March 2006
The Angling Report DATELINE: ARGENTINATrip-Planning File – Fishing La Zona: An On-Site Report
(Editor Note: Angling Report President/Publisher Don Causey was in Argentina last month, where he had the opportunity to fish La Zona, the renowned golden dorado area on the Uruguay River. Here are his impressions of that famous fishery.)I am sitting in a restaurant in Buenos Aires across from Marcelo Perez. He is explaining to me how a now-famous tailwater fishery on the Uruguay River came to be known as La Zona. Seems he had been pestering the government for months to test-fish the area below a major hydroelectric dam called El Salto Grande. Finally, they allowed him to fish the area for a grand total of 45 minutes.
“It was raining that day, and there was a lot of mist,” Perez explains. “You could just barely make out the shape of the dam in the distance. It was almost spooky.”
Perez went on to explain that at that point he was a very experienced golden dorado fisherman. “I had caught fish of good size – you know, 10 pounds, even 15 pounds. But that day, with the rain coming down, the water swirling and all, I immediately caught a fish of 18 pounds, then over 20 pounds, then over 35 pounds!
“As a kid, I was a great fan of
The Twilight Zone – that television series about people who find themselves suddenly in an unfamiliar world where the normal rules don’t apply. The music is creepy and strange. And that is where I felt I was: in La Zona, which is the Spanish expression we use for Twilight Zone.”
Indeed, that is what La Zona is like. It is a fishing place where the normal rules don’t apply. The principal fish there – the dorado, or golden dorado – are so huge and numerous it is like something out of prehistory. My own nickname for it, after spending four days there last month is, “Fishing’s Jurassic Park.”
A duffer of a fisherman, I personally bested the heaviest fly-caught fish currently on record with the International Game Fish Association. The reigning fly-caught fish at IGFA is a 17-pound, three-ounce dorado taken on 16-pound tippet. My top fish weighed over 30 pounds. My fishing companion for the week, Richard Falkenrath of Washington, DC, caught one considerably bigger than that. Not, not one, but several bigger than that.
Since La Zona opened last April/May, Literally scores of fish exceeding the largest fly-caught IGFA record have been caught, including one that weighed more than 50 pounds. That is nearly triple the current record! On top of that, at least one fish has been caught on baitcasting tackle that exceeds the current all-tackle record by nearly 10 pounds. The current all-tackle IGFA record is 51 pounds five ounces. A La Zona fish caught recently by Angling Report subscriber Darden Daniel weighed a mind-boggling 61.67 pounds.
I should note here that none of the above-mentioned fish have been entered in IGFA and none will because of the IGFA requirement that all record fish must be weighed on land. That is not possible at La Zona because the fishing there is all catch-and-release and government regulations make it illegal to go ashore anywhere within the security zone below the dam.
But enough already about big fish…. The important thing at hand is describing the experience of La Zona. Is it an enjoyable experience? Should you go there?
The answer will depend on your own angling predisposition. Obviously, if you like to catch big fish, this is your place. It’s also dead right for you if you like pushing the envelope on fly tackle, seeing just what you can do with it. The tackle required here runs toward 10 weights. For the big fish, you need 200- to 300-grain sink-tip lines. The most effective flies are giant streamers with muddler-type heads.
A joke that made the rounds during my trip centered on a back injury I experienced last May while on a hunting trip in West Africa. Readers of this publication know a tree blind collapsed under me, sending me hurtling to the ground, where I broke four vertebrae. I had to be evacuated back to the US at a staggering cost of $124,000 because I did not have evacuation insurance.
Since then, my activities have been severely limited by my neurosurgeon, who only recently said it was ok to go fishing. The joke came up as I struggled to hold a thrashing, 30-plus-pound golden dorado up for the camera. “This is probably not what my neurosurgeon had in mind when he said it was ok to go fishing,” I groaned.
Indeed, fishing La Zona is not what a lot of people have in mind when they decide to go fishing. It is outside the normal bounds. The fishing is done by casting from a roomy, center-console boat as it floats with the swift current from the base of the dam to a point about a mile below the dam. A fishing session – and there are two of them per day, from roughly 9 am to noon, and from about 4 pm to 8 pm – consists of repeated runs up to the dam and floats back downstream.
Unless you want to catch smaller fish on top of the water, you cast heavy lines as far as you can and let your fly sink before beginning your retrieve. Occasionally, large fish do take the fly on the surface with spectacular splashes, but most takes are sub-surface. Setting the hook requires energetic tugs on the line. Landing a fish can take as long as 10 to 15 minutes, sometimes longer.
The scenery at the base of the dam is reminiscent of Stalinist Russia, with huge wires overhead, giant levers and pulleys, huge concrete pillars. There is a constant hum of machinery. The water itself is turbid and roily, the degree of which changes with the amount of electricity being generated. What keeps things exciting is the surface behavior of the dorado. There is almost always something happening on the surface, if not on the part of large fish, then on the part of school after school of small fish that slam the surface near the dam. The feeding frenzy is reminiscent of that displayed by bluefish in the open Atlantic.
None of the above description should be taken as critical of the La Zona experience. I would not take anything for the experience of having fished this area. Where else in the world can you catch fish this large on fly tackle? And, indeed, where else can you casually best the current fly-caught record for a species? I can say without caveat that I enjoyed La Zona immensely, and I heartily commend it to anyone who accepts the basic premise of the fishery – namely, that it occurs at the base of a dam and involves repetitive blind casting to mostly sub-surface fish.
At La Zona, lodging was in an elegantly converted polo barn. The food there was off the scale – reason enough to spend a week. The bed and breakfast-type place was only 10 minutes from the river. The whole experience was pleasant and relaxing.
So, what is the bottom line on this trip? Yes, one can quibble about aspects of it. For sure, it is not right for everyone, especially the light-line, dry-fly crowd. But for the big-fish-seeking, die-hard traveling angler this is a dream of a trip. It’s wonderfully well organized. It’s fun and varied. The lodging and food and the people associated with it are interesting and competent.
Overall, I measure a trip by that feeling you get afterward, when the intense memory of individual moments gives way to a broader recollection of the entire experience. When that broader recollection causes a smile to come to your face, you know you had a life-enriching experience. Big fish. Good food. Exposure to nice people. What more can you ask for? This trip was a keeper. –
Don Causey.
For more details, contact The Angling Report (305) 670-1918 or mail@anglingreportl.com.
