Golden Dorado of "La Zona", Rio Uruguay, Argentina

In May 2011, I fished "La Zona", a one half mile section of the Uruguay River below the Salto Grande Dam.  Fishing companions included Steve Townson, Wilson Cox and Gene Scott, Larry and George from Beverly Hills, CA.

The weather was cool and partly cloudy with light wind.  The water was fairly high and an off-colored orange/brown from substantial rains upstream in southern Brazil.  According to Enzo, the fishing had slowed, but some large fish had still been caught recently. The water quality made me nervous, but I was anxious to see what this place was all about.

In terms of fishing, La Zona is exceptional!  Even though our group had "slow" fishing by La Zona standards, we still managed to put up respectable numbers each day.  My boat had Steve Townson, Gene Scott and our awesome guide, Elvis.  We fished together all four days and had a blast, with much joking and overall good chemistry betweeen us.  Gene started the trophy quest, by landing a healthy 42 lber below the dam on a Rapala X-Rap Mag 20!  Steve and I were envious, made worse by the loads of fish busting the surface below the dam all around us!  I can't remember if Gene caught the fish on day 1 or 2, but he was the first of our group to break the 40 pound mark.  On day 3, I lost a 50lb plus fish in the exposed rocks during a low water discharge period.  I was casting a 6 1/2" orange Sebile Stick Shad near the rocks and the large fish was hooked, jumped out of the water and headed upstream, only to break my line off in the rocks!  Steve Townson landed a nice 40lber on a lighter weight spinning outfit in the shallow rocks near the far downstream edge of La Zona.  He fought the fish beautifully, his angling skills evident in how he played the fish.  Finally during the morning session of day 4, I landed a nice 42 pounder on a Rapala Shad Rap in the shallow rocks, not far from where Steve had caught his.  The largest fish of the trip was caught in rather dramatic fashion, since our boat was making the last run below the dam before heading back to the lodge on our last day.  It was about 5:45 pm and the sun was setting as we cast our plugs into the current immediately below the dam, letting the current carry the lures downstream before we began our retrieve.  Steve hooked up with a nice fish moments before I hooked a 48 pound monster on my Rapala CD 18 in yellow/gold.  I fought the fish roughly 15 minutes as our boat drifted downstream, this fish wouldn't stop!  It was the best fight I've ever experienced from a freshwater fish, I loved every minute of it.  When the fish was landed, only one tine of each treble hook was embedded in the fishes' cheek!  If it wasn't an Owner hook, I probably wouldn't have landed that fish.  More on the awesome lodge and staff of La Zona later.....  

K-Lures Dorado Lures

Daly Diver (top), Jawbreaker, Grandslam.



K-Lures Chico Rippers, jacunda (left) and butterfly patterns

 Kermett Adams owns K-Lures, he makes a variety of hardbaits suitable for predatory gamefish such as largemouth bass, peacock bass, stripers, golden dorado, pike and musky. His beautifully painted lures have enticing actions with extra-strong hardware suitable for these strong, aggressive fish.

Golden Dorado Lures-La Zona

The Golden Dorado is a large, powerful predatory gamefish that lives in several river systems in South America. These countries include southern Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Paraguay and Bolivia. One segment of the Uruguay River immediately beneath the Salto Grande Dam is known for it's giant dorado, a regulated fishery 1/4 mile long nicknamed "La Zona". Here are some typical lures.

Rapala CD 18 Magnum (top), Yozuri Hydro Magnum (bottom)

SOB  Spinnerbait, 2 oz.  "Dorado Special"

Hot lips 2 oz bucktail jigs, left with 5" Zoom cherry trailer

Gary Laden's 47# dorado, November 2010

Assorted Lures for Golden Dorado

Shimano Spinning Reels

I've used Shimano spinning reels since the early 1980's, I highly recommend them. Here are the Stradic 3000 and 4000 models, great for fresh or saltwater. I use the 3000 for smallmouth bass, walleye and peacock bass and 4000 for Stripers, Pike, Musky and saltwater in-shore

, like snook or redfish. They are "corrosion resistant", but you always should wash them off with freshwater after saltwater use.

Equipment

I have purchased equipment that allows me to fish for many species without much redundency. For freshwater, I like Abu Garcia and Shimano reels and I use many different rods from G. Loomis, St. Croix, Shimano, Bass Pro Shops and Goldrush Custom Rods. I also have a few tools, like a Jinkai crimper, wire cutters, split ring pliers, needle nose pliers and heavy duty pliers. This is my core freshwater equipment, not including

fly fishing gear.

Rainy Lake, Ontario, CA

In 2008, Jack and I fished Rainy Lake in Ontario, Canada over the July 4th holiday weekend (U.S. Independence Day) for smallmouth bass and northern pike. This was Jack's first "big" fishing trip, although I had been to "Rainy" several times. We flew to Minneapolis and connected up to International Falls, MN via Northwest Airlines. Our Ontario home was Campfire Island Lodge, campfireisland.com, our favorite northwoods lodge nestled on 11 acre Campfire Island. The island is very easy to get to, a short boat ride on the lake from "The Sorting Gap" in Fort Frances, Ontario. This is an intimate lodge for the serious fisherman with enforced catch and release fishing. Dean Howard, from Kenora, Ontario, is the owner/operator of the camp and his love for the outdoors and fishing is evident in all he does at Campfire Island. The cabins are remodeled and comfortable, with hot water, showers and air-conditioning. The meals are tasty and the staff is extremely friendly and helpful. The dining cabin has a screened in porch with a fridge full of cold Molson beer! This is the heart of the Campfire Island, and many pleasant conversations, musings and fishing tales are told here after a long day's fishing.

We had warm, sunny weather and the fishing was superb! The smallies were in a typical post-spawn pattern in shallow water. This fishery is 250,000 acres of Canadian Shield Lake with numerous rocky islands, humps and boulder strewn shoreline! Jack caught many nice smallies and even more pike on his spinning reel. He did well trailing ZOOM Fat Albert cotton candy color grubs on a 1/8" jig head. We also used ZOOM Flukes, Rapala X-Raps and Mepps Aglia #4 spinners. The largest bass was 19", a nice fish, but I hooked a larger one that "got off". In short, I cast a Rapala jerkbait towards a big submerged boulder and we saw a large, broad bodied smallmouth slam the lure and run to my right, parallel to the shoreline. I didn't "set the hook" after he took the lure, my fault.

Paul, our guide, is a retired Ontario provence forester and he was especially patient and helpful with Jack. I can't thank him enough for making this trip with Jack so easy! Other trip highlights were Jack's 33" pike, bald eagles and the beautiful weather and scenery. This is a special place for us and one of the best smallmouth bass fisheries in North America. The bass have great habitat and an abundant food supply in the rainbow smelt they gorge on. I hope all you smallie fisherman get to fish "Rainy" someday, you'll dream about return trips!

Crooked Creek, AR

Jack and I floated Crooked Creek in north-central Arkansas on Saturday, June 19, 2010, a designated Arkansas "Blue Ribbon Smallmouth Bass" stream. We had a blast on this beautiful gem, catching about 30 smallmouth bass with a redhorse sucker and a few other species thrown in! We floated the 10.5 mile section from Snow Access to Kelly's Slab, an excellent section for fishing and floating. The scenery is great, a mixture of wooded hills, bluffs and bottom land farms. The water is clear, mostly class I-II with enough rapids to keep things interesting. Jack caught the largest smallie, estimated at 17", using a pumpkin colored Gary Yamamoto Fat Craw on a 1/8 ounce jig head.

I definately have a serious fisherman in the making, and he's competative! It took us 10 hours to float the 10.5 miles with a little swimming and shore fishing along the way. I even used my "survival kit" to start a fire on the river bank and we cooked hotdogs for lunch. Most of our fish were caught while I was paddling and steering the canoe, so I was unable to fish most of the good fish holding spots, such as boulders, downed trees and eddies. Many bass hold in the rapids and we caught several as we cast behind the canoe into the completed rapid run. Jack did well learning the nuances of his Shimano Symetre 3000 spinning reel and became fairly proficient at casting the soft plastic baits. We plan to return to Crooked Creek in the fall for more smallie action, but we'll float a shorter section of river so we can concentrate on fishing instead of paddeling! We saw many large carp in the river that got Jack's blood boiling for a return trip with carp bait!

On the way back to Kansas City, we made the obligatory stop at the original Bass Pro Shops in Springfield, MO to pay homage to Johnny Morris and purchase a few needed catfish and carp baits. They had a cool albino alligator and some huge alligator gar in two aquariums!