Patagonia Trip (tons of pics)
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Wow, where do I even start. Words can’t even describe this trip. A lot of you know I travel and fish quite a bit and I would have to say that this was the best trip of my life.
The Central Patagonia region is just amazing, all the different environments that occur in this region are just astounshing. Oh, and the fishing is incredible. Getting there isn’t easy though. It took over a full day of travel to get there. 2 1/2 hours from Chicago to Dallas, then 9 1/2 hours from Dallas to Santiago, 3 hours from there to the airport in the region, and then another 2 hours by truck to the lodge. But it is all worth it.
The entire trip I stayed at a lodge named Estancia del Zorro. The lodge is located near the town of Coyhaique in the XI region of This lodge is a working farm on top of being a fishing lodge. The nice thing was that I had the lodge all to myself. Here is a picture of the lodge.
Here is a view from the lodge:
On the first day we fished a small creek on the property. Unfortunatley I left the photos on my dad’s lap top. I’ll add them in later, but any how great day of fishing. We fished inside a canyon all day. The creek was vodka clear and loaded with browns. I ended up landed about 30 fish that day and all of them with beautiful markings.On the second day I fished the lodge’s spring creek. This is the place where legends are made. The creek only averages 9 feet across, but is home to monsters like this bad boy.
Here are some more pics from that day.
Started off the same way on day 3 too.
On day 4 we traveled about 2 hours from the lodge to Rio Emperador Guillermo. The fishing was lights out. I landed over 50 trout. Most of the fish were between 10 to 14 inches, but there were some nice fish in there too.
Some condors:
Day 5 was back to fishing a small creek again.
My guide Piti with a typical fish of the day.
Day 5 was the worst day of the trip, we only landed about 30 browns and the largest was only 18″. I could take bad days like that for the rest of my life.Day 6, the final day. This day was all about putting the icing on the cake. Time to go big or go home. This was the hardest fishing day of the trip. The wind was blowing at a constant 30 mph, not the greatest conditions when you have to put a fly in hole about the size of a coffee can 25 feet away. The first fish of the day was taken on a size 16 parachute adams. The amazing thing was the presentation. I waited about a minute after the cast just letting the fly sit before the trout took the fly.
Another neat sight of the day was a single flamingo that came in for a visit.
Now it was time to end the trip right, I missed about a 28″ earlier in the day. I watched the beast follow the fly, but missed the strike. I need to redeem myself, and I think I did.
Now it was time to say goodbye to the new friends that I had made at the lodge and head back home.
Now I just have to think of a way to get back. Here is the link to the lodge if anyone is interested in it. http://www.estanciadelzorro.com.
-Mike
“Now it was time to end the trip right, I missed about a 28″ earlier in the day. I watched the beast follow the fly, but missed the strike. I need to redeem myself, and I think I did.”
I say you did as well! Awesome photos and looks like a dream trip!
Wow-what a trip. great pics.
that one small brown had the most rediculous fins i’ve ever seen, Picture082.jpg
Great stuff Mike. Are all of those fish wild, including the ones at the Lodge’s spring creek, or is there some supplemental feeding?
Zach
All the fish are wild. The fish in the spring creek get that way by feeding on scuds. I got to see one feeding and it was awesome. The trout was actually tailing into the weeds. The cool thing about the scuds is that how small they are there, maybe a size 18-20 hook, and the size of the fish that get produced off them is just mind blowing.
The fishing gods have smiled on you, and you will now be cursed with poor fishing and knotted leaders the rest of the summer!!
Really, great pics and trip, makes me ready to do some fishing like that again.
I think we need an IA group trip to a place like this!!
Holy smokes!
What an amazing place. Great pictures. The fish pictures are a bit boring by the way. Too much nice browns. 😉I would love to see a bamboo fly rod in this scenery too.
Colin,
No brookies, I was in Chile the whole time, with fishing like what I had no need to really go across the border, even though the lodge is only 5 miles from it.
-Mike
JEALOUS!!!! Cool adventure man. I loved the tiny creek and big porkers stuff, wow. Thanks for posting.
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