Continued from “Red Hot Chile Fishing”….
After 80 km of hiking in the Andes and 4 days sea kayaking in the Patagonian Fjords, Erin and I were ready for a bit of relaxing. Our last morning in Puerta Varas came around and we had no plans at all. We just grabbed our bags and went to the bus station with an idea of going to Argentina, but we were not sure how logistically feasible that was. As it turns out, we ended up in a town called Pucon a few hundred kilometres North and still in Chile.
The Volcano at Pucon that Erin climbed
I thought all the good fishing was now behind us, but some awesome bushwalking and thermal springs awaited. Erin also wanted to climb the famous 2850m high Villarrica Volcano, which requires mountaineering equipment such as an ice pick and crampons. I am more of a sea level kind of guy, so while Erin climbed the volcano, I decided to see what lurked in the nearby lake.
Erins photo from the top of the volcano. I was fishing somewhere down there, under the clouds
We were staying at a cheap backpackers hostel a stones throw from Villarrica Lake, so it wasn’t long before I was on the famous black volcanic beach that attracts all the tourists in high season. I wasn’t that hopeful as I shot my first cast out there – it seemed very shallow and I was virtually in town. As I walked along the beach I saw something chasing baitfish only a few metres from shore in about 50cm of water. My enthusiasm was further strengthened, when 3 casts later, a “small” 500 gram rainbow trout smashed the lure. He got off but I knew they were out there!
The fish started to arrive
I was using a Khamsin diving lure – anyone who has one of those knows how expensive they are. I was a bit devastated when I snagged it on an unknown underwater obstruction on an otherwise clear and snagless looking beach. I would have swam out and retrieved it, if it wasn’t for the dogs.
Anyone who has lived or travelled in Chile can tell you about the stray dogs. They are part of the landscape and are actually quite happy and healthy compared to strays in other parts of the world that I have been. During our travels I saw what appeared to be pure bred, fat, healthy dogs that just lived on the street and wagged their tails if you said hello. I think Lassie was even hanging around, or at least one of Lassie identical twins. The dogs have a habit of just following people, and many times during our trip one or more dogs followed us for many kilometres. Two stray Jack Russells even followed us and others on a gruelling climb up a mountain!
The overcast morning probably helped with the fishing. The fish were taking the lure in water just over knee deep.
Friendly or not, they are still strays and will gladly go through your bag in search of food if you let them. Which left me with a snagged lure in waist deep water 20 metres out from shore while two big dogs played around me. I was certain that leaving my clothes, wallet, passport, rod and fishing gear on the beach with two wild dogs would have had bad consequences, so I reluctantly snapped off the expensive lure.. I marked the spot on the GPS and, hours later, returned for a chilly swim to try and retrieve it. Despite the crystal clear water and bright red lure against a black sand background, it had disappeared.
Another trout
New lure then – this time a Samurai Rolling Bait. I bought this for bream but it proved awesome on the trout in this shallow water, avoiding the bottom while being retrieved at any speed from slow to fast. I walked a few kilometres into some thick willow until the dogs lost interest, then started fishing again. It was only a few casts before – bam – I was onto a hard fighting rainbow trout of a size that you would be very happy to catch in Western Australia.
They loved the rolling baits
He put up a good fight but I landed him, a male rainbow trout that was destined for dinner that night. I still had a couple of hours fishing planned, so dug a deep hole to hopefully hide him from the dogs and marked the spot on the GPS. Next cast yielded another hookup, this time on a smaller rainbow trout. Then another and another. This was nuts, 8 casts had 8 hookups in knee deep water. After wading out to retrieve the snagged lure, I spooked them and moved on.
Backpacker kitchen cooked trout that night was a welcome addition
A long walk to the river mouth and back yielded a few small trout, but the willows were where the action was. One big 5kg plus trout took my little lure only metres from the shore and immediately jumped with a big headshake – straight over the branch of a willow tree. Luckily for me he threw the lure, my 6lb leader would not have survived and my only decent lure for this fishing would have been gone.
The willows were the place to be
Another 1kg trout, this time a hen, came in, then I decided to return back to the hot spot where dinner was buried. I don’t know what was so different about this spot – it looked like everywhere else – but the fishing was nuts again. This time the big fish were about, and I hooked up onto a 4 or 5 kg rainbow trout. He jumped and jumped, and my little 1000 size shallow spool reel discharged the light braid at a rate that got me worried. However, he threw the hooks, and retrieval of my lure showed bent and mangled trebles.
Another fish landed
My lure really was designed for bream and other small fish, and this was repeated about 7 times. Cast, zzzzinnng, jump jump, gone. Each time I saw the fish jump (just to tease me) and each time I had to fix or change the trebles. They were all big fish, easily bigger than any rainbow trout I have ever caught, and it was getting a bit frustrating. Eventually I landed one that would have gone 3 kg – but only after I had to swim around a willow tree to untangle him from the roots. Those wild rainbow trout sure fight hard and were a real challenge on my light tackle.
Pucons main beach – home to wild dogs and wild trout. I doubt there’s any need to stock trout anywhere in Chile, and even big wild salmon can be caught in this lake.
One my final casts I hooked another hard fighting fish that jumped a lot, maybe 15 times. I have no idea what it was, but I assume some sort of native Chilean fish. I hooked several more during the trip and they were as fun as the trout.
Native Chilean fish – can anyone identify it?
The sand and gravel where I was fishing is jet black, and the big, smoking Volcano that Erin was climbing dominated the landscape. Looking up at it, I realised that I should get back to Erin to see how her climb went with her ice climbing.
She had a great but exhausting trip and soon started an afternoon nap. Once her eyes shut I was back out again. This time I headed out on the jetties in town, and looking down you could see several large trout swimming around in the 5 metre deep very clear water. They were quite spooky and followed my lure frequently, only to turn away at the last moment. It was still an awesome experience standing on high ground, watching the trout and how they reacted to the lure.
This jetty had stacks of big trout swimming around it.
The sun set, making the volcano glow and reflect on the mirror smooth water. On the way back I forced myself through a pack of dogs that were getting a little over-enthusastic. For some reason the dogs turn from innocent cute puppies in day time into scary, howling, fearless pack dwelling hunters at night. These ones were surrounding me and growling and I was a bit worried, so acted aggressively back with a lot of yelling and foot stomping. I’m sure all these dogs have been kicked before by locals (but not me) and they got the message – even if my yells were not in Spanish.
Another boring photo of a trout, you’re probably sick of them by now.
Before dawn the next morning I convinced Erin to come out, and again we saw many large rainbow trout. Several big ones followed the lure while she was fishing, but unfortunately she didn’t hook up. I managed to land one, but we had other grand plans for the day and headed off.
Fighting and landing a dawn trout
We did many things in Pucon – bushwalking up in some of the higher peaks, visiting thermal springs, catching gastro, sightseeing the lakes around the place etc. We dared to hire a car and Erin drove the whole time, as I wasn’t brave enough. They have some weird road rules over there, we didn’t know where we were going and they drive on the other side of the road – it all makes for a fun if slightly nervewracking experience! One the day we planned to leave Pucon (by bus) I headed out for 2 hours in the morning for a final fish.
The lake at Pucon is very accessible and easy to fish. I walked to all the spots I fished from our accommodation in town, to the best rainbow trout fishing I’ve ever done.
I knew this would be the last time I ever wet a line in Chile. Looking at the crystal clear lake, black sand and snow capped mountains, I knew I would really miss this country. Harvey Dam (our main trout fishing dam 2 hours from Perth) will never be a tiny fraction of the fishing quality in Chile. I hooked up once, twice, three, four times and landed all fish after a great fight. Then I realised – one trout from Harvey dam is just as exciting, just because they are so much harder to catch.
My last two trout from Chile
That evening we headed to the big city of Santiago and shortly afterwards boarded a plane for Sydney and Perth. The big Chilean earthquake and Tsunami happened just before we landed, but luckily would not have affected anyone we met.
It was such a great fishing time in Chile, not just because of the fish, but because of the beautiful rivers and mountains around us. Everyone, including the people we could not communicate well with due to language barriers, were helpful and friendly. While fishing I saw an Otter, a Mink, many Kingfishers and some weird and wonderful birds. I will really miss the place, and am enjoying re-living the holiday by writing this.
Fishing was only a tiny fraction of our backpacking trip to Chile – I’ll be writing up the rest soon on my blog,
Thanks for reading.
The adventures of Yakyakker 