Tres Rios Fly Fishing & Adventure takes you fly fishing in Patagonia, Chile for strong, wild trout and salmon, away from everyone else, in settings of natural splendor, for the type of fishing that you've dreamed of.
We are located in an area of great diversity in fisheries and landscapes. Choose your favorite types of water among large and small rivers and streams, large and small lakes and lagoons, spring creeks and even salt water estuaries. Play browns and rainbows, and possibly salmon and sea-run browns, all in the same day! Our custom fly fishing programs include seven watersheds that run from Andean peaks on the border with Argentina, through the mountains and foothills punctuated with live volcanoes, down to the fjords, and the Pacific Ocean. Our guides are professional and personable, fly fishermen from childhood, eager to share their expertise and put you onto fish. To be utterly dependable we use only top-of-the-line gear, boats, and vehicles.
For 250 miles along the Andes Range waters on the Chilean side run to a series of great clear lakes. Tres Rios Lodge is near most picturesque of them all, Lago Todos Los Santos, an emerald hued, fiord-like lake in the heart of a road-less national park and old growth rainforest reserve. Several streams drain the rugged mountains, flowing to the lake through steep valleys choked with bamboo, lush vegetation and granite walls. Although the lake has a healthy population of rainbow and brown trout, it is outflow of the lake, the Rio Petrohue, that has gotten the attention of famous, and yet to be famous, fly fishing adepts.
The Rio Petrohue flows from the west side of the lake, dropping 500 feet in the 25 miles to the saltwater estuary of Reloncavi. Probably 2/3 of the drop is in the first 12 miles, with spectacular falls and Class III rapids in the upper stretches. This is a fairly big river cutting through a landscape heaved up by plate tectonics and covered by volcanic ash and rubble. The wild scenery is magnificent, hardly a vista without one of several snowcapped volcanoes dominating the surrounding mountainous terrain covered with impenetrable rainforest down to the river banks. It's widely recognized as the most scenic fly fishing river in Chile.
This untamed river, runs fast over large freestone in the upper stretches, and then over sand and gravel with embedded deadfalls and undercut banks in the lower, limited access section. Trout thrive and grow heavy on the abundant pancora crayfish, puye minnows, and, of course, smaller trout. The Petrohue typically has one brushy, overhung and undercut bank, while the opposite bank will be a gravel bar where one can wade. Side channels and tributaries offer small stream wading and dry fly fishing opportunities. Muddler and other minnow patterns are effective cast against banks and around logs, provoking aggressive attacks from browns waiting in ambush, and it's always a good idea to probe the shallow water first where puyes and pancoras fall prey to cruising browns. Another favorite strategy is to fish down with streamers on sinking tip lines to coax the larger trout out of their deep lies. Woolly bugger variants, zonkers, matukas, kiwi muddlers, marabou muddlers and bunny leaches are very effective.
Most resident trout hooked on streamers are in the 16" to 20" range, and it's a very rare day when anglers don't release, loose, miss, or roll several fish over 20". At different times in the season there are a few Atlantic and plenty of Chinook salmon, and the occasional sea-run browns in the system. Generally fly fishing travelers come for the trout but it's hard to resist casting now and then to 30 pound salmon when you know they are there.
We offer a wide variety of fly fishing, from wading small streams with a 3wt rod, floating line and dry flies to searching pools with a 7wt rod, 250 grain express sinking tip, and size 4 streamer. Most of our guests like to mix it up, while some big game hunters concentrate on the Petrohue and never get tired of it. Let us know what you're looking for and we're sure we can customize a fly fishing program accordingly.
Anglers cast on the float to areas that can't be reached wading, and we beach the boat occasionally to wade areas that can be more effectively fished in that manner. All the runs we float are on stretches of river that are inaccessible by road and foot. Once we put-in we won't see civilization again for 6 to 9 hours when we reach our vehicle at a remote take-out. We pack a hot lunch and all your preferred beverages for a mid-day break. Only on parts of one river do we ever see a few other fly fishermen. Our guests find it wonderfully unbelievable that we can take them for world-class fly fishing and hardly ever run into other groups!
In preference to drift boats, we use the most stable, buoyant, roomy, versatile, and comfortable fly fishing crafts around, the Jaguarundi cataraft and Superpuma by AIRE. We fabricated the frames ourselves for maximum fly fishing efficiency. You won't step on your line, snag your line on boat things, get thrown off balance, or annoy the pilot when you move around. Thanks to the capabilities of the cataraft we can go where hard-bottomed drift boats don't dare.
The season in the Lakes Region runs
from the 2nd Friday in November to the 1st Sunday in May.
The most effective methods and patterns for big fish in area rivers are well presented in Modern Streamers for Trophy Trout by Kelly Galloup and Bob Lindeman. We recommend it because you can read in advance what your guide will be suggesting here on the river. Chance favors the prepared angler, and we want to see your rod doubled every chance you have.
