Happy New Year

Happy New Year! Some lure caught fish from 2011, enjoy...

Golden Dorado

Our good friend Steve Townson (Amazon-Angler.com) just emailed in the following report and pictures from Argentina where he's had an incredible week fishing for Golden Dorado at La Zona Lodge!

This trip must be one of the most amazing I have done in South America!

With 5 guests and myself, we arrived at the International Ezeiza airport in Argentina on November 2nd and stayed in the beautiful city of Buenas Aires. Leaving the smaller airport of Jorge Newbury the following afternoon we arrived in Concordia and after a short van ride, we got to La Zona Lodge, our home for the next 4 days and 5 nights.

Each day started with a sumptuous breakfast followed by about 4-5 hours of intense fishing and then back to the lodge for a three-course lunch! After a short siesta at about 3.00pm, our mottly crew was led back to the river for an afternoon of more lure chucking until dark. A few pre-dinner drinks were followed by another three-course dinner and splendid wines! You will NOT lose weight here!

There is nowhere on earth that anglers can catch Golden Dorado of the sizes taken here. Records are constantly broken and as the El Salto Dam stops the upriver migration of these huge fish, they gorge on the constant supply of large baitfish available. They grow to immense proportions here and often when caught they will regurgitate baitfish and even fellow Dorado to over 10lbs!

This is an area which incorporates the water below the huge El Salto Dam (built and shared between Argentina and Uruguay) running across from border to border and down river for about 1km. Anglers cast lures and jigs/flies while the boats drift down with the current to the end of what is the protected reservation known as ‘The Zone’. The boat pilots then start up the engines and run up to the dam for another drift.

Over the next 4 days of this extreme fishing, even with two novice anglers, we all hooked and landed big fish to over 30lbs! Even with replacement split rings, 4X strong and extra sharp hooks, only one Dorado is normally landed for every four hooked. They often throw the hooks when jumping so acrobatically as they have such hard, bony mouths. We still made a respectable total of over 500 fish for two boats and six anglers with 26 over 30lbs.

The fish of 30lbs and over were as follows:
5 x 30, 1 x 31, 4 x 32, 1 x 34, 1 x 35, 3 x 36, 2 x 37, 2 x 38, 1 x 40, 2 x 41, 1 x 42, 1 x 46, 1 x 47 and 1 whopping big 49.5. The last two are also both new world length records!! That's an average of just over 5 fish over 30lbs per angler!!

The best producing baits were Rapala X Raps deep-divers, Rapala CD 18s, lead-in-head Rubber Shad jig baits (these got hammered and chewed up all too quickly), 2-3oz Bucktail jigs and large 2-3oz heavy-duty Spinnerbaits. The largest of 49.5lbs was caught on a 3oz Spinnerbait.

Due to heavy rain coming down the river from Brazil, the water levels were high and the water fast and furious most days, especially when all generating turbines were let loose in both countries! On Sundays, generally neither country generate electricity so the current is usually slower and levels much lower with plenty of rocks showing. Dorados loves rocks and abound stack up around them easily picking off baitfish. Our Sunday however still produced fast water which didn’t fair well for our long-awaited topwater lure action. While some fish were caught on poppers and walk-the-dog baits, deep-divers produced the best fish.

On the morning of November 8th, we all flew back from Concordia to Buenas Aires. I had business in Brazil so carried on from there while the others all flew home the same day. Most of the guys took from the 2nd - 9th November or 8 days off in total for their trip, with 4 Brits, one Lithuanian and an American.

This is such exciting sport, the fish here are always on the hunt, the guides are the best anywhere in Argentina and the lodge and food are excellent in every way. Anyone interested in knowing more about this fantastic fishery can contact Steve viawww.amazon-angler.com

Amazon-Angler.com first report from the jungle!

Steve Townson fromAmazon-Angler.com has just returned from the Amazon where he was on a two week sortie on two very different rivers, the wide, shallow Rio Araca on the Northen side of the Negro and the smaller, deeper, more romantic Rio Caures on the Southern side. Great report and photos from Steve below - if your looking for a lure fishing holiday with a difference this winter drop him a line!

At the start of week 1 we arrived on the Araca only to find us in rising water conditions. The levels rose by over 1m during the week! High water is an Amazon angler's nightmare as it puts the fish down due to cooler water temperatures and it allows water to rise over the banks and spread into the surrounding jungle, making finding fish like looking for a needle in a haystack!

With only 750 fish caught by 8 anglers for the week, most of our group caught big fish, with 18lbs being the largest Peacock Bass and a couple of 50 and 60lb Piraiba Cats were caught in the evenings. We ran the camp down river to the Rio Negro to get away from the rising levels and downwards onto the Rio Caures.

Arriving at the mouth delta of this beautiful river at the end of the first week, we found the Caures to be a completely different story, with low conditions and fish busting on baitfish everywhere. Lots of good sized fish were caught from day 1 with the largest Peacock at 22lb and quite a few 20s and 21s also caught. Many high teeners also added to the total of over 2,000 Peacocks for 7 anglers in 6 1/2 days. A few Redtail Cats also caught with the biggest at about 65lbs only.

In total we must have travelled and fished over 800 miles of rivers. A good bunch of guys and many new friends made.

Next report will come in a few weeks from Argentina for Giant Dourado at the world-famousLa Zona Lodge, followed by a week in the Brazilian Amazon for Peacock Bass at our friendly, family-run eco-lodge.

Jersey Bass Festival 2011

We just had a great weekend fishing the Bass Festival during which my fishing buddies got stuck into me for not updating the blog regularly enough. I told them about Facebook (www.facebook.com/monstertackle ), mumbled something about having a wife and two young kids but they were having none of it! So here's a quick post to keep them off my back...

Over the years we've come to love the Jersey Bass Festival weekend, organised by Steve Mullins and the Sinkers Sea Fishing Club it is well supported by sponsors and always draws a big crowd (over 200). The format is simple start fishing at 6pm on Friday night, finish by 7pm on Sunday and you can fishing almost anywhere you like on the Island so long as you can reach it by foot.

We managed just 1 bass this year between 4 of us and it placed joint 3rd in the catch and release section - just 1 fish for 4 rods isn't very good but we had alot of fun along the way. The catch and release section was won by Dave Watson who nailed an 8lb fish on a soft plastic in fast running water in the middle of the night - well done mate! The lure section was won by Giles Allcock with a fish of 5lb 15oz 12dr he also won the visitors section so a great weekend for him. Some photos and the full results from a cracking weekend below.

Jersey Bass Festival 2011 Results

C&R 1st = Dave Watson 71 cm. 2nd = Rod Lugg 62 cm. 3rd = Tony Andrews = 58 cm. 4th = Tom Newbald 58 cm

C&R Visitor 1st = Rod Lugg 62cm. 2nd = Ivan Kerley 52 cm.

Team C&R = Paul Butel & Callum Robertson 106 cm.

Best Visitor 1st = Giles Allcock 5lb 15oz 12dr. 2nd = Colin Patch 4lb 7oz 7dr.

Best lady 1st = Nicola Ward 3lb 0oz 10dr.

Best lure 1st = Giles Allcock 5lb 15oz 121dr. 2nd = Artur Raczynski 3lb 10oz 5dr. 3rd = Muir Mathieson 3lb 5oz 2dr.
4th = Gareth McMonagle 3lb 4oz 13dr.

Open Winner 1st = Blair Jones 9lb 5oz 10dr. 2nd = Gabriel Caldeira 8lb 9oz 10dr. 3rd = Jamie Bryant 6lb 15oz 12dr. W Dunne 4th = 6lb 13oz 7dr.

Team = Dave Ryan & Blair Jones 15lb 7oz 13oz.

The Early Bird Catches The Bass!

I'd hoped to get out on the boat this morning to fish the incoming tide but the weather was against me. Plan B was a quick shore mission and home for some bacon and eggs! My shore mark produced the goods with one nice Bass around 4lb on a Sammy and a decent Wrasse. The Wrasse completely nailed a 4" Swin Senko right under my feet, such fun on light gear.