Words and Images Provided by Yellow Dog Client Sean O.
We were initially concerned about the drive to Patagonia Baker Lodge, which was about 4 1/2 hours, most of which was on a dirt road. This scared us. But the drive was not bad! In fact, overall, it was a very enjoyable experience. The scenery along the way is spectacular. We stopped at a quaint little village and picked up some beers for the ride. My wife and I had a book on tape that we are prepared to listen to during the ride, but we didn't even get to the book as we were soaking up the scenery/the experience. And our driver, Agostin (who was also our guide for several days) was great.
The lodge is simply incredible. I can't imagine there is a nicer lodge in all of Patagonia. The lodge was built only about two years ago, and it was designed by Eduardo, the lodge manager/our primary host for the trip. The rooms are beautiful and all have towering views of the Baker River. The dining area/lounge is the real highlight of the lodge. My pictures don’t do it justice. But the windows are over 20 feet high, looking right over the river with the glaciers in the background. It was a perfect place to have dinner with a drink beforehand. We also enjoyed the brand new hot tub on the deck. We used it every evening before dinner. The staff would deliver drinks and appetizers to us each time. And the staff was A+. Eduardo ate with us every night and was great. The waitresses (Alejandra, Venessa and Manu) were so friendly and nice. And the food was excellent. A nice mixture of seafood, some barbeque and some traditional Chilean dishes. Great wine collection as well (love the wines down there). And the location of the lodge (right on the river where you can fish practically off the doorstep) was ideal. Super convenient for the days we fished on the river, as the boats were right there.
That then takes us to the great fishing. It certainly didn't hurt that we got really lucky with the weather. The forecast before we left looked like it was going to be raining most of the trip, but we got about three drops of rain for the entire week. One or two days were pretty windy, but for the most part, the wind was not bad at all. Again, we were lucky. In fact, coming home, I ran into some folks who just spent the same week at Magic Waters, and it turns out we had much better weather/wind than they did. We spent 2 1/2 days on the Baker River (two full days, and another day starting at Lake Bernardo, which empties into the Baker River), two days on the very large Lake General Carrera, and one day on the Cochrane River. The Baker River fished excellently for us. We mostly fished with streamers (small white streamers were the most productive), but also got some on dries and some on nymphs. We caught a lot of fish and some really nice ones (a few at 21” and 22”). It’s a huge river and a prolific fishery. Our guides Agostin and Kail were both excellent. We loved it.
Perhaps my most rewarding day was on the Cochrane River. It’s a very tough fishery and (for the section we fished) involves a tough hike to get down there. My guide Agostino was phenomenal. He told me in advance that a great day on this river was landing a couple fish. The fishery is like a spring Creek. The fish are very spooky and casting is difficult in most locations. This is very much a sight fishery. Much of the day involves stalking around to find fish, then trying to get in position to cast to them without spooking them. In short, I landed one very nice rainbow and one very nice brown and could not have been happier. I hooked two other nice fish, one of which simply became unbuttoned, and the other which went crazy when hooked running up stream only to get wrapped around a branch in the middle of the river. But that didn’t stop Agostin from trying to get the fish. Next thing I know, when I'm hooked onto the fish, Agostin is getting out of his waders, stripping down to underwear, and swimming out to the middle of the river to try to free the fish. We didn't salvage the fish, but what an incredible effort! Toward the end of the day, we ran into a big fish on the complete opposite side of the river, a good 60 feet away with tons of trees in the back cast area. I knew I had zero chance of getting a cast to the fish, so I asked Agostin to try what looked to be a humanly impossible cast. But he got it there and landed a great fish. Because this is such a tough fishery, my wife opted not to fish, but Kail took her to a national park where they ran into tons of guanacos.
The lake fishing (a half day at Bernardo and two days at General Carrera) was fun, but not as productive as the Baker. Got some on streamers and some on the surface with beetles. Some nice fish, but no monsters. This is more big-game hunting, hoping for the really big one. 10 days before us, some guy landed a 30 inch brown on a beetle.
So all in all, an amazing trip and lucky to have such great weather. Thanks to the great folks at Yellow Dog and Patagonia Baker Lodge. We will definitely be coming back.
