After fishing the Rio Pangal in the morning, I started making my way to the famous Baker River.
I took a fairly lengthy detour scouting another river along the way. According to Google Maps, it would take seven hours to reach the Baker. There’s one important thing to keep in mind while traveling in this part of Chile: not relying on Google for the accuracy of your arrival time. With dirt roads, unreliable speed limit calculations and weather, error on the side of caution when traveling. The rule of thumb according to locals and based on my experience, is to add 20% to the time allotted by Google. The speed limit might be 40kph in a given section, but you won’t make the numerous hairpin turns on 2000’ cliffs. Not to mention the inevitable split-second adjustment needed to avoid a full-size bus coming the other way on the narrow road. With all that said, I decided to travel four hours south to the small town of Puerto Murta along the shores of Largo General Carrera, the largest lake in Chile, for my first night.
About 15klms before I reached the town, I came to the Rio Murta. I did a double take as I crossed the bridge as there appeared to be access to the river. I’ve rarely seen public river access on this trip, so I turned around to verify. There was a dirt road leading to the riverbank. From there, you could follow the river for about a quarter mile. With dusk approaching, I decided to find a hotel in town and return the next morning to fish.
The following morning, I parked on the banks of the river and fished the majority of the day. Skunked!
I wish there was more to the story: e.g., ‘I lost a giant one’, or ‘trout were rising but couldn’t find the right pattern to entice a strike’. Nada. After hours trying everything I had available, I decided to return to the hotel and regroup.
I left Puerto Murta early the next day and stopped along the cliff to get my first real view of Largo General Carrera. This picture was taken from at least 2000’ above the lake.
Continuing the drive, I came upon Largo Bertrand. The lake and shoreline were open to the public, so I figured a cast or two were in order.
Although the lake was crystal-clear, it wasn’t my final destination. However, it did serve as a welcome and unexpected pitstop to end my fishing drought on the Rio Murta and within three casts, I had a trout.
It was time to continue the journey and I finally arrived at the Baker River:
Before heading this far south, I was concerned about the clarity and sheer size of the river. I’ve had prior experience with glacial-fed rivers in Alaska, the Olympic Nat’l Forest in Washington and in New Zealand. On each of these occasions, I experienced very limited water clarity: maybe a foot or two.
I followed the Baker for another hour until I arrived in the town of Cochrane. My thought was to get a budget hotel giving me access to the Cochrane River while providing a basecamp to fish the Baker. Along the way, I passed several high-end fishing lodges. On this trip, I’ve averaged about $50 per night for quality accommodations and caught fish on almost every occasion. I didn’t see the need to splurge on a fishing resort.
As I descended the mountain and entered town, it seemed almost eerily empty. Besides the road construction crew and a few cars, nobody was out. I arrived at the first hotel, and no one was there. I tried the second hotel and met with the same result. I waited in their parking lot until an unexpected hailstorm subsided and called one of the expensive lodges I passed along the way. They had a cabin available for $180 a night. I know it’s not an exorbitant amount of money compared to the U.S., but to this point, I was pretty proud of my newfound frugality. I backtracked over an hour to the Green Baker Resort. It was the most expensive place I’ve stayed on this trip, and it was money well spent.
Upon my arrival, I met with Rene, the lodge manager. The resort had hundreds of yards of river frontage. He said, if I wanted to fish either north or south of their property, as long as stayed within 10’ of the river, I had a legal right to do so. There was no one fishing from the bank and plenty of room, so there was no need to test that theory. The other anglers at the lodge were taking rafts down the river. If I had more time, I would have done the same. I heard the guides were having a slow couple of days, only catching five or so fish per boat. I caught at least seven both days from shore and was happy with my effort. My concern of the water clarity soon subsided as the pools closest to shore were crystal clear.
First Trout on the Baker:
One of many:
I only had two nights remaining before my flight home. I decided the next stop would be Puerto Ibanez and the Ibanez River for one last shot at a giant trout before my departure…
