Golden Dorado Fly Fishing: Preparing for Argentina

February 26th I will be departing to Argentina to chase golden dorado, pacu, and whatever else we might be lucky enough to run into. This trip will be a “review trip” with one of our customers and will be hosted at Jetu’u and Itati lodges run by Set Fly Fishing, one of our destination travel partners. Although I’m incredibly excited for this trip and being able to target a completely new species, I’ve been running into difficulties figuring out what gear I should bring, hence this blog.

I’ve worked in the industry for a few years now and have set up hundreds of customers for international trips. I have also been on several international trips and have set myself up for success, as well. Therefore, I feel more than confident setting up anglers for a destination trip, regardless of the location or target species. However, this is a trip that I have zero background knowledge of.

I’ve helped customers on Bolivian golden dorado missions, but these environments are completely different. Golden dorado in Bolivia do inhabit large rivers, but your time fishing for them is spent in smaller tributaries where migrations of dorado and baitfish occupy the gin-clear water, allowing for incredible sight fishing with lightly weighted, natural colored streamers. This is about the exact opposite of the Argentinian experience. So, I’ve had to completely flip my thought process around and start fresh.

Before I dive into my thought process of selecting gear, I’d like to talk briefly about the fishing opportunities that will be presented during my trip. Set Fly Fishing offers a combination trip between two of their three golden dorado lodges, each offering a completely unique experience. As mentioned before, we will be fishing Jetu’u and Itati lodges. Jetu’u offers the opportunity to catch a lot of fish, primarily small and medium sized fish. This fishing is done on the middle Parana River in wide open water with mostly streamers, as well as a marsh environment that is great for topwater flies (mice, poppers, etc.). Itati is the trophy hunting lodge; this lodge is located on the upper Parana River and has world-class sized golden dorado, some up to 40+lbs! This fishing is almost all subsurface (other than pacu and pira pita fishing) and includes banging the banks, hunting rock and wood structures, as well as sight fishing opportunities on sand flats.

As you can see, the environments we’ll be fishing will present quite the conundrum for my gear selection. With that being said, the gear list provided by the lodge is…well you can see for yourself in the photo below. I understand that the lodge can provide all the necessary gear and prefers to keep gear and fly recommendations on the hush due to the potential of competing lodges replicating their unique success on the Parana River. That said, a gear dork like me wants to use their own gear and be completely prepared even if (this would never happen) you didn’t have a guide for the week. 

The guys at SET are willing to publicly talk about flies, to a degree, so I feel fully prepared bringing the selection I have. I’ve prepared my box with a number of sizes and fly weights for different scenarios. I’ve prepared my box with different offerings from EP, Fulling Mill, MFC, and Umpqua with both full synthetic and natural flies alike. Golden dorado have razor sharp teeth and will do a number on flies, so I’m bringing the works!

We saw the rods that were recommended to us: 7 and 8wt rods. Although these should be accurate, the list doesn’t show everything. After talking with one of their guides at the Denver Fly Fishing Show, Tete recommended that I bring a 7, 8, and 9wt rod and have a few different lines. Additionally, I’ve spoken with a few people who have done this trip and they highly recommended bringing a 10wt if you were lucky enough to hook one of the rare 40lbers that call the Parana home. With this information now at my disposal, I plan on bringing a 7wt, two 8wts, two 9wts, and a 10wt to cover my bases. If my rod carrier allows me to, I will also be packing a 6wt to have a little more sport fighting the smaller dorado in the middle river/marsh at Jetu’u.

Floating lines, intermediate tips, and sinking tips are required for a trip like this. A floating line is great for pacu, topwater flies, and skinny water scenarios where getting deep isn’t necessary. Intermediate tips are great for hunting around submerged structure or areas that require just a bit more sink. These were simple and easy to select, and with Tete’s help, I was able to acquire one of their sneaky line choices that I won’t mention for their discretion. 

Sink tips are where things get a little tricky. This can mean a lot of things, whether it be a 10ft section of S3 or 20ft of S7, or anything between. With much debate I’ve decided to bring a Rio Warmwater Predator S3 for my 8wt for fishing deeper water in the marsh and middle Parana, the same line in an intermediate tip for hunting structure on the upper river on my 9wt, the same line in a S3 on my 9wt for hunting slightly deeper water on the upper river, and a 400gr Rio Leviathan on my 10wt for deep water work. 

With this list of rods and lines, it should be enough to cover my bases. But, there’s always that one thing you might overlook, undervalue, or not think of at all. Either way, I’m feeling confident with the gear I’m bringing, but I’m an overthinker.

Gear selection is never an easy decision, regardless of the destination or species. That said, there are many places where gear choice is clear and cut, and there aren't many ways around it. Whereas you can have the complete opposite, for example: streamer fishing for trout here in Colorado is a convoluted array of gear, flies, and tactics. After putting together my gear for Argentinian golden dorado, it isn't any different than our resident streamer junkie's assortment. I’ve learned a lot already and I haven’t even gone yet. 

I’m super excited to be working with Set Fly Fishing and am thrilled to have one of my great clients’ join me on this expedition. In case you don’t remember, we had the SET crew in the shop during our Fall BBQ giving a presentation on their amazing golden dorado operation. The boys loved the shop and felt inclined to give us a golden dorado mount aptly named Dora. We just got her in the shop after the Fly Fishing Show and are blessed to have it as a part of our destination travel display in the Golden location.

Thank you all for reading along and keep an eye out in the coming weeks for a trip recap blog. See you in the shop soon!