


Travel: long (four flights and a 2 hour car ride), but not too bad. Very nice evening in Puerto Varas with the group, with a good seafood dinner and some shopping at the local shops for the family.
Day 0: threw a few streamers in the Palena just as a warm up, and then guide Nick Lawton pointed us to a nearby stream where we caught some small Rainbows.
Day 1: with Nick on Lago Rosselot. Weather alternated between sun and clouds, but this turned out to be the best weather of the week. We spent the entire day sight fishing (sometimes easier than others due to the sun/clouds) for rising Rainbows in the scum line. Used a #12 black beetle (w/ yellow spot/post) all day. Did well, once got used to the feeding pattern and the slow takes. Nick estimated 30 fish, mostly between 16-18″.
Day 2: Lower Rio Figueroa from the put in to the lake with guide Greg Bricker and another guest (Gert…sp?). Got a few and missed a few in the morning on the dry/dropper combo of Fat Albert and a large olive nymph (hurless?). Mainly working seams and back-eddies. That’s where I got the 25″ Brown, which fought well and made the morning complete (largest trout ever!). In the afternoon, switched over to olive weighted streamers and did very well, especially since this was the first time I’d ever really fished streamers. I’d guess I had about 7-10 fish in the boat up to 20″. More follows than that. Rained, but not too bad.
Day 3: Put in on Rio Pico, fished the first pool by the bridge and then the lower Pico (maybe 5-7 fish) on dry/dropper with Kris Kennedy. After we got out of the initial pool, the wind was really blowing, so fishing was hard. At one point I asked Kris if it was okay to fish despite the wind. He said that it was okay but really tough, and I told him that I’d flown 3 days to get there and was going to fish every chance I had. Got a few fish the rest of the day on R. Figueroa through the Temple canyon, but really didn’t get as many as I’d expected through that beautiful stretch. Fun to shoot the rapids. I picked up a few wading at the Temple Camp just because I wasn’t done fishing yet
. Great night at Temple camp…neat place. John said he had a great day w/ Greg B.
Day 4: (second day of the overnight float): Rain was harder today, but enjoyed the day w/ Greg Bricker and my first fishing day with John down the second stretch of the upper Fig. The guides built a fire to warm up and get dry around midday, and then we did better in the afternoon in the large coves/back-eddies. Marcel had said that the fishing often doesn’t kick in until midday, and that seemed right again today. I think we had 3 doubles during the day.
Day 5: Lago Clara Solar w/ Greg Bricker and Greg Keith (guest). After a brief view of sun in the morning during the walk in, it got cloudy and then started to rain with some wind. Started w/ dries (Fat Alberts)…got one for the first hour or two, while shooting casts back among the pads, reeds, trees, and logs. I switched to a streamer and got a good follow. Then Greg K. put on a sparkle minnow and got 2 follows in the first 4 casts (I believe he caught the second one). We both then stayed w/ the sparkle minnow the rest of the day. Fished hard all afternoon throwing streamers on the 8 wts (300 grain) against the wind along the reed beds and trees. Greg K. picked up a beautiful 25″ Rainbow at one of the inlet creeks, and then picked up a few more. My day was slower (1 fish on/lost and 1 follow), until I got the 26″ Rainbow on a streamer (best trout ever…2nd time in the week), again at one of the inlet creeks casting into the shallows along the reed line.
Day 6: R. Rosselot (where it flows parallel to the R. Palena, just downstream of the little Golden Gate Bridge): fished with John and Kris. Rain all day and probably our slowest day. Fished every color of streamers in the box and got 2-3 each between me and John. Since the river was up and it was cold, we blamed the slow day on the weather, as opposed to anything else (like our fishing). Got 2 in the afternoon by stripping really aggressively, so maybe we needed more of that to move them, given the high water.
You can tell that the fishing was really good despite the rain. The weather did trouble the water some because the rivers got high, but we were able to keep fishing and there are lots of options (lakes, tributaries that people could go to). I imagine it’d only be better with better weather (which they say it usually is). The rods I stuck w/ all week were 5 wt floating line for dries/droppers and 8 wt sinking line for streamers. The Simms coat was key, as was an attitude to not care about the rain. No doubt that Marcel and Carolina run a tremendous lodge and that the guides were world-class. Thanks for your help setting it up.
Great time,
Steve White