mtshasta.com – Outfitter & Actor – Jack Trout's Blog

     * CHILE & ARGENTINA FLY FISHING TRIPS ARE UNDERWAY NOW *

                                                     STILL HAVE SPACE IN JANUARY FEBRUARY  MARCH & APRIL 2015

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Where is in the world these days can you find more pure water, untouchable mountain peaks in a raw undiscovered atmosphere, unblimished by human hands. Chile is one of the most unique countries in the world with it’s incredible lush country sides and towering native pines that are impossible to penetrate by foot. I once was told down south of the Lake’s District of Chile near Chaiten in Central Patagonia, on the Yecho River that one 40 mile stretch had more dense hardwood native old growth trees than any other one place in North America.Though it was unverified, I believed him as he was an expert  arborist and was studying old growth forests in both hemispheres. When you think of both Chile and Argentina, it reminds me of my childhood growing up on the borders of California and Nevada in the town of Portola. With my pops Raymond, we would take trips to Reno, Nevada 3 times a month and I swear the scenes from the Tahoe Forests in California now reminds me of Chile and the cross over the border into Argentina and you’re in Reno, Nevada. The Earth is marvelous, it’s here to be studied, to be worshiped, to ponder on its relevance and connections that brings joy to the soul. When life gets tough, I have found that being out in nature grounds me. It reboots the Intel pentium processor in my brain and I can make it through anything, as this too can & will pass. Nature and the great outdoors has a way of doing this for anyone who believes that going backwards in this day and age is the secret of happiness. When I’m out discovering new horizons in the forests of Chile, Argentina or Northern California, I think of my dad and all he taught me growing up. Respect nature, thrive in it because life is about how you affect others in a positive way through nature. As a reflection, these walks, jaunts, climbs and hikes make me a wiser soul every time I feel her embrace. But more so being out in the forest reminds me of being a kid again with my Pops and that is why she always holds true in her promise to anyone who explores her energy, smells the dew of a fresh rainstorm or the sounds of water falls soothing the gentle heart. The sights of an amazing sunset that gives you warm chills or warm rays reflected on a lake as you dive in and remember the same as a child. Yea, Mother Nature has a way of doing this for anyone of her children just like my father did for me on those long drives to Reno that eventually led me on my quests to Chile. The Earth has been made to be passed along like a great family heirloom, as we are not using up her resources just loving and admiring her miracle, but as a gift in a promise back to her always to be remembered, as we are borrowing it from our children and our grandchildren, so cherish it and share it well my friends, mothers and fathers. jt                   www.jacktrout.com

My first clients of the season were brothers from England, Pete and Noel Gordon and their brother in law John Bradshaw. Pete is a pretty famous angler from England, as he is well known in the Cornish regions for his angling tactics and held in high regards by many others throughout the British Isles for legendary hook ups and catches. I just think they were plain old fashion fun to hang out with, one of my most memorable trips in 23 years of guiding down here. Of course it helps when the fishing was so good and the Chilean countryside bursting at the seems like a 17 year old girl on her quest for stardom. 

We started on the private section of the Rio Petrohue and Pete hooked this Sea Run Brown. Being less than 25 miles from the ocean, these trout run in schools with the Chinook, Coho and Steelhead that jostle for pole position as unlike most places in the world these days the spawn is happening 24 hours a day, 7 days a week here in the lands of clear blue waters.

A little farther down we hooked into a Brown Trout that sent Pete’s reel a screaming our favorite fly fishing hit song. 

Hey folks, check out Pete’s Vimeo Video of this hook-up –

 

 

Then to top it off a fine steelhead that is mistakenly called a rainbow down here, but of course the both of us know better as this trout can double dip if he wants and has no spots like a rainbow does under his lateral line, no red line either.

Hey folks, check out Pete’s Vimeo Video of this hook-up-  

https://vimeo.com/114861270

 A great lunch is always a highlight on the river and a reason to stop and compare notes on the day, of course a great Chilean Carmenere like Ventisquero Reserve or the famous fly fishing wine Yelcho, is an added pleasure for our valued clientele.

Great food, clean and plenty of it down here for reasonable prices is another draw for the North American. Cooking on a disco is a great way to saute your juices creating a lushes flavor that combines all the elements you’re cooking. Plan to bring one back with you, it’s a tradition that will always connect to these lands and bring back good memories everytime you use it.

 Later on Noel Gordon hooks into a lovely rainbow and we were off to the races as sibling rivalry was left behind in England as children and true brotherly love was found now on the waters of Chile a generation later in a human bond as adults that lasts for ever.

This is a rainbow folks, transported down form the McCloud River between 1904 and 1908 by the California Fish Commission and United States Fisheries Commission, via Caledonia, New York. These were then called, California Mountain Trout. Before Shasta Lake In California, there was the Baird Hatchery that was established by Livingston Stone, Spencer Baird and Ulysses Grant in 1872, where the McCloud dumped its turquoise waters into the massive Pit drainage.

In fact, New Zealand, Australia, Chile and Argentina can thank Northern California for their McCloud River Rainbow populations that now thrive in those environments. Brown Trout were brought in from Germany and Loch Leven Scotland and Atlantic Salmon they call grills, were brought down from England as there were no indigenous salmon or trout in the entire Southern Hemisphere until after 1875 when we shipped the first trout and salmon to New Zealand via the United States Aqua Train out East.

Check this Vimeo video folks –

In the Forests of Chile is where I call home, it’s connection to California is why it touches my heart every time I go from north to south.

Do you love fresh seafood? Then the La Olla Seafood Restaurant in Puerto Varas Chile is for you.

Priceless. $15 USD when US dollar is at 600 Chilean Pesos to the United States dollar, last year the dollar was trading at 475.

The group was pumped after our fantastic day out on the river and the meal just complimented our endeavors.

Another day, Noel hooked into another beauty and we were stoked for it’s rare for a river to fish great two days in a row.

Want more info on Chile & Argentina from Jack Trout, check out his section on Chile in Fodor’s Travel Books Out of New York, 2008 to 2010.

      Click to purchase – Chile Fodor’s 2008  Argentina Fodor’s 2009

Brownie Points Pete! Way to go bro. These hard fighting browns and rainbows put your skills and reels to the test.

Noel Gordon, you’re just like your brother hooking another gem in the world wide scheme of things. Noel is now retired from a major role in the world wide banking system, we can thank him in part for holding things together when profiteer felons like Bernie Madoff and a whole list of others almost killed our world financial system. Thanks Noel, this is one guide whole reads and knows what you did for all of us. The world is a much better place now because of it.

This is what I call the internet!! Nice trout man and what a great fight!

Cousin to the bamboo plant, we call it Kila down here. (Pronunced – KEELA.)

 

Here’s an Atlantic Salmon we caught transplanted from England in the 1900’s, they call them grilse (grills) in England. 

 Stream side lunch with music from England, not over rated Sizzlers!

Ah the halftime break, all we need now is the American & English National Anthem sung by Adelle & Taylor Swift.. Not!

Love this Merluza, Carola’s mom makes for us with a nice bottle of Chilean white wine, you can’t really beat it folks.

King Fishers are much bigger down here in Chile than our Northern Hemisphere version.

The influence of German construction and architecture is ever so present in the Lake’s District of Chile, with a little help from Russia it looks like to me.

Old steamer farm equipment from the early 1900’s are quite common to see here in the Chilean countryside.

 I thought it would nice to stop at the restaurant on top of the hill for a little tea time, one day after touring Lago Llanquihue and a little fishing.

Nice scenes at this place and a great place to take kids as they have a play ground area that’s amazing with swings and canopy for kids.

Puerto Varas – Chile, one of the most important tourist & entertainment centers in Chile.

 I like to tie streamer minnows, to imitate small salmon that are present in these local rivers all season.

 Brown Trout on the Rio Maullin with Noel Gordon.

 A small grill, we call Salmon Salar down here. nice fight for Pete Gordon. Read below Pete’s review on Tripadvisor.

Then we took a road trip up to Pucon in the Rivers District to see this great tourist town and sample some of the best steak and lamb dishes on the planet. The owners wife, a legend in her own right.

These grills down here actually rotate up and down and they never use black coals as they push over red and white coals from the start pile, so the taste of your meat or fish is clean and perfect.

 The best lamb chops in my life folks, they really know how to BBQ down here in South America. 

 I then took the Gordon’s on a tour up  into the mountains of the Andes on roads I discovered with my wife living up near Pucon and Panguipulli a few years back. We still service and guide the rivers & lakes of this area as there are some beauties we have discovered.

 Check out this video –

Truly a special place on Earth.

 Chile has 2006 volcanoes some dormant, some extinct and a few still active. it always amazes me that some of the most beautiful places in the world are simi dangerous, but such is life, you have to live and let die as Paul McCartney once sang. Or just run like hell, like Pink Floyd once sang. Makes sense to me, I love it here and in Argentina or Mount Shasta, you have to take it day by day. since coming in 1992, I’ve been in 3 earthquakes &  2 volcano eruptions and no regrets so far…

 German restaurant in Pucon is off the charts folks. This place is called the BierGarten and it’s located right next to Sol Y Nieve in Pucon Chile. If you want to raft, climb Villarrica or Canopy – Call Willie at Sol Y Nieve a lifetime friend we refer folks to while staying in Pucon Chile.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g294297-d2086006-Reviews-BierGarten_Pucon-Pucon_Araucania_Region.html#REVIEWS

Back in Puerto Varas where great food also prevails, you don’t have to go far for an extraordinary meal. Alessandro’s if they are not too busy is a place to consider, though we all miss Alessandro the original owner.

Our next clients arrived Nicholas Rossy & Casey Viegelahn came down from the University of Notre Dame to do some fishing with me.

 This was Nicholas’s first experience fly fishing and he really had never did any fishing before but with a little instruction in a great place to wade, he starting hooking into multiple trout and possible a salmon that took him into his backing and he lost it. But he did land this wild trout and had the time of his life in the process.

Nice trout Nico, thanks for coming down we had a lot of fun guiding you folks. Good luck in school this season.

Check out Casey’s Video On Vimeo –

What a total hog as my client Casey exclaimed in utter happiness after he landed this 6 to 8 lb trout.

Way to go Casey, biggest trout landed so far this season. 

Down here in Chile we have Pancora Crabs, I have my own pattern I tie that has  been very effective out on the waters all over where we fish.

SEE HOW TO TIE A PANCORA CRAB FOR CHILE & ARGENTINA RIVERS – 

 One of the places we stop for lunch my client Pete Gordon had seen a puma and later on we saw it’s tracks out on the beach. On another day we heard and saw more tracks at the same location.

 

http://www.jacktrout.com/index.php/destinations/lake-district-chile

We made a plan to take Casey & Nico to Argentina for the day to go fly fishing on the great Patagonian rivers in Argentina over the Andes, got in our Toyota and headed to Beverly.

I love this picture that says a thousand words. We love you Argentina!! A great place we also call home. We have so many friends there now and border crossings thus far, have been easy with our vast knowledge of what they are looking for and restrict. You now have to pay a $175 reciprocity fee for 10 years and now Argentina requires that all your fly fishing gear has been cleaned and certified by the Chilean SAG against harmful river born diseases being brought over by tourist causing didimo in their rivers. If you do not have this certificate as well as all the necesary docs for taking a car from Chile to Argentina and back, you will be turned away at the border. We have a 1000% success rate because my wife and I are experts at getting our clients across the Chilean Argentine borders or via their rent a car, which rent a car companies here in Chile are famous for fouling up. Don’t do it alone, have us help you or you will ruin your vacation as it isn’t an easy endeavor on your own and you probably don’t speak Chilean/Argentine Spanish fluently.

After we crossed the border we always stop at our favorite restaurant in Argentina, the Ruca Hueney in San Junin de los Andes!! Absolutely the greatest place on Earth if you like meats cooked to perfection. Plus all the fly fishing art, pictures, carvings adds to the experience. The owner and his wife have become very good friends of ours as we like to stop every time we come into town with our valued clientele.

Their great selection of hard to find Argentine Malbecs are a must try by any wine connoisseur or a few trout bums like us passing through town hungry and thirsty for the Argentine life style. Thank goodness theirs still places affordable in this world like the Ruca Hueney and the food they serve that is like no other place I have ever experienced. Thank you RUCA HUENEY!! ***** Stars for sure folks. 🙂

Argentine Chimichurri, the best taste marinade on Earth – period for meats.

Casey with his Fred Flintstone steak served right from the Ruca Hueney Restaurant in Junin de los Andes, Argentina.

Ready for Action, can Casey eat it all?

Food makes me happy, good food makes me come back for more!

 Party night in Argentina with my good friend Martin Sarries and our clients Nicholas & Casey. Martin owns a lodge in Argentina and we like to put our clients there because he has this BBQ asado where we cook our own meats and have a authentic Argentine experience. It’s like being a resident folks.

The lamb down here is so good and the way we cook it with chimichurri sauces and the right heat makes all the difference.

 My wife the chef, hey babe be sure to use the stick for the coals not the meat… 🙂

Argentina is beautiful and lots of great places to vist while staying in San Martin de los Andes the main tourist town in the area.

Near San Martin de los Andes, Argentina. This Always Reminds Me Of The Portola/ (Ross Meadows -Sierra Valley Area Of California (South American Version.) And The First Time I Saw It My Heart Sunk And I Knew I Was Home. jt

 The rock formations here are incredible on the east side of the Andes, these basalt rocks were carved from ancient receding glaciers eventually eroding away the soil that surrounded them leaving these statutes that the native Mapuche Indians regard as gods that over look the rivers here.

 The Malleo River is one of the best hopper rivers in South America, we love to fish it when ever we come over.

Watch this Vimeo Video –

 McCloud Rainbow On The Rio Malleo, Argentina. See The Orange Tip On The Dorsal Fin, Dead Ringer Californiacation.

Vimeo Video –

This is an awesome river we know you’ll love like we do as we have been fishing on it for over 15 years.

Vimeo Video –

 The scenery is very dramatic and we have the best guides you will enjoy  floating with on other rivers. This one you are only allowed to wade as all Argentine rivers are catch & release fly fishing only.

http://www.jacktrout.com/index.php/destinations/argentina

Back over the hill next day, we stopped to take photos at sunset as the light was perfectly filtered for a great photo opt.

Back at the BierGarten in Pucon, Chile, the beer and the food captures our hearts and imaginations.

Yummy feast people! Love that German food and the culture they brought over to Chile, the Italians brought it to Argentina! jt

We always save our scraps and feed it to homeless dogs in Chile and Argentina, make yourself a promise when you go abroad, you will do the same. Everyone deserves a great meal, even a homeless wandering dog praying for his next meal.

Clete and Paula called us to guide them off the cruise ship in Puerto Montt, they had never fly fished before.

 Before long Clete had caught 3 trout and was having a jolly ole time in the holiday season. We welcome any and all beginners here in Chile, as we have the rivers and great fishing to teach you on for extended success. We’ll get you back to the cruise ship on time and we promise a excellent adventure to boot!

Dear Jack & Carola,

Thank you so much for a wonderful day in Chile. We enjoyed your company, lunch and the fishing. I’m so glad Carola joined us, I felt like we were old friends. Again, thanks so much and we wish you a very Merry Christmas.
Clete & Paula

Back in time, a warm thanks goes out to Clete & Paula from Buffalo NY. We hope to guide you again some day until then.

Thanks, Jack & Carola Trout

Thanks for watching our adventures, Jack & Carola Trout & Team Trout International Guides

530-918-8879  or 530-916-4540   *  info@jacktrout.com