Patagonian-BaseCamp Lodge January 2003 Scrapbook

Honor Roll Report: “Patagonian Base Camp” Gets A Rave Review

Dan Chait wrote the following report to The Angler Report after his visit in January 2003. Dan passed away in early 2004, however his report below is certainly a testimonial to the Patagonian-BaseCamp Lodge and the fishing around it. We have inserted a picture here and there to complete his story. (The Angler Report Editor Note: Honor Roll subscriber Daniel Chait is bullish on a relatively new lodge in Chile called “The Patagonian Base Camp.” Thanks, Daniel, for continuing to check in on places you fish.)

When I received a letter last year from Jean Chaintreuil of Travel Adventures about a fishing trip to Chile for a week beginning January 29^th 2003, I called him immediately, and, after reviewing a nice brochure showing the lodge and a description of the fishing to be expected, I signed up at once.

Two years before, I’d fished in Patagonia further south, and had a marvelous time there. However, Chaintreuil’s description of a virgin fishery near the area around La Junta intrigued me. Chaintreuil is an experienced agent, with many trips to Chile and Argentina, and he had just signed up the lodge owners, a charming young Dutch couple, Astrid and Marcel Sijnesael, who had been interested in that area for six years and just two years ago built the new lodge, which they named “The Patagonian Base Camp.” And what a lodge they have built!

After the flight to Santiago, we continued on to Puerto Montt, less than a two-hour jet flight. We stayed overnight in the Lago Llanquihue town of Puerto Varas. The next morning’s 45-minute flight departed Puerto Montt on a smaller twin-engine aircraft. We were picked up at the Chaiten airport and driven to the lodge on the well-maintained gravel road. When I first saw the lodge, I knew someone with good design instincts had a hand in the building. As an architect, I appreciated the quality of the design and construction, many finely furnished rooms with private decks facing the Rio Palena, the dining room with its large central fireplace, in short, the no-holds barred and exquisite taste shown in the building of the lodge. They even provided a barn with horses for those so inclined.

However, fate had a hand; It rained off and on for our entire trip, making the favorite rivers - the Rio Palena (bordering the lodge), Rio Rosselot, Rio Yelcho, Rio Pico and Rio Figueroa - high and difficult to fish. The nearby lakes, too, Lago Rosselot, Negro and Claro Solar, were adversely affected, although several of our largest fish, some 25 inches or so, were taken in one of the smaller lakes from a boat. It was a record-breaking week of rains. But Sijnesael and his ardent assistant, Anton, worked like demons and scouted out smaller undiscovered creeks, such as Laura, Nalca and Mirta, and we all had a ball with a few days of 50 to 100 trout, mostly smaller but with a few large browns.

Then, not to be conquered by the weather, one day we drove about two hours on a good dirt road towards the Argentine border, past a few farms as well as occasional gauchos on their special Chilean horses, the usual shaggy dog loping along, to a rustic log cabin along a lake, where we had a good time, good food, good beds, good camping and stayed overnight, fishing two days with our guides, one for each pair of anglers. From there, we took a short boat ride to the mouth of the Rio Cacique Blanco, which ran clear and was of a good wadeable height. We all took a fair number of extremely active and determined fish, mostly rainbows in the 14- to 18-inch range.

Our last day, after a week of culinary delights from Astrid’s bountiful table and good Chilean wine and beer, we spread out. The others went back to a smaller creek, but I stayed in that morning trying to get some of Astrid’s world-class recipes on paper. That afternoon the Rio Palena dropped a little and Anton, Sijnesael and I walked down to the river, where I hooked four really nice fish, all on Wooly’s. Before leaving, we looked at some of the local topo maps Sijnesael had. I was amazed at the number of rivers in the area that have never been fished, but as Sijnesael remarked, “It really isn’t necessary. We seldom see any other anglers on the rivers except those who stay here.”

Is it possible that this area, replete with trout and salmon-filled rivers is one of the last unfound outposts? After a week back at home in New York’s Hudson Valley, I got an e-mail from Sijnesael: “The rain stopped, and we had a week of the most fantastic fishing we’ve ever had.” That’s life. Would I go back? You bet. Our group (we had never met before) is planning on it.
~~- Daniel Chait

(Postscript: In a follow-up telephone call to Jean Chaintreuil, he told us that a seven-day trip to “Patagonian Base Camp,” with six full days of fishing, goes for $3,450. That includes accommodations, meals, all guiding and other activities at the lodge, such as horseback riding. It does not cover international airfare, nor the roundtrip charter flight between Puerto Montt and Chaiten ($150). Contact Travel Adventures at: 585-248-5020; or jpc@travela.com.)