A guide rows a drift boat while an angler casts, autumn cottonwoods on the bank

Drift Boat Fly Fishing

Cover miles of Patagonia's big rivers from the bow of a drift boat, with a professional guide on the oars.

Included on Every Package

Miles of River, One Drift at a Time

Your guide rows a traditional drift boat while you cast from the bow, covering water a wading angler could never reach in a day. It's the most efficient way to fish Patagonia's larger rivers: read the water at speed, present a fly to the next likely lie, and keep moving.

Every lodge package includes a full-day professional, multilingual, native guide, whether the day calls for floating or walking and wading. Rods and reels for both floating and sinking lines, flies, leaders and tippet, and loaner Simms/Orvis waders and boots are provided, along with a riverside lunch mid-float.

Drift boats put you on Patagonia's bigger, more continuous water, country capable of holding good numbers of rainbows, browns, brook trout, and, on a handful of waters early in the season, landlocked Atlantic salmon.

5 Lodges

Chubut Province, Argentina

2 Anglers

Per Boat, Shared Guide

Full Day

Riverside Lunch Included

Nov – Apr

Southern Hemisphere Season

Techniques from the Boat

Dry Fly, Nymph, & Streamer

Dry Fly Fishing

Your guide positions the boat upstream of a rising fish and gives you the angle for a drag-free drift. On a good hatch day, dry fly fishing from the bow is as good as Patagonia fly fishing gets.

Nymphing

Working a nymph rig through deep runs and seams while the guide slows the boat is one of the most consistent techniques on our rivers, productive across the season.

Streamer Fishing

Stripping streamers tight to undercut banks from a moving boat is how you target the biggest trout in the river, an efficient way to cover structure other approaches can only fish a piece at a time.

Where We Float

Big Water, Big Country

No single lodge holds exclusive access to a river. Several of the region's best floating waters are shared across the portfolio.

El Rivadavia

Five miles of crystal-clear current from Lago Rivadavia to Lago Verde, lined with beech trees and deadfall. Trout average over 18 inches: rainbows, browns, brook trout, and landlocked salmon in the mix, fished by Trevelin Lodge among others. Not to be confused with Rivadavia Lodge itself, on a different body of water entirely.

Los Alerces Waters

Rio Grande, Corintos, and Arrayanes flow through Parque Nacional Los Alerces on their way from Lago Futalaufquen: continuous, floatable water fished by both Futaleufu and Trevelin.

Rio Carrileufu

Flowing out of Lago Cholila toward Lago Rivadavia, this is some of the clearest floating water on the whole system, best fished by boat November through January. Early-season landlocked Atlantic salmon, plus hard-fighting browns and rainbows.

Begin Your Patagonia Story

Five partner lodges, one trip of a lifetime. Tell us your dates and we'll help you find the right water.

See Our Lodges Get a Custom Quote

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