Striking Gold in South America: Fishing for Golden Dorado on the Uruguay River
Wild Fish Wild Places 05.29.12
Whenever you hear the name “dorado,” most immediately think of the greenish-blue, saltwater fish synonymous with big game fishing. Not so in South America!
When the Wild Fish Wild Places team arrived in Salto, Uruguay last October, we had already heard stories and seen knee-trembling, images-of-leviathan Golden Dorado river fish exceeding 50 pounds in mass, accompanied by their reputation for sheer brute strength and fighting ability like no other freshwater fish we had ever encountered. These tales of the legendary Golden Dorado played through our conversations for months before finally laying our eyes on the muddy banks of the Uruguay River. The impressive Uruguay River forms part of the international boundary between Argentina and Uruguay and our hosts River Plate Outfitters have secured the exclusive rights from the Uruguayan side of this boundary water to fish the one mile section of river just below the internationally shared, large hydroelectric dam.
While our 20ft shallow draft skiff made its way toward the dam, punching through the hair-raising, upwelling, and turbulent water, Alan and I smiled and laughed like little kids as the anticipation built.
Just as I took the front casting deck position, our guide Julio pointed to the large chartreuse and silver minnow-bait and directed me to cast toward the boiling, muddy water. Those same fish stories and pictures ran through my head making the excitement almost too much to handle.
I started casting toward the violent, swirling pools of muddy water. I was forced to take up a much wider stance than normal as the boat was catching the edges of these eddies and whirlpools, violently spinning like a plastic bottle in a vortex, making it difficult to just stay in the boat. This is the only time I have ever felt happy to have a life jacket on!
It didn’t take long for the first giant Dorado to crush my lure with the most unbelievable power I have ever felt exerted by a freshwater fish. As the beast peeled out yards of line and leaped in the air numerous times like a glinting, golden missile, it was all I could do to keep my balance and land this fish. As the first Golden Dorado of the trip started to reveal itself to the cameras, we could scarcely believe the size and beauty of this magnificent fish. When Julio leaned over the side of the boat and tailed the big Golden Dorado, he started giggling and I just knew it was a good fish! The sure-footed and deft-handling Julio lifted the golden leviathan into the boat so I could remove the hook, but when I started on the lure with the pliers I immediately realized what makes these unique fish so hard to land. Their mouths comprise jaws of solid bone with teeth that wouldn’t look out of place on a chainsaw. The big Dorado started to chomp down on my lure and pliers while I attempted to remove the hooks. What an angry fish!
Julio then handed me the fish and a Boga for a proper weighing – 28 pounds! Not bad for the first fish of the trip. Alan was up next and landed a handful of nice Golden Dorado before leaving the water around 11:00AM. Due to the nature of this fishery you are only able to fish from 7AM to 11AM and 3PM to sundown as the locals are determined to ensure this unique water remains a world class, sustainable fishery. We hooked, played, lost and landed countless big fish over the next couple of days, with true trophies of 26lb, 32lb, 34lb and a fabulous arm-wrenching 39 pounder, the best of the trip. We could scarcely believe then and even now at this distant remove, find that we all are constantly “pinching ourselves” at just what a mind-blowing experience the tail-water fishery on the Uruguay River actually is. It is simply awesome!
Drawing toward the end of a morning fishing session, Alan made one of the worst and dangerous mistakes of any filming trip we have been on to date…
Check out the Uruguay episode on Sportsman Channel this week during Strike & Set Saturday at 10:30 EST.
FISH AND FISHING. TWO WORDS HAVING A MYRIAD OF MEANINGS TO A MYRIAD OF PEOPLES. TO FISH FOR FOOD, FOR LIFE, FOR SURVIVAL; OR TO FISH FOR FUN, FOR SPORT, FOR MONEY.
When, almost 5,000 years ago in China, man first attached a hook and line to a bamboo rod to catch carp a little further from the river’s edge, little did he know that this creation would evolve into an industry which at the early part of this, the twenty-first century, is worth over $108 billion annually to the US economy in terms of sport fishing alone!
The variety of fish species is infinite. From cold water inhabitants such as members of the Salmonidae family, to warm water, tropical dwellers like the Cichlids. From the gigantic Tarpon of the Florida Keys to the gentler Arctic Charr spectacularly attired in their vivid courtship colors in the frigid rivers and streams of the arctic tundra. Take the celebrated Coelacanth, over three hundred million years old and still found today in the warm seas of the Indian Ocean around Madagascar, or the seemingly ubiquitous Golden Orfe, or the goldfish, which completes endless circuits in so many glass bowls in family homes in every corner of the world.
In this series, we will seek out great predatory fish. Fish that are much revered, fish that strike terror at the very mention of their name and fish that are the staple diet of many peoples subsisting along the shorelines and riverbanks of the great waters we will visit during our odyssey. Positioned at the very top of the food chain, these apex predators reign supreme in their own domain, be it mighty river, great lake or ocean.
Our quest will take us across cultures and continents to exotic locations of immense beauty and wealth as well as lands poleaxed by poverty. We will explore not just these wild and wonderful places, but the significance of our target species to the different groupings of peoples in terms of social, economic and cultural values.
Our travels in search of extraordinary predators will take us from the cold, unforgiving waters of the West of Ireland to the steaming jungle swamps of India. From the frozen, pristine wilderness of the Canadian subarctic to the sun-baked backwaters of Northern Australia. This will be a series of contrasts and comparisons where we will meet people who live to fish and people who fish to live.
