Travel Chronicle – Estancia De Los Ríos
February 22 – March 1, 2025
by Erik Argotti

The best part of being a destination specialist at The Fly Shop® is of course seeing and fishing the destinations we represent. Most of my days are spent in front of a computer or on the phone helping people select the perfect trip and walking them through every minute detail. However, traveling to our lodges and outfitters first-hand is critical so I can accurately represent them and become more familiar with the fisheries, the guides, the accommodations, travel logistics, tackle and the food. It’s a tough job, but someone has to do it…

It was good to get back down to Chile. The last trip I did there was in 2020 and was cut a week short due to Covid. We barely made it out of there… but now I was back and I couldn’t have been more excited about the trip!

My trip was a long stay, combined with a week at the Golden Dorado Cruiser in Argentina and another week at El Saltamontes in Chile. You will see some future reports on El Saltamontes and Patagonian BaseCamp.

February 22:
Jack the dogFollowing a regular breakfast the last morning at El Saltamontes, everyone in the group except for me left for the Balmaceda Airport for the first leg of their trip home. I took off with young Martin as my driver, heading north towards my next stop, Estancia de Los Rios. Halfway there (a roadside pulloff at Laguna de Las Torres) we met Marcelo, head guide at Estancia De Los Rios and his dog Jack. Marcelo would bring me the rest of the way to the lodge, and serve as my guide for the following week. He’s been guiding there for around 15 years (as well as guiding in Mongolia for Mongolia River Outfitters, mostly in the eastern part of the country). A very interesting drive going from temperate rain forest to grassland as we headed east. The estancia is enormous at almost 700 square miles. It has a town inside of it! They don’t fish many places inside the ranch simply because it takes too long to get there…amazing. We stopped in Tapera (a town located within the Estancia) as there was a rodeo going on. Great experience seeing everyone decked out in traditional gaucho gear. We made it to the lodge around 2:30 pm, where we were welcomed by another Marcelo (the owner), his wife Victoria, and their daughter and son, who work at the lodge as housekeepers and servers. We also met Tuki and Rue, the canine mascots and rulers of the lodge. We ate a late lunch and decided to head out to fish close to the lodge on the Cisnes River for a couple of hours. The river was low and small up here. It was fun! Marcelo kept apologizing, saying it was off, but I ended up catching 8 or so in a couple of hours. It was enough to keep it interesting. All 10-12” fish that are fat and healthy. We were back to the lodge around 7 pm. I relaxed and the other 5 guests showed up. 2 couples from The Fly Shop® and a gentleman from Austria (Sereen). Graham and Paul do some trips with us and this is the first one where they brought their wives. We ate a really good Cojinova fish dinner. Great sauce and lots of flavors. Marcelo (guide) gave us the schedule and run down of the program for the week. All the guides came in after dinner every night to discuss the plan for the following day with their guests. You stay with the same guide all week there. They do this so they can get to know the guests better to make appropriate customized plans throughout the week. I was in bed by 10:30 pm and I slept like a rock.

Gauchos at a rodeo in Tapera

Daily Schedule at Estancia de Los Rios:

  • Generator on at 6:30 am
  • Coffee at 7:00 am
  • Breakfast at 8:30 am
  • Leave for fishing around 9:30-10:00 am
  • Appetizers around 8:00 pm
  • Dinner 8:30 pm
  • Generator off at midnight

View of the river and valley from the top of a mountain

February 23:
The plan was to head to Magdalena cabin and fish the spring creek and spend the night in the cabin. We headed out about 9:30 am for the two hour transfer. Beautiful drive north of the lodge. We went through the ranch headquarters. The ranch typically has 40-60,000 sheep at full capacity. Lots of gauchos live on the ranch and are spread out in different puestos (small houses) throughout the property. We arrived around 11:30 am and opened the cabin and got suited up and drove 15 minutes downstream and started fishing around 1:00 pm. There were hoppers everywhere in the grasses above the creek. Beautiful little spring creek. It was kind of tight and mostly tree-lined. Marcelo and I took turns fishing and there was plenty of action. Sometimes more than others. Marcelo used a rubber-legs nymph and I used a Hopper Grande first followed by a Mini Chubby. He said, “Patterns aren’t that important so you might as well use one you can see.” Not sure how many we caught but 20 per person would be a pretty fair guess, not counting all the misses. Most fish were 10-16” but we got a few bigger. I saw one that was chasing a fish I had on that was over 20”. We made our way back to the cabin and I fished upstream for another 45 minutes. I counted just out of curiosity and landed another 8. Back to the cabin. Marcelo cooked pork and potatoes with a salad. Tasty!! I slept really well. The wind blew hard all night. The cabin is basic, no electricity, no propane, but they have rechargeable lights and the stove warms it. Running hot water, flush toilets.

The exterior and interior of the cabin

Angler fishing the small, tree lined spring creekFebruary 24:
We were up at 8 am and had breakfast at 8:30. We took our time and headed out after 10. We were fishing just below the cabin, so the same type of water. It was a short stretch. I fished 1.5 hours and caught 8 or so fish, mostly small. Marcelo fell in so he went back early. He also caught a half dozen fish before returning. I met him back at the cabin, we had lunch, packed up and drove up to check out a waterfall and a more open spot on the spring creek 1/2 hour drive up the creek, but didn’t fish it. It was blowing pretty hard.  We checked out two nearby lakes. Apreton Lake has fewer fish but they can get pretty big at 24-26”. It is fished via hunting and sight fishing. Folka Lake, just minutes away from Apreton, is a spot for more numbers of fish, mostly 18-20”, and is a great to blind fish. We looked around, but no fishing, then headed out. There is another lake you hike to from there that has enormous fish. You usually only get a few casts a day – you only cast to sighted fish – but they are all 28”-32”. We made it back to the lodge early, around 5 pm. I got caught up with everyone else at the lodge. We had a great dinner, Hake fish with a pea puree, mushrooms, crispy bacon and onion. The chef here, Juanma, is really good!

February 25
I met Bernardo the horse wrangler and both Marcelos at 10 am this morning. The plan was to ride horses downriver for an hour and a half and fish up to the lodge. That particular one is called the Death March. The ride was beautiful. My horse was Disparadora. A beautiful ride over the hills. You can take a direct route along the river, 45 minutes, or go the scenic route. We chose the latter. We got off, got suited up and started fishing this big, long flat (100+ yards) with barely any current. It was overcast and cool. I started with a Mini Chubby. We were just fan casting from the middle to both sides of the river covering everything as there was no defining structure to hold fish. I had a few misses/swirls after fishing 1/3 of the way up, but no fish. I switched over to a Steelhead Copper John, same deal, fan casting it upstream and slowly stripping it in. I started getting fish right away and landed 5 or so. I tried a rubber-leg from Marcelo and landed about 10 more. All cookie cutter, fat 12-13” browns. We fished up a little more, then met with Marcelo and Bernardo for lunch – giant empanadas warmed over the fire, salad, and potatoes, coffee and cookies. We headed back out after lunch and I started with dry flies again and landed a few. In one deep hole I put on a small Jig Pin Sculpin and hooked about 6 fish and landed 3 or 4 of those. We packed up early and rode the horses back. No death march. I made it back, relaxed and had another great dinner. Beef with reduction sauces, cherry tomatoes and grapes. Flavorful and very tender beef.

Horses and shore lunch

February 26:
Marcelo and I were heading to Lago Carlota, the only water outside the ranch and located on a national reserve. He hadn’t fished it yet this year. It is a reserve located inside the property, so there is a public road going to it. Lots of browns and full of small coho salmon. We could see the coho feeding on the surface when we got there. No wind so I started with a dry, had a couple takers but didn’t hook them. I landed a little 12” chrome coho. I switched to a black Balanced Leech and hooked a half dozen trout and landed a few of them. All fat, big fish. The sun was out and we started hunting some in the shallows. I sightfished two using a small caddis. Very cool! One was my biggest fish for the week. We saw him cruising right off the shoreline, I put a cast 15 feet in front of him and twitched it and he sipped it in about a foot of water – it was like bonefishing. We spooked a bunch of others while casting to them in similar situations. The sun and shallow water made them jumpy. Marcelo fished for a while and landed 4 or 5 using a big sink tip and a Galloup’s Dungeon he tied. It went well. We ate lunch and he fished the sink tip and got a few more. After that I had a streak of misses, follows and lost fish, but did get a little bigger coho. In the last half hour I used his sink tip and landed 3 more. Great day with good weather. Fish and chips for dinner. The lightest, crispiest fish and chips I have ever had. If there were ever a gourmet fish and chips, this was it.

Anglers holding brown trout in Chile

February 27:
Marcelo had to take Sereen to Argentina as he wanted to leave early. He picked EDLR online using AI, but he wanted to fish big rivers in the forests using dry flies only. Not his gig and definitely not the right place for him. He would have been better at Patagonian BaseCamp or even Trouters Patagonia. I fished with Jota. It’s his second year at EDLR. We drove over to where the Magdalena splits into two smaller spring creeks. The Mallene Chileno and the main Magdelana. It was a beautiful sunny day, light wind. We fished the main creek, starting just above the fork. It was short but accurate target water casting to small channels, sometimes 10” wide, with little weed edges and buckets. It was fun! I used a small foam lime Holo Humpy and I picked up a bunch. They were small at first and they slowly got bigger. The biggest was probably 20”+. I landed a dozen from 16-20”. We took turns catching fish. Once hooked they dove in the weeds and got stuck and we had to fish them out by hand/net. Later we got better and dragged them on top of the weeds once hooked, bass-master style. This was the first time Jota actually fished it. After the lower section we hiked 45 minutes to the upper part where the source is. 3-4 holes with some nice trout in them. This is where we caught the biggest fish. We could see the Argentine border maybe a kilometer away. It was a long hike back and a happy drive back to the lodge. We had this light and beautiful ceviche for starters – the flavors were delicate, bright, citrusy and very delicious. The main dish was shrimp and chicken curry. Again, great flavors and very good.

Anglers fishing and holding brown trout in Chile

February 28:
The last day. We left the lodge at 9:15 am. Planning on making a short day trip to Sarta Lakes. 1 hour drive, 1 hour hike. Usually a 3-hour horse ride from the lodge and an overnight. They have big dome tents on platforms, with running water. The lakes there are Big Sarta and Little Sarta, beautiful mountain lakes. We arrived at 11:20. It was a little windy but no sun. I tried a small caddis for the first 10 minutes but we didn’t see any fish cruising or rising. I guess when it’s on, you can have some crazy dry fly days. I put on a pink steelhead fly and hooked 2, landing one. I changed my fly to a smaller olive/white Dali Lama, and things got really good. So visual! The browns came off the shore, slashing at the fly like sharks. For every one we caught we had 5 that hit, were hooked, then were lost. So much fun! I must have landed a dozen, some in really shallow water, that hit as soon as the fly landed. All 18-22”, with the majority being 20”+. Marcelo caught some as well. They get some bigger ones there, and Marcelo said he has had 80-fish dry fly days when everything is right. We didn’t fish Little Sarta – it is shallower and when conditions are right you can row around and sight fish big trout in the shallows with dry flies. It’s flats fishing for trout. Graham and Paul experienced this a couple of days before. We only fished a few hours and had to head out for an hourlong hike followed by an hour’s drive back to the lodge. Salmon with a zucchini lasagna and salad. Birthday cake for Paul, his 50th.

Erik Argotti holding a brown trout, scenery and amazing food

March 1:
Regular breakfast and left the lodge by 10 am. Made it to Balmaceda by 2:30 pm. Pretty smooth sailing home. Overnight flight from Santiago to Houston.

March 2:
Houston to Sacramento, 2.5 hour drive home to Redding. Home a little after 3 pm.

Tents, bedroom and food at Estancia de Los Rios

Conclusion
The fishery at Estancia de Los Rios is endless, so much to do and see. You could take years fishing it and never hit it all. Endless beats on the Cisnes and 30 km of spring creek. They fished a spring creek last year that had never been fished in 30 years. Most places they don’t go to because it takes too long to get there, even though they are all still on the ranch property. Sight fishing, dry fly fishing, spring creeks, lakes, and pocket water. The food was amazing. Very fancy and some of the best contrasting flavors I have ever tasted.  The chef worked at the Lua restaurant in Madrid and is very talented.

EDLR is an amazing place, and I look forward to sending people there. Especially guys that want totally private water, people who can hike, enjoy small streams, and people that enjoy fishing lakes. And especially people who want to ride horses or want to fish while their partner rides horses. They float the Cisnes early in the season, the first two weeks of January, but it is mostly a walk and wade fishery with boat fishing on the lakes. Lots of  lake options if you want big fish.

Contact Erik Argotti at (800) 669-3474 | argotti@theflyshop.com to learn more about Estancia de Los Rios or any of the other lodges mentioned in this trip report.

Erik Argotti holding a brown trout at Estancia de Los Rios