Returned back stateside Monday night after a 17 day trip to Chile. My sister has lived in Santiago for the past year and I took advantage of the opportunity to see and fish a part of Patagonia while visiting her and her husband. I arrived Christmas Day in Valivia to meet up with my sister Jenn, her husband Henry, his parents and our German friend Axel.
In the first 6 days of the trip, I traveled through the Lake District of Chile (northern Patagonia) from Valdivia to Pucon with stops in the town of Panguipulli and city of Temuco. We ate Christmas dinner at the famous Kuntsmann Brewery, hiked Volcon Villarica, hung out on a volcanic sand beach and hiked the 1500 year old El Cani forest reserve among other activities.
Christmas dinner. The Chileans sure do like big meals! I was able to take down half of this sandwich
Now on to the fishing
Jenn had expressed some interest in doing some fly fishing with me on the trip, so on day four we booked Jack Trout for a full day float near the town of Panguipulli. (Jenn learned how to fly fish along with me with when we were younger.) Jack guides in Mt. Shasta, California in the summer and resides and guides in the Lakes District in Chile with his wife in the Chilean summer. We fished a small private lake with a 4 mile river float below it for the day. This water is owned by Yugoslavian who is on the Forbes top 50 wealthiest men list. He owns the lake, an awesome trout river, several thousand acres, 3 houses, a castle and even a volcano. Not too shabby. Jack had said that the trout fishing was hot on streamers at the moment. We tossed 6 weights with sinking tips and a