How did the day go?
- When: , the first week of the Early Season. Two of our clients booked one Full Day, enjoyed it so much they came back the next day: about eight hours on the water out of Coyhaique, Chilean Patagonia.
- The water: Lago Azul, one of the seven lakes we fish by cataraft.
- The fish: wild brown trout, each one different, from dark and bronze to gold and silver.
- The setting: turquoise water, forested shores, rock walls and snow-capped peaks.
- Both anglers in polarized sunglasses and orange caps.
- Every trout went back to the water, as on every day we guide.
Where is Lago Azul?
Lago Azul is one of the seven lakes we fish out of Coyhaique, in the Aysén Region of Chilean Patagonia. Lago Azul means "Blue Lake", and the water lives up to it: a deep turquoise. In the photos from this day it sits under dry, rocky slopes and snow-capped peaks, with forest running down to the shore and rock walls dropping straight into the lake.
We fish it the way we fish every lake on our list, from a cataraft: an inflatable frame boat on two pontoons that carries two anglers. On a lake it becomes the platform for working the shoreline, the drop-offs and the water under those rock walls.
What did they catch?
Wild brown trout: one dark with big spots, one golden, one pale and silvery. Every trout around Coyhaique is born in the wild: there is no hatchery stocking in the waters we fish, which is why they fight the way they do. Photos from the day.
How do you tell a brown trout from a rainbow?
Look at the flank. The browns in these photos carry dark spots scattered over a bronze, golden or silvery body, with no pink band down the side. A rainbow wears that pink band, like the Early Season rainbows over 30 inches in another of our client stories.
The behaviour differs too. Brown trout often hold close to structure, and on clear water they tend to reward a quiet approach. Our guide to brown and rainbow trout in Chile covers both species and when each one fishes best.
How do you fly fish a lake like Lago Azul?
By reading the shoreline and adapting to the day. From the cataraft, the guide works the edges and drop-offs: in calm periods that can mean watching for surface activity, and when the fish hold deeper, going down to them. Polarized sunglasses and a cap cut the glare so you can see into the turquoise water.
Flies are included in our programs, and your guide picks them for the day. To know what goes in the box, see our nymph guide for Coyhaique and our best dry flies for Coyhaique. For a calm day of sight fishing on another lake, read our client's dry-fly Full Day on a clear lake.
What does a Full Day include?
A guided day on the water, around eight hours of fishing, priced per day for up to two anglers. Book one day or several in a row. Includes guide, round trip transport, box lunch, drinks and flies. No accommodation. Price: USD 690 per day, for up to two anglers — not per angler. Rods, reels and lines are rented separately, subject to availability. Ask us.
- Guide
- Round trip transport
- Catarafts where the water calls for them
- Box lunch
- Drinks: water, beer or wine
- Flies
We release every trout, and the Aysén fishing rules explain what a foreign angler pays for a licence. New to fly fishing? Read what a first trip here looks like.
