Know Your Knots - Flyfishingtails

traffic on the water but, like any good guide, Pinti
knows of the places that others don’t. It doesn’t
take long before you are surrounded by jungle with
the ruckus of howler monkeys in the background
and find yourself drifting down a secluded channel,
casting at all sorts of structures and lies in clear
water. That must be one of the most alluring things
about this place, the visibility is really good so you
see these golden denizens come from a long way
away to get your fly.
The fish are big too, the biggest fish that Pinti has
caught on fly weighed 40lbs and a previous world
record of more than 60lbs also came from here!
The flies are big and you fish close to the surface
with floating lines, which just lends itself to the
tremendous visual aspect of fly-fishing here. At the
end of the day, your nerves are wrecked from all
the action.
We managed to get a dorado of 17bs and several
fish weighing more than 10lbs. There are other
species of fish to be caught as well, such as the
sought after Pacu, the silver dorado and two
species of pirapita. We managed to land a beautiful
golden pirapita of 10lbs on a method of Pinti’s that
we now know as ‘the music’.
At one stage the dorado had gone off the bite and
Pinti pulled out a rattling cigar box from his jacket.
In there was a colourful selection of one-inch plastic
beads with big hooks stuck through them. He held
up a purple one and said, “this fly is callcochito, it
means small coconut”. He took the rod from me,
tied the fly on and lobbed it out with a sort of
overhead cast to make perfect plopping sound on
the surface. “You hear the music?” Pinti asked as
he handed me the rod, “now, you make the music”.
It wasn’t long before Pinti pointed out a tree on the
banks that was bearing fruit of a similar colour and
size. I made a cast next to the tree and gave the
cochito some time to sink when I saw a big flash
and felt a powerful hit from the golden pirapita.
They are known for their strength and it was a
fantastic experience to catch such a specimen
using this method.
After fishing we settled down at the guest house
for the most delicious home cooked meal and
great Argentine wine – it felt like we were at home.
Pinti explained that the fishing had actually been
quite meagre compared to what they were used
to. Unexpected downpours the previous week had
pushed the water levels to a record high and most
of his ‘good’ spots were inaccessible and the
visibility wasn’t what it should have been either.
For Paul and myself it was probably the best day
of fishing that we could remember. Sure, we had
fished in some of the best and remotest spots that
the world had to offer but this was different; this
was about two fly-fishing buddies sneaking off for
a fish, experiencing the local flavours of a country
and meeting people that we now shared a deep
passion with, the dorado.
For more information on fishing for dorado in
Argentina, contact Francois Botha from The
Guide’s Company (www.theguidescompany.com)
on 082 817 0308 or francoisbotha@gmail.com