After our fishing on Jurassic Lake in Argentina we went to Chile.

We were aimed at fishing for large Chinook.

We got settled in a comfortable 5* hotel on the lake shore and went to the meat restaurant we had appreciated during our previous seasons to have a delicious meal and discuss our plans with the guides.

Chilean cuisine is a combination of the traditions of Spanish cuisine and recipes of the local Indians. You can also feel the influence of French, Italian, and German cuisine here, as well as the influence of cooking traditions of other countries, including countries of the Middle East. The dishes of Chilean cuisine are rich in fish and sea food. Chilean wine is famous all over the world and the country is one of the world largest wine producers.

The guides told us that there had been quite a little rain this season, which is the necessary condition for active striking.

There were a lot of fish in the river and we could see this during the first hours of fishing. But despite the great number of coming outs to the water surface and jumps of specimens of various sizes, it was quite hard to make them strike.

The first fish was caught two hours after the start of fishing. The fish had spent about a week in the river, judging by its brown color.

The Chinook does not become red in Chile comparing to Alaska and Kamchatka, it becomes light brown first, and then dark brown.

We caught fish of different degrees of “freshness”,

and we took only one to eat, as every day our guides cooked great barbecues or “asado” that is “fried meat” in Spanish.

The word is used to denote the whole range of methods of cooking barbecue from meat fried on coal in Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Brazil, and Uruguay.

Fishing in Chile or Argentina is out of competition for picnics arranged by our guides. Here is a small part of “tasty” photos chosen for our fishing reports.

Just imagine an excellent dinner on the river shore with a beautiful view to the mountains and volcanoes.

Olives, cheese, jamon, salad, hot sausages, delicious meat, grilled vegetables, and, of course, excellent wine… Such a dinner can outmatch the most interesting fishing.

Despite the fact that our guides were excellent cooks, Sergey was able to surpass them in cooking grilled salmon. Chinook tummy (the fish was about 12 kilos) was cooked with Herbs de Provence which Sergey had brought from Paris, rosemary and Bay leaf.

The result surpassed all our expectations and brought Sergey to an unattainable level of cooking fish.

Some moments of our fishing were quite remarkable. Sergey was taking the whole thing seriously. He chose only the most reliable fishing tackle which could have been used to fight medium jack.

However, there was a Chinook in Chile which was able to win and break a swivel, which was the weakest link in our powerful tackle system, into pieces.

Fish weighing above 30 kilos are caught every year here! After our departure, one of our guides got a trophy weighing 28 kilos in this particular place. So, I think Sergey was fighting against the fish of about that size.

Wonderful nature, the most beautiful river with clear blue water, raft fishing from convenient catamarans equipped with engines, excellent service, and outstanding trophies – these are the reasons why anglers from all over the world come to Chile every year.

You won’t catch 10-15 Chinook a day as in the places we usually fish in Alaska, but you will get absolutely new experiences and vivid emotions here.