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Equipment and Flies
Chile Fishing Tip:
Two rods are better than one.
One of the most valuable tips I can pass along to fly fishers headed
down to Chile, Patagonia to fish for a week of so is to bring two
rods with you. This is especially true when you are doing a day
float down a river. What I like to do is to rig one rod with a dry
line, 7 or 9 foot leader tapered to 3X or 4X and dry fly. The dry
fly can be anything from a big foam-bodied terrestrial like the
Gypsy King of Fat Albert to a small Parachute Adams or Rubber-legged
Stimulator – your guide will let you know the right choice.
The other rod I rig with a sinking tip line, usually a 24 foot 150
or 200 grain, short length of straight tippet 3 to 5 feet, 1X or
0X. To this I tie on a BIG streamer like a Sleech, Rubber-legged
Wooly Bugger or rabbit-strip fly.
I bring both rods with me in the boat and
raft and fish them equally through the day.
Chucking big, bushy, heavy streamers against the bank into the nooks
and crannies of downed logs, overhanging brush and boulders takes
a lot of energy and surprisingly a lot of concentration. Your guide
will be busy at the oars, busting his hump ferrying crisscross (bank
to bank) on river in an effort hit all the structure he can and
back-rowing the good stuff, and you will feel extremely obligated
to hit every possible fish lie you can. You are constantly casting,
stripping, jerking the fly to life, only to pick-up at the end of
strip and do it all over again, and again and again to the tune
of thousands of casts in one day.
This is down and dirty fishing and done correctly, tiring,
a whole day of it – exhausting and extremely effective way
to catch big trout.
However when you get tired and need to
rest your arms, instead of just sitting in the boat, licking your
wounds, pick up the floater and fish the terrestrial or dry fly.
Your dry fly fishing is much less physically demanding compared
to the streamer-chucking and you double your chances of catching
fish by having a fly in the water.
Give it a try, it has worked for me for
years… Pat Pendergast
Download any of the following:
• 2009/2010 General Chile Travel & Information
• 2009/2010 Chile Travel Information & Services
• 2009/2010 Patagonia Drifters & Outfitting Guide
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