After hunting in cba for four days, David and a group of eight people split and a part of the group went back to the US, while David and his son Blake came with me and Juan to Slata province to try some of the best Dorado fly fishing. 

For this trip we had decided to go to two different rivers, offering two completely different ways of fly fishing. One was the Juramento River and the other one the Dorado River. Both rivers are probably 2 hours drive away, probably 1.30 hs if we go in a straight line. It might be about 80 km. One river we will fly fish in, the Juramento, is in a flat  area, surrounded by dry forest, very similar to the surroundings that we can see in the northern part of the province of Cordoba when you come bird hunting. The river goes just like a snake making turns all over. Its a river with a great volume of water. It has got the size of maybe, 2 road together and the only way to have good fishing is to float it in a boat with a guide controlling the boat so that it doesnt go with the current, and then fly casting to the banks.

For flyshing the Juramento river we wuold be staying at a lodge that is an Estancia, called Buenaventura. Alejandro is the main guide and the person organising this fly fishing trip and for this time of the year we decided not to go to this estancia because they are remodelling it. So we stayed in a very modest house in El Tunal town. From there, we went fishing one day to Juramento River, Salta. 

We spent the night there and the following morning we were all excited. The weather was good. It was sunny. The temperture was fine for May, a time which is supposed to be very good for fishing in Salta, where the rainy season is supposed to be over. In this case the weather had changed during the day and it became cloudy and windy, which does not help much for the fishing, especially for the fly casting. But lets go back to the main story. We all got up and had our eggs and hot coffee and finally we met our guides, Agustin and Siru, and they briefed us about what to expect on the river, what flies to use. They told us they would be tying the flyes for us and making all the knots for us on the leaders. They checked our rods, and then they said, get ready, it is time to get going. So we packed all our staff in special backpacks that would keep the stuff dry just in case we had to get into the water and by 8.30 we were good to go.

And after a short trip of about 20 minutes the guides were dropping the boat into the river. The water is kind of clear but has a lot of sediment so you dont see much, you do not see the bottom. It is like the color of tea. It is a very nice river because of the scenery, the kind of dry forest I was talking about before.

You feel the wilderness when you are there. For the fishing we had 8 rods, some Sages and Colt rods. We got all floating lines. I were trying the Rio Dorado lines, specifically designed for this kind of fishing, which helps a lot with the fly cast.

We were using leaders for 20 pounders and some iron around 30 pound for the Dorado.

The best flies for this river are some long multicolor flies. We used the combination black red, balck yellow, black orange a lot, black violet with shimmering stripes. Some of the gudies also suggested using some white flies that could work very well for this part of the river. We tried them and they worked very well. One of the issues in Salta is the mosquitos around. So it is always recommended to bring sunblock and insect repelent. There are small bugs that do not bite you, you do not feel the bite but then you will have the bumps from the mosquito bites.

The fishing was hard at the beginning. We spent a lot of time casting on the different river structures, towards the banks where there were fallen trees, roots, logs. It was hard given the strenght of the current.

To be continued... Stay tuned for part II of this report and get to know the beautiful fish we caught.

Pablo Aguilo

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