Tecka Lodge is located in the beautiful Chubut region of Patagonia, Argentina. Traveling from the US you will be transferring airports in Buenos Aires from the international airport to the domestic airport. Then you will be flying into Esquel, which is an airport about an hour and a half from the estancia.
Tecka sits 50 miles south of the city of Esquel, it’s a vast working sheep ranch that encompasses 435,000 acres of beautiful Patagonian wilderness. Driving into the estancia for the first time the property is endless in all directions. Gauchos roam the countryside, Guanarcos graze along the side of the road, and the flamingos are awaiting you behind the lodge.
Pedro greets me at the entrance of the lodge, and soon after I meet his parents, quickly realizing this is a family-run operation.
My room overlooks one of the wildest backdrops I have ever seen. It looks like a painting, but no, it’s real.
Dinner is incredible, featuring a steak cooked over an open fire pit covered in a salt wrap to keep in its moisture.
The next morning I meet up with Martin, he’s the head guide at Tecka, with over 20 years of guiding experience in this area, he is a wealth of knowledge. Martin’s game plan is to try and show me as much of Tecka’s diverse fishery in the short three days I have.
What makes Tecka lodge unique is the private water. Over 96 miles of private water to be exact. This means the guests at Tecka are the only ones who have access.
We spend our first day on the Corcovado River, a gin-clear freestone river that’s home to a healthy population of brown trout and rainbow trout.
It’s January, which means fish are looking up, and we mainly focus on fishing dry flies. We spend the morning sight fishing to some nice 12 – 18 inch rainbows, and connect with a few before lunch!
On day two Martin decided to show me some of the lakes on the property. This is another reason Tecka Lodge is unique in my opinion, the lake systems on the property. The first lake we went to was small and shallow.
The lake is full of weeds and the trout make channels through the weeds to feed on big hoppers that land on the surface. We are aiming for dark “holes†in between the weeds to try and target feeding trout. After about an hour into the day, we connect with our first fish.
A stunning 22-inch brown trout absolutely destroyed a surface mouse fly. Now we’re talking!
The evenings consist of great food, company, and wine. We share photos from the day and talk about life.
Today we explore some of Tecka’s spring creeks. The lodge is named after the famous Tecka river. Tecka is a small meandering spring creek that is known to hold some seriously big fish. You are throwing big dries into water that’s a few feet wide.
We sneak our way through the tall grass on the bank to send casts up into the deep pools. We connect with a few fish on dries and then decide to throw on a streamer. It’s on!
On our last day at Tecka, we fish Monster Lake. It’s a windy day so our fishing is limited. But when the wind dies down the dry fly fishing is on. We throw on a small mayfly to trick some of the pickier fish into rising.
Lunch is Asado. We head to the second lodge to enjoy a big meal of meat, vegetables, and wine of course. Meat Sweats Commence!
We tour the Ram quarters after lunch.
The last afternoon on Tecka is fishing another small spring creek. Technical fishing, with bow and arrow, casts being utilized to get into some tight quarters.
The few days at Tecka fly by extremely fast, and the journey is now a memory imprinted on my imagination as I fly back to Buenos Aires. For trout lovers, this trip is a must.
The diversity of fisheries and the quality of trout in each of the fisheries was incredible. The family, guides, and hosts were all top class, and so were the accommodations and food.