Fly Fishing with Coyhaique River Lodge

Our first week in Patagonia found us fly fishing with Coyhaique River Lodge. We met brothers Claudio and Gaston Urrejola on our first trip to Patagonia in 2007. It was a much smaller operation in those days as the brothers alternated guiding us on the rivers and lakes around Coyhaique. The lodge was built a couple of years later on 40 acres overlooking the Coyhaique River.

Here is an image from our 2007 trip.

And their lodge today as it sits on the hillside overlooking the valley below.

You might recall our trip to Patagonia last year where we visited Rumbo Patagon in Puerto Natales. Our original plan was to visit Coyhaique River Lodge, but we found the brothers were expanding to southern Chile and we wanted to be a part of it. Interestingly, when we visited Coyhaique in 2007, their operation was named Rumbo Patagon.

Here are two images from our 2007 trip. We were all younger then!

Enough reminiscing and on to the fly fishing!

Our first day we fished the upper Coyhaique River. You might have heard the wind blows in Patagonia and our guide Enzo thought we might be more protected in the upper river. Here he is tying on the first flies of the day.

The water was easy to wade and the wind was still challenging casting around the trees and streamside grasses.

We caught quite a few fish in the 9 – 11 inch range. Here is a beautiful Brown Trout.

These Brownies were VERY colorful.

I caught several fish with a Chubby Chernobyl – Purple and then with one of Enzo’s Royal Wulff flies.

I really enjoyed this intimate water. As I fished, I remembered Brown Trout sit in very shallow water along the river’s edge close to those overhanging grasses.

It was a great way to start our Patagonia fly fishing adventure.

On our second day, we ended up with a “plan B” due to a flat tire on the way to a river.

The trucks we rode in are built sturdy for the rough Patagonia roads. Ironically, the flat happened on the concrete roadway. The offroad tires used on the trucks are taller than the original tire and the jack wouldn’t lift the truck high enough to remove the tire. Luckily, a friendly goucho stopped and pulled out his floor jack! He was quite helpful.

Notice the four cuts around the tire sidewall? I think it was a bad tire because we didn’t run over anything of the road and Enzo stopped quickly as the tire deflated.

Plan B ended up fishing the Guillermo River. We fished a different section on our first trip to Patagonia in 2007. I remember catching a LOT of trout that day.

The Guillermo is another stunning river valley to fish.

Windy weather and cooler temperatures continued to put some of the fish down, but we found several willing and hard-fighting trout up to 12 inches or a little bigger.

Even the fish were on the smaller size, they put up quite a fight, jumping multiple times out of the water. It might have been the first time they were caught, judging from how clean their mouths were.

All told, another great day in Patagonia.

Enjoy…go fish!