Three Days on the Rio Trocoman

We returned to Rakin Lodge with SET Fly Fishing in 2026 to fish for ten days. This year, they’ve incorporated fly fishing three days on the Rio Trocoman into their program. It’s a river we’ve fished the past three years (I’ll link those posts at the bottom of this page) and we were hoping to return and fish the Willow Worm hatch again. The Trocoman isn’t close to Rakin Lodge as we had to drive almost 4 hours to the river.

As I wrote in my first post about our experience in Argentina back in 2023, Patagonia is known for its amazing landscapes, both the mountain views and rivers flowing through its canyons and open fields. These rivers offer world-class fly fishing and the remoteness not often seen. Rakin Lodge is located in the northern Patagonia region on the eastern side of the Andes Mountain range. Last year was SET Fly Fishing‘s first year at this lodge and we were one of the first groups to explore the Rio Codihue. We enjoyed it so much, we returned this year to fish both rivers. I wrote about our first six days fishing the Rio Codihue in my last post and here is the LINK.

Trocoman House, shown above from our arrival by raft, was our destination during our three days fishing the river which included a 1 1/2 mile hike and floating the canyon section of 6 to 8 miles. We’d fish the first day and spend one night in a rustic camp, float and fish the following day to the house, and fish for half a day around the house before departing and driving back to Rakin Lodge. (Here is a link to a 2024 post where I share images from the house.)

We left Rakin Lodge early in the morning, driving almost 4 hours on a combination of paved and gravel roads. After a 2 1/2 hour drive, we finally arrived at a locked gate and drove through a large estancia for another 50 minutes before stopping at the river. This is the view of the Rio Trocoman valley after driving for a while on double track dirt roads.

Did I mention how rough the roads are? This is actually a nice road, although somewhat steep.

Our gauchos met us at the river to carry our overnight gear on horseback to a camp which was already set up.

After getting into our waders, we were ready to fish and walk our way to camp, about 1 1/2 miles downstream.

We waded across the river and I fished the first hole. After several casts, this beauty ate the dry fly, a PMX Royal, and provided some excitement for me with several jumps so I could see how large it was.

We caught a lot of fish of various sizes, many willingly eating our dry flies. These fish are impressive with their robust bodies and wide tails. Even the smaller fish fight hard!

Here is Franco and Dancingtrout with a nice Rainbow. The colors of these trout were amazing!

It wasn’t long before we reached an area we fished in previous years that has been quite good for us. We were hoping to see Willow Worms and stopped at the creek to eat a quick lunch before seeing if we timed our arrival correctly. Here is our lunch spot. Notice the confluence of the creek and river? It’s a spot we’ve fished before and held big trout.

After eating lunch, I spent some time at the creek to see if I could find any Willow Worms as there were signs from the lack of foliage on the willow trees. I found several floating down the creek and took this picture.

We moved to a spot about a hundred yards below the confluence with the creek and began fishing towards it. I caught a couple small trout as I moved upstream. It was Dancingtrout’s turn as we approached the confluence. To our amazement, there were three VERY nice trout eagerly feeding on Willow Worms!

Dancingtrout was ready and it didn’t take long before one of the trout rose and ate the Willow Worm. Look closely and you’ll see it in the mouth below the Royal PMX dry fly.

Here is a closer view of a chenille Willow Worm.

This fish was a beauty at 18 – 19 inches, but not the largest fish in the pool.

We let the fish settle and Dancingtrout tried for the big trout still feeding on Willow Worms. It willingly ate the fly and a fight began.

Franco ran upstream hoping to net the fish. Look closely at the fly line in the water.

Dancingtrout was able to turn the fish and it caught briefly on a rock on the other side of the river before heading downstream and finally breaking the 2X tippet. At least we were able to see the large trout when it jumped out of the water! We’ll remember that fish for some time. It was the largest Rainbow I’ve seen hooked in a river!

We continued downstream towards camp, finding several trout in very shallow water beneath willows feeding on Willow Worms.

This is the first year for walking to camp and floating the river the following day to Trocoman House, so the camp was quite rustic, but comfortable. The wind was blowing hard when we arrived and didn’t stop blowing until early morning.

Here is the gaucho’s dog, tired after a long day on the trail and at camp. Yes, it looks like it would like another meal.

The following morning after coffee, breakfast of eggs, bacon, and toast, we walked downriver to the rafts our guides were topping off with air for the drift to Trocoman House. The horses had carried the deflated rafts to this spot. We were impressed at the whole operation which allowed us to float the canyon stretch to the House.

We packed our overnight gear and the gaucho took the packs to the rafts.

Below, Dani and Franco finish loading our fishing gear and ice chest for the day. The other personal items were sent with the gauchos and packed to Trocoman House.

The river was quite low because of minimal winter snowpack, much like we are experiencing at home. We walked the first 100 yards or so to a spot where a creek entered the main river, providing more water for the rafts. Each of us climbed aboard and we fished downstream, stopping at several spots to watch each other fish.

I was fishing one section and Franco shows up with this dead catfish he found. We’ve seen them in previous trips and the guides have streamers imitating these 6 – 8 inch fish…although Franco found a much larger one later in the trip.

The water under these willow trees doesn’t look very inviting to fish, but you’d be surprised. We fished water like this most of the day and fish were stacked and eager to eat Willow Worm imitations!

We could raise 6 – 8 fish in several of these spots. Let’s just say, we had a day…

It was difficult to leave this section as fish continued to rise for Willow Worms falling into the river as the Patagonia breeze blew. I finally came up with a rule to move us down the river…if you rose a fish and hooked it or it got off, move to the next spot several yards away. Franco and Dancingtrout broke the rule as Dani and I continued downstream. They caught up to us and we found that Dancingtrout hooked another large trout that broke off. I think we’d still be there if we didn’t find some way to stop! Needless to say, it was a magical float.

There were a few sections we needed to get out of the raft as Dani and Franco rowed a rapid without us because of the low water. Other spots, they jumped out of the raft and pushed us through.

The following morning, we walked downriver to try our luck for a few hours before the long drive back to Rakin Lodge.

Dani did his usual thing, climbing a rock to help locate fish.

Dancingtrout caught a few with a dropper in this pool. Here is one…

I tried under the willow trees, but trout weren’t rising that morning.

We finished the day casting under willows to a few rising fish. My last fish of the day was a decent fish I broke off using 4X tippet. We left a few rising trout, but those trout are still in my head.

We didn’t use too many flies during our three days on the Rio Trocoman. The Royal PMX is a mainstay as the dry/dropper combo. Sometimes the “dropper” was a floating or sinking Willow Worm. For wary trout, the Caddis indicator worked well.

Here is one example of a Willow Worm. This one is foam, but our guides use a variety of material including chenille.

We had a wonderful 10 days with SET Fly Fishing, finishing our trip on the Rio Trocoman. We walked up the hill to Dani’s truck and admired our last view of the river before driving through the estancia for 2 1/2 hours before reaching the main gravel road for the trip back to Rakin Lodge for the night before our departure the following morning.

One of the reasons we continue to fish with SET Fly Fishing is because they use local people as guides and staff. I can’t say enough about how much we enjoyed seeing old friends from prior years and new staff to help make our trip a wonderful one. Here are the staff that made our trip memorable.

As I mentioned above, we fished the Rio Trocoman before. Here is a link to those posts:

• Pajarito Springs and Trocoman River with SET Fly Fishing – 2023
• Fishing the Rio Trocoman with SET Fly Fishing – 2024
• Fly Fishing Around Trocoman House – 2024
• Fly Fishing at Trocoman House with SET Fly Fishing – 2025

Enjoy…go fish!