Beginning around 38 degrees south latitude and continuing all the way to Tierra del Fuego, the region known as Patagonia is home to some of the most diverse landscapes and collection of wildlife found anywhere on this planet. One particular activity draws thousands of likeminded individuals each year to the famed rivers of Patagonia, fly-fishing.
With winter in South America soon approaching I needed a reason to visit some of our lodges in Patagonia or I was just going to have to wait till next year. Luckily, we had a group of three anglers headed to Challhuaquen Lodge at the end of March and they allowed me to be the fourth. Not only is it important to Trek to travel with our clients and visit our business partners but we are dedicated to always finding the next best place; enter Estancia Tecka. Tecka has been on our radar for sometime, from client recommendations to our own curiosity, it needed to be experienced.
The trip down was easy and uneventful, flight to Buenos Aires with connection into Esquel and 45 minutes later we had arrived at Challhuaquen Lodge. The lodge sits high above the banks of the Futaleufu which provided us with stunning views of the snow capped Andes Mountains. The group, consisted of a farmer, a former assistant athletic director and a guy in the “petroleum industry”, all of which were from Texas. Needless to say, they were a fun bunch.
The first two days at Challhuaquen began with light drizzle as snow fell in the higher elevations of the Andes. Christian, our guide, worked the drift boat as we nymphed our way down steam through deep runs and freestone flats. As the temperatures dropped we moved to deeper runs where we found nice concentrations of fish in the 16-18in size range. Copper John’s and Prince Nymphs in size 18 worked during the overcast conditions but with an afternoon of sunshine, a caddis hatch brought the trout to the surface. Day three, the group headed to Rio Rivadavia located in Los Alerces national park. If you had one public stretch of river to fish the rest of your life, this could be the one. This free flowing river is a connection between a chain of lakes in the national park and with pool names like, the aquarium; you can see why many anglers would die happy here. Rivadavia offers, riffles, pools, freestone flats, undercut banks and over hanging willows. If this river does not have it, it doesn’t exist and the fish here are smart, real smart, and have shoulders. If you have never heard 5x tippet pop like a .22 caliber rifle, you just might get your chance here. The eight hour float flew by as the incredible scenery caught us in a daydream but the quick flash from a rising rainbow snapped us back to business quickly. This float trip was my last day on the water with the Texans as tomorrow I headed south to Estancia Tecka. For the incredibly tough conditions we faced I have rarely seen guides work as hard as Cristian and Guillermo when the odds were stacked against them. As we fished hard, they worked harder; rowing, repositioning, and trying different techniques and flies to zero in on what the fish wanted. I honestly believe if we wanted to fish into the night they would have smiled and said, “no problem”. At that point, there really is nothing more you can ask of your guide. Back at the lodge, Chef Herman, certainly pulled his weight as well. Fresh bread bake every morning plus wonderful, meat and fish dishes that even would make to lady in your life jealous. Challhuaquen is one of the most well rounded lodges I have visited, catering to the hardcore fisherman and leisure traveler alike.
The following morning, Eduardo picked me up to make the drive to Tecka. From the scouting report, I knew it was a huge working ranch and offered many miles of private water to be fished but upon arrival I found no amount of study could have prepared me for what I was about to experience. A brief history on Estancia Tecka reveals a London based company purchased 385,000 acres in Patagonia in 1910 and called themselves The Tecka Land Company. The original cattle brand can be seen painted high on a sheer rock face and is evident throughout ranch to this day. In the 1960’s the Ochoa family, from Spain, purchased the ranch with additional acreage, making Estancia Tecka a total of 436,000 acres of the best sheep farming land in the region. Presently, Estancia Tecka still maintains over 95,000 sheep and 5,000 head of cattle, plus the two lodges with approx 95 miles of private trout water.
The first night was spent at Tecka Lodge, a.k.a. Headquarters, which is where their main offices and heads of the ranch live. This lodge was the original ranch house constructed in 1921 and is home to framed original documents and pictures taken between the 10’s and 20’s. I caught myself reading translated documents and looking intently at photos for more than an hour before dinner. An excellent lamb chop with rice was on the menu for the evening finished with a rich blueberry cheesecake. I dozed off scouring the property on Google Earth in anticipation of what tomorrow would bring.
Martin, the head guide, has been at Tecka since their first season thirteen years ago. He knows every river, spring creek and resident Andean Condor by name. For the next two and a half days we became pretty good friends as he showed me everything this incredible ranch had to offer. We started at the Rio Tecka which is a spring creek that originates on the property and is the ranche’s namesake. This creek bends its way through the estancia for over 25 miles with grass beds, small riffles and over hanging willows. A size 10 hopper pattern landed me my first Tecka rainbow and although only 10 inches he fought like he was 18. We stalked our way upstream taking turns casting behind rocks and making drifts down undercut banks. We fished carefully upriver, using brush as our cover and in some instances backing off the river 15 feet to remain unseen. My hopper was half way down an undercut bank when it was ambushed by a stocky brown trout. Martin commented, “now, that is what Tecka is all about”. We continued up the bank crossing the river multiple times before making it to an area of heavily wooded willow trees. We scanned every over hanging branch looking for that one fish that everyone comes so far for. Holy shit, there she was, a huge brown, now all I needed to do was make the cast. Keep in mind; it’s a sunny day, surrounded by willows and brush in 20+ mph winds. It took five casts to place my parachute Adams exactly where she wanted it, but she wanted it, all 30 inches of her. After I calmed down and cleaned my language up a bit, we moved on, looking for more like her.
The next day I moved lodges to Caridad, which lies on the banks of the Corcovado River in the Southwestern section of the ranch. Caridad was originally on an adjacent ranch to Tecka before the Ochoa Family purchased it along with the surrounding property. The lodge was constructed in the 40’s and still holds all the old world charm with original photos and large wood burning fireplace. Martin and I shared breakfast together before making our way to the drift boat on the Corcovado. Unfortunately, our fishing was cut short as the strong winds of an impending cold front moved in and we had to ditch the drift. One of the incredible assets of this property is the amount of different terrain and diverse water each angler has at their disposal. From what could have been an end to a day of fishing at any other lodge, we were able to move to a location on the leeward side of a set of hills in a valley protected from the wind. The spring creek Tucu-Tucu allowed for a few hours of fishing before lunch that filled the void left by the windy conditions at the Corcovado drift.
The afternoon was spent exploring and allowed some time to hike into a spring creek that is virtually inaccessible due to the surrounding terrain. Martin and I hiked into a creek not seen on any maps or typically ever fished. We came to the bottom of a canyon after a 20 minute hike down rocky slopes and through thorn bushes. This over grown creek stays hidden from above by the dense willows and hardwood trees that line its banks, which also made it extremely difficult to fish. Long story short, it was worth it. In four hours we only made half a dozen true casts, the rest were bow and arrow and roll casts that yielded strong, very wild fish. Now, don’t think for a second that Martin or I will give the true location or name of this creek, but understand it is there and you just might fish it, without knowing. In three days I found Estancia Tecka to be the real deal and a must for any fly fisherman looking for a diverse, private and unique Patagonia experience.
Thank you to Gustavo, Guillermo, and Cristian at Challhuaquen Lodge and Frederico, Martin and Nicole at Estancia Tecka for making this the ultimate Argentine Trout trip.
