Fishing in Laguna Pichi, Chile. Keys to a successful fishing day

By Javier Atero, Instructor and Professional Fly Fishing Guide

Before going on an expedition to fishing in Laguna Picchi or any othe place, we must make sure that the equipment we carry is ideal to maximize the chances of success.

Fishing in Laguna Pichi, Required equipment

First the wardrobe, try to do not use very strong colors and wear clothes that are easy to dry and comfortable. But the most important thing in the wardrobe are the polarized sunglasses. Apart from protecting your eyes from bad casts, they give you the possibility to have a better view of the place where you are fishing.

Consider the characteristics of the site

The Pichi Lagoon has a surface area of more than 12 hectares, located in the Los Rios Region, Ranco Province. Being an extensive lagoon, it offers many fishing spots. These places are divided between water inlets and areas of little movement as bays. Trout can be found all along the shore, as Laguna Pichi is highly productive.

First, identify is how the shore of the Pichi lagoon is formed

The largest inflow of water comes from the Pichi River, which flows into the lagoon, and a couple of other inflows come from the Laguna Negra. For these types of scenarios The first thing to identify is how the shore of the lagoon is formed, what kind of aquatic plants there are, what kind of insects live there and how the trout behave on a daily basis.

Fishing rods and lines

For Fishing in Laguna Pichi I recommend a rod Nº5 with a fast sinking line of 200 GR. Now, if you have a slower sinking line remember to let the line sink longer to reach the bottom as fast as possible.

In December, almost at the beginning of summer, trout behavior starts to become active as well as primary activity, due to the increase in temperature and favorable atmospheric conditions for insect hatching.

Trout in December

In these conditions, trout can be found feeding on nymphs all along the shore of the lagoon. During the day, trout can also be seen traveling along the shore in search of food (insects and fish), some in groups and others alone.

You can choose, if you take the time, to fish the trout on sight, if you are quiet enough, as any noise can alter the behavior of a fish. We can choose to fish this lagoon in two ways, with sinking line (200granes) or with floating line.

Patience to invite a trout to take the fly

When we fish with sinking line it is necessary to evaluate whether to fish with streamers which are all those flies that imitate fish or fish with aquatic insect stages such as nymphs or emergers. With floating line, streamers and nymphs can also be used. Why? Because most of the trout are at the bottom of the bank first, so it requires more subtlety and patience to invite a trout to take the fly that is on the surface and everything will depend on the presentation you give to your fly.

When fishing with sinking line this is done by casting towards the shore from the boat using streamers, it is important that once your streamer has passed the kelp line it sinks reaching as deep as possible, always alternate the speed of the retrieve as the movement attracts fish and this is where presentation is important, I recommend a couple of fast movements followed by a slower retrieve to ensure hooking.

Types of flies

The types of flies that can be used are varied, but I recommend using streamers between No. 10, 8, 6, and 4, Examples of these are the classic feather-bodied rooster-feather flies, Zonkers and Wooly Buggers.

For dry flies I recommend 12, 14, such as Parachut Adams, Madame-X and Cooper Young nymphs. It is very important to understand that if we use thin leaders such as 5X it is very easy to lose a trout that runs to hide among the aquatic plants, therefore 3X and 2X would work very well.

Laguna Pichi has trout of all sizes and species

Laguna Pichi has trout of all sizes and the species you can find here are the Rainbow trout (oncorhynchus mykiss) and Brown trout or Fario (salmo trutta trutta), their feeding habits are varied, but the brown trout being piscivorous, tends to feed more on fish than insects, unlike the Rainbow trout whose diet is based more on the life cycle of aquatic insects but also feeds on smaller fish.

Fish handling

The latest in Futangue