What to Bring
Come equipped with a good sense of adventure and a positive attitude to fish with Flywise Anglers, Patagonia, Chile and be prepared for the trip of a lifetime! Bring your personal gear, rods, and reels. Good rain gear is essential. We recommend Simms waders and jackets and a good rain/sun hat. Prepare to dress in layers to be ready to change from hot to cold and wet to dry in any given day. The only constant to the weather in Patagonia is change! Bug spray is seldom if ever necessary but good to have for those rare occasions. Good, polarized sunglasses and sunscreen are mandatory for your protection/safety as the ozone layer is thin in South America. A spare set of polarized sunglasses should be included in your gear as they are essential in your daily fishing excursions. Don't forget your camera!
Essential Gear for Your Adventure
When preparing yourself for your fly-fishing adventure in Patagonia, Chile, consider our guide service will have all of the basics covered. You can bring plenty of 0x to 5x tippet and regular nine-foot tapered 0-2x leaders. Weight forward floating fly lines are recommended. Overweighting the line to the fly-fishing rod is helpful in the wind. IE weight forward seven lines on a stiff/fast action six-weight fly-fishing rod. Make sure your floating line is capable of loading your rod with a short amount of line as long distance casting is not necessary when the conditions are windy. If your fly-fishing rod is soft/slow action, we do not recommend overweighting your line. A seven-weight fly-fishing rod will handle all various techniques well and is the rod predominantly used. An eight weight is nice if you want to chuck something big and ugly and or a sink tip. We like to fish dry flies, but, do not forget to bring your sink tip lines! When the fish are not looking up, you might have to fish deep! A Jim Teeny or Scientific Anglers 250 grain sink tip line on a seven to eight weigh rod is generally sufficient. If you are not afraid to go way down, a 450 grain sink tip line or a scientific angler type six or seven full sink line, matched with an eight weight rod will get you there.
Must-Have Flies for Patagonia Waters
Bring lots of flies that are big and ugly. The Chernobyl Ant and all its variations are a must. Beetle patterns small and large are a hit. Mice, small frogs, and adult dragonflies are useful and will make a colourful addition to your box. Do not forget caddis, mayflies, small stoneflies, and midges are on the menu as well. Fish love a size ten to sixteen chocolate brown and white adult caddis. A Tom Thumb works well when the adult caddis is skating across the water. Emergers and nymphs of all the bugs mentioned above are always good tricks to pull out of the hat. Streamers work incredibly well. Black Marabou Clousers are a staple. Black and Olive Woolly Buggers size 4 to 10 usually work.
Fly List
Dry Flies
Adult Dragonflies, Mice, Damsel flies, Caddis, Mayflies, Midges, Tom Thumb size ten, Brown Elk Hair Caddis size ten, Royal Wolf size ten to sixteen, Asauble Wolf size ten to sixteen , Grey Wolf size eighteen to ten, emerger/cripple patterns, stimulators size six through twelve, Lambroughten Skater, Parachute Adams (all sizes), Irresistible size 14, Madam X size 10, Schroeder's Parachute Emergent Caddis, Beck's Spinner (brown) size 14, Lawson's Caddis Emerger, Lawson's Cripple Dun and Mayfly Cripple.
Terrestrials
Make sure you stock up in this department. Chernobyl Ant and or Fat Albert size fourteen through six (all variations will work). Any big ugly terrestrial including mice, beetle patterns of any size or shape, amphibians, Lambroughton Spider, Henry's Fork Hopper, Club Sandwich, Poppers and Turk's Tarantulas.
Nymphs
Caddis Pupa, Caddis Larvae, Callibaetis Nymph, Flashback Hare's Ear, any flashback nymph, Prince Nymph, Pheasant Tail Nymph, Dragonfly Nymph, Damsel Fly Nymph and Girdle Bugs.
Streamers
Black and Olive Woolly Buggers size ten to six, Muddler Minnows, Black Clouser Minnows, Black and White Clouser Minnows, Chartreuse and White Clouser Minnows, Pink and White Clouser Minnows, Flash-a-bugger's, Double Bunnies, Bunny Leaches, Articulated Leaches, all streamer patterns.
A modest cross-section of the bug families and terrestrials mentioned above is all that you will require. Guides always have a complete selection of flies on hand should you be missing anything in your box. A fly tying table will be located in the lodge to create any special bugs required. If you would like to discuss patterns in more detail, contact Adam Henderson.
As there are many diverse fly fishing waters in the Chilean Patagonia, bring everything you have in your fly box.
Patagonia Fly-Fishing
