The Futaleufu is the biggest and most dangerous trout river I have ever been on. It is more aggressive and powerful river than the Bow, the Madison, the Elk, or the Yellowstone. It has a big push to it and a significant gradient in many sections. It rumbles and tumbles through the Patagonian Andes down to the Pacific. Its size is respected in Argentina where it is called the Rio Grande, not to be confused with the one much further south in Tierra Del Fuego. It has many class IV and V whitewater sections and deep gorges, especially in Chile. It is probably more well known in the daredevil kayaking community than in fly fishing circles. Jim warned on my first float, " Face your danger!" Not a bad mantra on a powerful river.
The Futaleufu is a tailwater river. It exits a huge reservoir in Argentina. It is the first tailwater river I fished consistently. It is diverse water with many features: runs; strong rapids; giant flats and pools; islands; side channels; shoals; huge sloughs; back eddies; foam lines, even a wonderful waterfall. Water with features is good when hunting for trout. Features mean opportunity.
The gradient on the section I floated was manageable. The river meandered quite a bit. It still had many hazards: thickly lined willow banks; many downed trees in the water; giant boulders; whirlpools, some the size of a baseball diamond; hard angle turns with hazardous sharp outer edges; etc. Make a mistake and the Futaleufu could gobble you up.
Three or four times a week I rowed a durable raft from the Argentine border into Chile. It was about a five mile float. We accessed the river through a barbed wired gate of a large Estancia where I cut my hands on more than one occasion on a rusty spur. Once on Estancia property we'd drive a dusty cattle trail a quarter mile down to the river. The Futaleufu would appear in the distance: broad, willow lined and aquamarine blue. On a steep embankment we used gravity to side the raft off the trailer into the cool flow; like a child descending a park slide.
The flow and water temperature on the Futaleufu was always excellent even though when I was there Patagonia went through a severe drought. There were forest fires on both sides of the border. It always seemed sunny and dry. I can only remember one or two days of rain in the five months I rowed the river. I liked the consistency: water flow and temperature, and the sun above. The fishing became predictable due to these consistencies. Almost as predictable as the Patagonian winds which kicked in everyday at around 1 pm.
The Futaleufu was dominated by rainbows but also had a fair amount of brown trout. In the Fall some Pacific salmon showed as did some Atlantic salmon. After a couple of floats I learnt several locations which became my bread and butter spots for consistently finding surface feeding trout. Being a tailwater river I learnt quickly that most of the insect life was small stuff. You could fish the river throughout most of the season quite successfully just with a Midge pattern, a small Adams or a tiny Caddis.
The big rivers of Chile, I learnt from afar, had the reputation of being streamer fisheries.You could throw streamers on the Futaleufu and some of the largest fish landed were caught this way. Large attractor dries with droppers could also be productive when fishing blind. However, day in and out if you wanted to consistently catch fish, small fly patterns were the way to go, especially if you liked sight fishing. Small stuff is what the fish sipped on.
On the slower parts of the river where bugs collected you could sight fish. The Futaleufu offered these opportunities all season long. Big and small back eddies, foam lines some 60 yards long, sloughs and a side channel provided a lot of sight fishing possibilities. If you check out the subtle current lines entering slow sections of the river and you'd see fish: there was a side channel we called Spring Creek, a slough section we called Bonefish Flats, a small eddy near the lodge we called Jamitos corner. All had cruising and sipping trout.
People who travel across the globe often expect fish to be everywhere and easy to catch but this was not the case on the rivers I fished in Patagonia. You had to fish well to catch consistently. And fly size often mattered especially with active surface feeders. Throw a bushy Wulff pattern to a 20 inch rainbow feeding in a bubble line line behind a dangling willow branches and you would get a cold shoulder....not always, but usually. Tailwater fish are tailwater fish. I'd often tell clients to fish smaller stuff when casting to sipping fish only to be ignored. After several casts and refusals they'd look at me and say, "Ok, what did you want me to tie on?" A size 18 midge would take that large rainbow.
