We returned recently from another wonderful Patagonia trip, beginning with SET Fly Fishing and ending the trip fishing with El Encuentro Fly Fishing in Argentina. I’ll share our experience at the three lodges they offer.
If you check the El Encuentro website, they offer 3 different programs:
- A Taste of Patagonia Fly Fishing – 4-night package at one of three destinations; El Encuentro Lodge, Brook Trout Base Camp, or Valle del Carrileufu Lodge
- The Best of Patagonia Fly Fishing – 7-night package split between El Encuentro Lodge and Brook Trout Base Camp or Valle del Carrileufu Lodge.
- The Ultimate Patagonia Fly Fishing Experience – 10-night package which includes all three lodges.
We’ve been fortunate to fly fish in Argentina and Chile the last few years. I enjoy returning to places where we’ve had a great time, but I also like to explore new waters. El Encuentro Fly Fishing was mentioned to us as somewhere we might enjoy and I checked out their website and did a little research.
What intrigued me was the variety of water, including lakes, large rivers, and smaller rivers inside a national park. I hoped being very close to the border with Chile would have greener scenery similar to what we experienced farther north fly fishing from Casa de Campo.
With that background, I thought the 10-night ultimate package would fit the experience we were after, fishing a variety of waters in middle Patagonia.
Every Patagonia lodge offers a different experience and this is a list of what El Encuentro provides:
- One guide for every two anglers
- Accommodation in a double room (single occupancy guests in a single room) with a private bathroom at El Encuentro Lodge, Brook Trout Base Camp, and Valle del Carrileufu Lodge.
- Breakfast, lunch, and dinner with Argentinean wines and open bar.
- Ground transportation to Esquel airport
- Guided non-fishing activities
- Fishing lines, leaders, and tippet
- Waders, wading boots, and rain jacket upon request
- Laundry service
- Starlink WI-FI
We arrived at the lodge after a 4 hour transfer from Bariloche. Have I mentioned before how big Patagonia is? Travelling around this region includes lots of windshield time.
The lodge had planned a late lunch for us and it they prepared a wonderful pizza with fresh tomatoes and morel mushrooms.
We met our guide Leandro (right) and his helper Faacu (left) at the lodge. They were with us for the next ten days.
After lunch, we returned to our room to settle in and rest a bit. Around 7 pm, we took a quick short walk and noticed how windy and smokey it was. In addition, large pieces of ash were falling on us. A forest fire appeared to be very close! We knew there was a fire in the area, but conditions changed quickly and the fire was visible.
We headed to the main room to meet the other guests and share cocktails. I was surprised the other guests were all couples! We’ve had couples at other lodges, but not the whole lodge. We enjoyed the time and it was getting close to dinner.
We noticed the lodge manager point to and ask one of the guides to follow her. They talked for a bit and came back to inform us we would have 30 minutes to pack up as we were evacuating the lodge due to the wildfire, which was very close. Turns out, it was just over the next hill. We had observed firefighters driving up the dirt road close to the lodge on our walk.
We weren’t surprised, in fact somewhat relieved they had made the right decision to evacuate.
We hadn’t been there 6 hours!
On the way out, police had closed the road preventing others from heading our direction. We could see people tending to their animals and we wondered what would happen to them. Strong Patagonian winds and fire are a recipe for disaster.
All the guides and guests met up at the next town awaiting directions from the owners. We ended up driving to Esquel, close to 2 hours away to find Benjamin Beale, the head of the company waiting for us. He had arranged apartments for each couple and made dinner reservations only a couple blocks away for pasta and drinks. I can’t express how much we appreciated their attention to our safety and comfort. (As I write this, I found the fire has grown to over 120,000 acres.)
This was the beginning of what I’m calling our “plan B” trip with El Encuentro Fly Fishing.
The next morning, we found out “plan B” was to go to Brook Trout Base Camp for two nights. We set out on our 3 hour drive, stopping halfway to fish Lago Guzman.
We set up our rods as Leandro and Faacu inflated the raft and attached the motor. Black and tan Fat Alberts I had tied for our trip were tied onto our leaders and we headed out on the water.
It wasn’t long before Dancingtrout hooked the first Rainbow.
I caught this beauty a short time later.
Honestly, we were shocked at the size of these fish!
On the way back to shore for lunch, we noticed several fish beginning to rise and we were anxious to eat our lunch and get back to fishing!
A few rose to our parachute size 12 and 14 Parachute Adams flies with this the only one landed.
I captured a few images of spinners I found close to shore after lunch.
We had to leave rising fish because the camp was 1 1/2 hours away.
This off-the-grid lodge sits on the banks of the Rio Corcovado and is what they describe as “rustic-but-elegant ‘glamping'” experience.
The camp holds up to 10 guests in five very nice casitas (cabins) with are “equipped with two twin or one king bed, a private bath with plenty of hot water, electric lights, screened and shaded windows, and a propane heater.”
The fly fisher has an opportunity to catch trophy trout, including Brook, Brown, and Rainbows. It certainly isn’t guaranteed, but the opportunity is there.
As we left to fish one morning, I took this picture of the Andes a short distance away.
Our second fly fishing day found us at a large lake. We travelled with another guide Toby and two other guests to the lake, launched at different places, but never saw them fishing.
We started casting our dry flies in the shallow waters close to shore a short distance from where we launched. I saw a couple of rises farther out, cast to them and hooked this nice Rainbow.
We caught a handful of smaller trout, but had a slow day of fishing here. I missed a couple that rose to my fly. We spotted a large Brook trout swimming from our right to left and Dancingtrout cast several times, leading the fish, but it wasn’t at all interested in our flies.
That evening, we talked with the other guests at the asada with our cocktails and Argentine wine and enjoyed another very nice meal.
After breakfase, it was time to leave Brook Trout Base Camp and head to our next lodge. Leandro selected Lago Engano, which is a short distance away, for us to try our luck with Brook trout.
Here I am donning waders and getting our rods ready while Leandro and Faacu prepare the raft.
Leandro motored the the head of the lake and we began fishing along the reeds with Fat Alberts, slapping them on the surface attempting to get the attention of some Brookies who might rise and eat our flies. Casting in pockets between reed beds didn’t coax any to our dry flies and eventually, Leandro pulled out his streamer rods, tied on a couple of his beautiful flies. The 9′ 6 weight Orvis Clearwater rods, Hydros iii reel, and type 6, 25 foot sinking lines worked well for us.
We don’t use streamers much at all, but the rods loaded well to continue casting in pockets between reeds
And they worked!
It wasn’t long before Dancingtrout hooked up and landed this beautiful Brook trout.
Several other trout struck our streamers, but most didn’t hook up. We both played another fish, but those crafty trout were able to get off our hooks.
We only fished a few hours because more windshield time was on the schedule as we drove to our next lodge.
Our last lodge was on the banks of the Rio Futaleufú with the Andes mountains as a backdrop.
Our first day, we drove a short distance upstream from the lodge and launched the driftboat with Leandro at the oars.
He rowed us upstream to see if we could entice any trout to our flies, but ended up crossing the river to check out an eddy he knew.
Upon arriving, several nice fish were feeding on spinners along the current edge. This was a difficult cast for us with trees blocking our backcast.
But a couple fish came to hand. These were very healthy with wide tails and fought well.
We landed a few small and medium rainbows with dry/dropper throughout the day, but it was VERY windy during our float and Leandro was a master at the oars, keeping us in the best position to cast our flies.
This eddy, which Leandro called Pozón de los Palos and translates to pool of sticks was quite unique. We could see fish rising in the openings between sticks and debris.
A fly cast in those areas found willing trout eager to eat our fly.
A short time later, we finished our day just steps from the lodge.
Our second day of fishing from El Encuentro Lodge found us at a small creek named Rio Tecka. It was a little over 1 1/2 hours to the water and a quick stop at the local bakery was in order. Leandro and Faacu insisted we need to try some medialuna, a staple for Argentines. We didn’t know what those were, but upon seeing them in the pastry case, we knew we’d had them before. We obviously didn’t know the Argentine name for them. Yes, they were delicious!
We arrived at this very small spring creek, with willow tree leaves partially eaten by Willow Worms. Leandro had said we should find trout rising to Willow Worms, so I was hopeful.
I must admit I was a little dubious at such small water.
With all the overhanging trees as well as willows behind us, it took all of our skill to dial in our casting. Stealth was mandatory.
And how about a bow and arrow cast?
And Leandro was right! These were strong fish for their size and we were amazed at the coloration of these trout.
When a breeze came through, trout were seen rising to Willow Worms which had fallen from the trees.
I missed several hookups because I turned my head at the last second to see where my backcast would go and that was when several trout rose to my fly. And yes, I missed a good fish as a result!
At the end of the day, Leandro introduced us to what I called a small ditch. He had us casting Fat Alberts in the open areas between weeds. We saw a few trout follow the fly, but not eat it.
Another spot proved more fruitful.
I caught this Brown trout in a “mud puddle”. I was amazed! It was my last trout of the day.
This was a beautiful Brown trout! And below I’m standing where I hooked the fish.
Dancingtrout had one last chance and she landed this one.
We launched from the Lodge on our last day fishing with Leandro and El Encuentro Fly Fishing. It was another very windy day.
The Rio Futaleufú is a large tailwater and we were amazed how much the river level would rise and fall each day by several feet. Amazingly, the fish continued to rise for our dry flies.
Leandro started our day by rowing us upstream to a large eddy for some sight casting, using Rusty Spinners. Several fish moved to our flies but didn’t eat the fly. We call that action “drive-bys”. But eventually, I landed this nice Rainbow and it wasn’t long before Dancingtrout did as well.
We landed several of these “cookie cutter” fish and Leandro rowed us downstream to try other spots.
Switching to streamers, I landed this nice Brown trout.
Later we fished with Chubby Chernobyl’s and a dropper and landing a few medium size trout.
We had planned a shorter fishing day and we arrived at the take-out where we had lunch. It was a wonderful ending to our fishing experience.
Here we are on the last day after fishing the Rio Rio Futaleufú from El Encuentro Lodge.
If you’ve made it this far, you’ll recall we planned to stay with El Encuentro for 10 days. Because of the wildfires, they were overbooked for their remaining lodges and asked us if we would consider going to Chile and fishing for a few days with a lodge they would make arrangements with.
Earlier, they’d mentioned we might be in at someone else’s lodge close to their main lodge and continue to use Leandro as our guide. However, with the water Leandro thought we might fish low and hot, this seemed like a better alternative. The Chilean border was only 25 miles away and the lodge another hour after passing through each border.
So that ended up being plan “c” for Chile! I’ll share our experience in the next post.
Lastly, Leandro is an excellent fly tyer and I took pictures of several fly boxes I wanted to share with you.
Enjoy…go fish!
John,
You and Karen truly made the most of this trip despite some challenges. I’ve always believed that overcoming adversity often makes for life’s greatest experiences. I admire your positive attitude! Beyond that, your storytelling is spot on. It’s almost like you’re bringing the reader along with you.
By the way, who are those three handsome dudes in the blue raft in the first photo?
Wow John, what an adventure! Beautiful fish and pics-Lorenzo’s flies…..!!!!