and manage to get a two-foot dead drift it will take. Our entire party hooked and landed dozens of fish apiece, averaging about 17 inches with the big fish for the day pushing 23 inches. Arroyo Pescado is a must-fish experience and a perfect first-day fishery to start a week and get the jitters out and your timing down.

Day 2
Rio Corcovado Float
This was a total score and I was ecstatic to find out that our second day of fishing would have us floating and chucking tube-sock-size streamers on the Corcovado; a river I had read about for years, but never fished. Rance would be at the sticks for the day and my fishing partner Dan Armstrong, a professional photographer, competitive snowboarder, extreme skier, journeyman fly fisher, great boat partner and all around good guy and myself would rip streamers in hopes of moving some BIG browns. This is physically and mentally demanding high-paced fishing where you are constantly targeting ambush points with a sinking line and a ridiculous size streamer, stripping as fast as you can, all while literally flying down a fast, high-gradient river, holding on for dear life through heart-pounding rapids and willow-choked chutes that look impossible to navigate.

Our most memorable fish of the day was a huge brown that finally got the monkey off Dan’s back and subsequently elevated him to the 25-inch club! We were ripping casts at a rock wall and catching, on every single cast, rainbows and browns in the 12 inch class. As Dan was pulling his streamer up to the boat and readying for another chuck and duck barrage, a huge brown came up off the bottom, probably turned on by all the smaller fish darting around, and followed the streamer to rod tip without eating. Dan and I were rattled, but Rance remained his calm self and suggested that we pull over to the bank and rest the fish for 15 – 20 minutes and try again. Rance went on to inform a still shaken Dan “Dan, I figure you got about a 1-in-100 chance of having that fish eat again, so don’t screw up. Wait until he eats the fly and STRIP-SET!” The 15 minutes were up and Rance ferried us up river. I was the camera man (no pressure here with Mr. Professional onboard) and Dan started casting; little fish – landed, little fish – LDR “Long Distance Release”, BIG fish – follow, eat, strip-set FISH ON! Dan had his 25 1⁄2-inch fish, and officially made the Club. We celebrated with a few swigs of Melbec – right out of the bottle. The rest of the fish & float trip down the Corcovado went well, with many nice browns and rainbows landed and yours truly still not in “The Club”.


Day 3
Rio Rivadavia Float
If you have ever spoken to me about the Rio Rivadavia, you know how dear I hold this elegant yet capricious river to my heart. I don’t think I would be stepping out of line in saying the Rivadavia ranks as one of the top three most stunningly bonny rivers in the world. The water, crystalline with overtones of glacial-blue tint flows through an ancient alerce (Patagonia Cypress) forest and I swear, you expect a white unicorn to come prancing out of the forest to sip the aquamarine. Better yet, the Rivadavia is flush (and you can see every single fish) with browns and rainbows, some in the 30-inch plus range. Dan and I along with venerable guide John Roberts (about the nicest guy you ever met and spent a day in the boat with) would float the Rivadavia from her headwater lake to Lago Verde; 7 miles total. We did a little of everything, sight-casting to cruising fish with dries, dry/dropper fishing in the nymph-runs, and of course pulling big olive streamers in, around and on top off the never ending supply of submerged stumps and trees that make the Rivadavia such a prolific brown trout stronghold. We had a great day, caught dozens upon dozens of nice fish, some pushing 20 inches and finished it off with Dan rowing across Lago Verde to our take-out site, while John and I enjoyed a cold Quilmes Beer (the Budweiser of Argentina).

Day 4
Nant y Fall
This trick little spring-creek-like-fishery, is a short drive from Estancia La Paz and nestled in a lush native-grass- covered valley, surrounded on three sides by some of the most precipitous mountains, recently blanketed by snow, you have ever laid eyes on. A lake-fed, private access waterway, Nant y Fall is a spot and stalk fishery that rarely exceeds 30 feet in width. We fished mostly dries (terrestrials and some small attractor patterns) and an occasional dry/dropper combination when a certain fish played tough. This was not our day; the night before it snowed in Esquel (first time in recorded history for the date) and for some reason – maybe we were nursing a little hang-over, I don’t know – but we couldn’t seem to make it happen. We caught a few fish and enjoyed light bantering between us all. What was most memorable this day was lying in the tall green grass, after a very fine lunch and admiring the filtered sunlight gleaming through rapidly streaking snow-clouds – all framed in an encircling backdrop of snow-covered mountains. It was a great day, despite the challenging fishing!

Day 5 River X
(Don’t ask me the name of this creek, you’ll have to fish with Rance and Travis and they will make you swear on a Bible not to reveal it to another soul.)

This was an exceptionally special day in all aspects. It started with a magnificent drive up a gorgeous valley right out of the 1956 John Wayne movie, “The Searchers”. At one point we stopped the truck and gazed at a cerulean, endless sky and watched no less than 8 adult condors drift 100 yards above our heads, from one side of the valley to the other (at least 5 miles across) in less than 30 seconds. We continued to skirt the wind and water tortured valley on a washboard gravel road, scattering coveys of California Valley Quail by the hundreds, until we broke onto a high plateau. It was here, as we were turning into the gate to drop down to our river, that we met up with four of the roughest hewn, Patagonia-wind-blown, right out of an old Western – looking gauchos, accompanied by no less than a dozen of the mangiest looking cur-dogs any of us had ever laid eyes on. They were moving a herd of about 200 rams into fresh graze and we exchanged pleasantries, talked about the weather and other gaucho stuff. At one point Rance asked one of the gauchos if it would be okay if I took his picture and his answer was, (translated to me) “…if you don’t think I will break the camera...”

After saying goodbyes to the gauchos, we made our way down a dirt road, in places no better than a sheep-track, before finally ending at a boulder-strewn, spring-invigorated, cold water creek. It didn’t take long to understand what this day was going to be about, as I peeked over a ledge and spotted a broad-shouldered brown in the 20-inch class confidently sip a natural off the surface in no more than eighteen inches of water. We fished nothing but dries all day and worked our way up-stream on private beats, fishing extremely thoroughly – leaving no water untouched. We all landed a ton of rainbows and browns that averaged eighteen inches. My biggest fish was a 20 1⁄2 inch brown taken on a #8 Rance’s Gypsy King.
This is an intimate, private access creek, with a mixture of high-gradient riffles and long, slow moving pools – all choked with boulders ranging from bowling ball to Volkswagen in size. If you fish with PRG, don’t miss this special fishery.

Day 6
Rio Grande “Futaleufu” Float
As a fitting end to our six days of fishing with Patagonia River Guides, Dan and I floated PRG’s home water, the Rio Grande, with Travis Baker. This was a “boys-day-out” no holds barred, streamer chucking, streamer pulling, joke-telling, yelling, laughing, light day of fishing with two great guys. Dan and I hammered the fish and kept Travis busy at the net and in stitches laughing as Dan and I talked smack at each other all day, until by the end of the day, with the wind kicking our butts, we finally had enough – “no mas”. I can’t honestly tell you how many fish we landed, but it seemed like one of us was into a fish all day. We didn’t move anything terribly huge with our average fish somewhere between 17 and 19 inches – all taken on Tim Fox’s black and copper Sleech. What a great fly! What a great day. What a great trip! And if the day, or the entire trip for that matter, could get any better, that night, after a delicious asado (Argentine barbeque), Rance arranged for two friends to visit the lodge to sing and play guitar. These guys, two Welsh brothers, farmers from outside the village of Trevelin, were way beyond expectations, charming and infinitely recordable. Their most memorable song was called “Ruta 40” the legendary route that links Patagonia to the rest of the Country, sort of like the song “Route 66.” It was a magical evening with great company, fabulous music – a fitting end to an exceptional two weeks of fishing Patagonia. What a great trip!

Rance and Travis operate a top-notch organization and have gained world-wide recognition within the hard-core angling crowd. You have to book at least a year, probably two in advance to get a date. Where they distance themselves from their competitors is the level of sophistication and attention to detail they bring to their fishing program. Who would have thought: two native Montana boys, one a third generation fly fishing guide, migrate south to Argentina to beat the winter blues, catch some trout and meet some Argentine ladies. 10 years later, Rance is married to a beautiful local woman and they have two gorgeous children. Travis still in the market for a wife (put the word out for him.) Together and still best friends, Rance and Travis own the best damn fly fishing guide service in the region. Hard work does pay off!

Comments and questions are welcome.
Please contact me at pat@theflyshop.com or call 800-669-3474