Gear Roll-up: Chile’s Remote Aysén Region
The Echo Streamer X, Airflo fly lines, Skwala Thermo gear and a pile of sunglasses.
A few weeks ago I had the immense privilege of visiting my friends, the Barreto family, at their lodge, Magic Waters Patagonia Lodge. Tucked into Chile’s wildly remote Aysén region just outside Coyhaique, their basecamp sits in the middle of one of the most diverse trout-fishing landscapes I’ve ever experienced.
Patagonia here feels impossibly vast–fjords, deep glacial lakes, jagged mountains, high-desert steppe and Valdivian rainforest all colliding into hundreds, if not thousands, of watersheds. The result is an absurd range of fishing opportunities, all very close to one another. Big rivers, technical spring creeks, float trips, stillwaters, dry flies, streamers, mousing, sight fishing, you name it.
I can’t think of another lodge or centralized destination I’ve visited that offers this much variety for nearly every style of trout fishing imaginable. It’s also an opportune proving ground for testing gear. I brought four- to eight-weight rods and a full menu of lines, from regular ol’ floaters to a wide variety of sinking lines and tips.
I also came with a pile of new and old gear–some time-tested favorites I felt obliged to share, along with some newer items I knew I had to write about. We’ll go much deeper on some of these later, but here’s a quick-and-dirty rundown of what I liked, along with a few suggestions and observations on the products.
