I only had two nights remaining in Chile before my departure back to the states.  My choices were either, continue to catch quality trout on the Baker, or take my chances hooking into a last-minute giant on the Ibanez River. 

Before committing to the Ibanez, I talked to Meg.  I mentioned my apprehension of leaving the productive water on the Baker and rolling the dice on a new river of which I had little knowledge.  Although I had done some basic research, I was concerned about river clarity, access, etc.  With that said, my wife can find any subject on the internet: usually in a matter of seconds.  It didn’t take her long to Google up information to help ease my concerns.  She found an article in Gray’s Sporting Journal making my decision easy.  The basic gist was, ‘expect the water clarity to be poor, but that won’t stop the giant browns from destroying your lure or fly’. 

After fishing the Baker most of the morning and catching several fish, I headed towards Rio Ibanez.  The drive is about five hours. The alternate southern route is technically a shorter distance, but you’ll need to coordinate a ferry crossing to reach the town.  Although tempted by a new route, I couldn’t find reliable scheduling information on the ferry and couldn’t take the risk.

Puerto Ibanez is roughly 40 minutes off the main road heading back to the airport.  To this point, I had traversed roughly 900kms (560 miles) on washboard dirt roads ironically listed as major highways on the map.  Surprisingly, the smaller road leading to this sleepy little town was paved and in immaculately good condition.

I arrived with plenty of daylight remaining to scout the river and make a few casts before returning to my lodging for the night.  Choosing where to concentrate my angling effort was easy.  You didn’t need to be a rocket scientist or even the guy who fills up the rocket to grasp the obvious strategy.  There is a waterfall blocking access and preventing any fish from continuing their migration upstream.  So, in theory, all spawning fish would eventually congregate at this impasse.   The only question was whether the sea-run trout had migrated this far upriver?

Here were my three access options:

Although I didn’t catch a trout that evening, I was happy with my access and spot 2 seemed to make the most sense. A few vehicles stopped at the falls to take a memorable photo, but no one stopped to fish. 

After trying the evening bite, I returned to the Hotel El Juncal for the remainder of my stay in Chile.

The hosts were incredibly nice and I highly recommend this lodge.  Most importantly, my stay came with a Border Collie, free of charge, to make me feel at home.

The next morning, I headed back and fished spot 2 until early that afternoon.  No luck.  I didn’t even see a fish rise and came to the conclusion the sea-run trout had yet to arrive.

It was my last day fishing in Chile, but I needed to take a break and get some food. I didn’t mention this in my other posts, but it was challenging finding a quality meal in the remote regions I had visited.  For an extended time, I could only find the occasional local mini-market.  They are similar to their U.S. counterparts, minus the crappy pizza and hotdog machines.  I had days, due to the travel and arrival times between locations, where that was my only option for lunch and dinner.  And I can promise you this, living on potato chips and candy bars for a couple of days straight is a terrible idea.  I would have paid triple the going rate to find a good meal at this point.

Based on the recommendation of the lodge owners, I headed to Parcela Dona Leo Restaurant for a late lunch.  It was the best meal I had in quite some time and would be my last meal before I returned home.

As I enjoyed my lunch, my ice cold beer and stared out the window at the inquisitive llamas, a few thoughts went through my head:

1. I accomplished my goal: catching beautiful amazing trout in the remote areas throughout Patagonia.
2. I finally had a good meal and had leave at 5:30am the next morning.  Packing up now and relaxing the remainder of the day, seemed the best option.
3. Finally, and most importantly, it was only 4pm and it stays light until 9:30pm.  What?  Am I that lazy to waste the remainder of the afternoon on my final day in Chile? 

It didn’t matter whether I saw fish rise or the fact that I didn’t get one bite, this was my last chance.  So, back to the river I went.  This time I chose Spot #1, and that’s when it happened…  Not only did I catch the biggest trout of the trip, it might be the best fish I have caught in my lifetime. 

You’ll never catch a fish without a line in the water.  I’m glad I gave it one last shot and you’ll hear me ramble on about that fact in the video below.  My apologies for a curse word or five.  In my defense, I thought, for a moment, I lost the fish of a lifetime at one point.

As I crossed the mountain range the next morning on the way to the airport, I experienced the perfect amount of snow and hail.  ‘Perfect’ might be a strange way to describe it, but to me, it just summarized the diversity of the Chilean landscape.

Chile will always be on my travel and fishing list and I look forward to my next visit.