I would love to have returned from Argentina with tales (and pictures) of monster dorado and broken rods, however the reality was that I have never travelled so far for so few fish! Three days on the Rio Juramento and one day on the Rio Dorado gave up only one fish from six strikes. The guides, however, were almost as wound up as me however and explained several times that this was very, very unusual. Guys coming over to fish with them normally get 10-20 strikes a day from which they typically land 2-3 dorado.
They weren't sure exactly what had caused the fishing to be quite so bad. Although the weather was quite cold, it hadn't got cold enough to change the water temperature enough (I don't think) to cause the fish to stop feeding. Sometimes trips just don't all go according to plan I guess!
On the plus side, the set-up down there is great. The guides have the fishing down to a tee. Fishing the Juramento from drift boats is similar to casting big streamers for trout on some of the western rivers of the US and Canada, just harder work! The flies they use are big and casting them all day on an 8 wt gets pretty tiring. Plus you lose a LOT of flies to the trees, branches and other structure that you are casting at. I would love to catch this river on a good day though, when 20 strikes from dorado in a day is more than possible. My guides best trip with clients was with a father and son team, who had 96 strikes in two days!
By the way, I say 'strikes' as actually hooking a dorado is somewhat tricky. That first hit is so fast and their mouths so hard that often the hook doesn't take hold. Combine that with the almost inevitable jumps that follow as soon as you try to set the hook and you quickly see why about 1 dorado is landed for every 5-6 strikes.
For those that like their small stream fishing, the Rio Dorado is an absolute gem. A crystal-clear mountain stream about 60-100 ft wide, running through tropical rainforest, it offers something completely different to the Juramento. I think this is where Todd Meon and Brian O'Keefe filmed the short movie in the current edition of Catch Magazine.
I'd definitely recommend the place for someone keen on getting into dorado, just make sure you take a lot of big flies and make sure you're happy casting them without a lot of effort as you'll be doing it all day! I think timing is critical as well. The guides were emphatic that October to mid-November is the time to be there as the dorado are feeding hard prior to the spawning period.
Image 01: That's a lot of baitfish! Keep in mind that this photo was taking from about 200 ft up, on the top of the dam and the fish in the picture are all around a couple of feet long.
Image 02: A typical fly for the Juramento
Image 03: Guide Marcello fishing a typical pool on the Rio Dorado
Image 04: Finally! Marcello and I were somewhat exultant when we finally landed this fish.
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