Golden Giants

A turbulent stretch of river in Uruguay is home to large, fierce-looking golden dorado.

By Pat Ford

August 5, 2024

The first time I saw a photo of a golden dorado was in a fly shop in Miami more than 20 years ago. A guy from Argentina showed me a collection of images of giant, lit-up and gnarl-toothed fish allegedly caught on flies in what looked like a clear trout stream.

The salmon-shaped, brilliant-yellow species inhabits South America’s rivers and are known for their huge head with a jaw full of teeth that can easily sever a finger. They savagely strike lures and flies, making them a perfect target for anglers. I was intrigued.

The Argentinian and I got to talking, and he told me that these rivers were rarely fished and that the dorado were all world-record size. It didn’t take much more to convince me to put together a group of fly anglers to embark on an expedition where few Americans have ventured. Turns out the stranger in the fly shop had overstated his expertise. Six world-class fly anglers made the long trip to Argentina with me, and our group caught a grand total of three small goldens. The trip was a disaster.

Two decades later, the golden dorado reappeared on my radar, but this time I linked up with a reputable outfit, Untamed Angling, to fish out of the Tsimane Lodge in Bolivia. The remote operation offers river fishing, but it’s definitely not easy. Anglers must cast 8-inch flies 60 feet or more into brush-covered shoreline for hours. You can lock into a trophy-class, 20-pound golden, but you better be ready to work for it. However, when you hit the river in ideal conditions, the fishing is nothing short of spectacular. Fishing for golden dorado in a secluded setting replete with wildlife and indigenous boats made this a memorable adventure, but I was hoping for larger fish.

The Giant Zone

For truly giant golden dorado, nothing compares to Uruguay, specifically an area known as the “Zone” below the Salto Grande Dam on the Uruguay River on the border with Argentina. Multiple world-record dorado have been landed in these tailwaters. The abundance of food that’s flushed through the dam’s turbines, combined with the highly oxygenated water, creates a uniquely rich environment presided over by outsized apex predators that seem to grow larger and more plentiful every year.

I’d heard about this fishery but never had the opportunity to go there until my friend Alan Zaremba, who runs trips to exotic South American fisheries, teamed up with River Plate Outfitters to bring groups to Salto. Zaremba had an open spot on a trip last January. Marty Arostegui and his wife, Roberta (both of whom are in the IGFA Hall of Fame), were booked on the trip, so I jumped at the chance to join them. We flew to Buenos Aires, then drove six hours into Uruguay to the town of Salto. We stayed in a comfortable hotel on the Uruguay side of the river about 10 minutes from the launch site.

Fishing below the dam is strictly regulated. Only four boats are allowed to fish four days per week, two boats departing from Argentina and two from Uruguay. Our group consisted of six anglers and me. We fished in three-hour shifts, with each of us logging six hours on the water each day. Since I was the odd man out, Patrick Brown, the owner of River Plate Outfitters, joined me most days. In 2013, the outfit acquired the exclusive rights to operate the boats fishing the Salto Dam tailwaters from Uruguay.

The technique is simple: keep casting into the tailwaters. Depending on rainfall and dam flow, the water depth can vary as much as a dozen feet day to day. The coffee-colored water was alive with a crazy mix of currents and whirlpools created by open turbines that made fly-fishing difficult but not impossible. Brown landed a beautiful 38-pound dorado on the fly.

The most effective method to land monster fish was using spinning or plug tackle with large jigs and crank baits. There wasn’t much structure for fish to cut you off on that I could see, but I was told there were areas of rocks beneath the surface that cause problems. What I wasn’t told was what type of tackle to bring, other than the usual gear for lure fishing and a 10-weight fly rod with both intermediate and fast-sinking lines. Preferred flies were big and dark, often black. I have travel rods that I’ve used for peacock bass in Brazil, which I figured would be fine. They were. I didn’t know that most anglers spool up with 65-pound braid. My plug reel had 30-pound braid, but I accidently brought a spinning reel loaded with 10-pound braid that I mistakenly thought was 20-pound until I approached the river that first morning.

Our first day on the water was pure magic. The turbines were mostly closed, the currents relatively calm. We ran five minutes from the launch site right up to the dam and started fishing. Not knowing what I was getting myself into, I picked up the spinning rod and tied on a medium-size, deep-running, firetiger-colored Rapala. A huge fish struck the lure on my third cast.

The dorado’s jaws are a lot like a tarpon’s but loaded with razor-sharp teeth. There aren’t many soft spots in the fish’s maw to set the hook. I quickly learned that a big single hook works much better than trebles. Nevertheless, beginners luck kicked in, and I survived the jumps and the subsurface rocks to land my first giant golden dorado of the trip, a 36-pounder. The power and fight impressed me. I stuck with the light outfit, casting the Rapala, and boated 30- and 38-pounders, along with several in the high 20s that morning.

When our three hours were up — we fished from 7 a.m. till 10 a.m. — we returned to the hotel while the second group took our place on the river. The second group fished from 10 o’clock to 1 p.m., and we went back out from 1 to 4 o’clock. It wasn’t a bad schedule, as the rest between fishing was almost welcome. It provided time for a nice meal and some tackle adjusting. I didn’t lose a lot of fish due to parted lines, but those fish sure destroyed plugs.

In the afternoon, I caught several more fish weighing in the 20s and 30s, but our luck went south. A front moved in bringing rain and thunderstorms the next day. The authorities that control the dam shut down the fishing. They don’t allow boats on the water when lightning is present. We lost one of our four fishing days.

Dark Water, Big Spins

The next day brought much different conditions — muddy water and high current, along with roaring turbines. Casting a fly in these conditions would be a waste of time, so I went to the spinning rod and fished big, deep-diving plugs that the lodge provided. Heavy jigs worked, too, especially with Gulp paddle tails. Unfortunately, the tails lasted about two casts, and hookups were difficult.

Golden dorado are savage jumpers that can throw hooks like a quarterback. Scoring bites is easy; landing fish is a different matter. The monsters jump multiple times, though often too far from the boat for a good photo. By the time you reel them close, they are spent, which is the only reason we could pull them to the boat at all. Smaller fish put on a lively show, jumping continuously. The morning bite in high water was slow for me, but the other anglers did very well, with a couple of dorados weighing more than 40 pounds and a spectacular, jumbo catfish.

The secret weapon turned out to be a giant spinnerbait, and I mean giant. These lures weigh 6½ ounces, with spinner blades the size of a bream and a single, large hook. When I first looked at this contraption, my reaction was, no way will that catch these fish. Boy, was I wrong. These muskie lures were dynamite in the muddy, swirling water. The lodge had some homemade versions, but other anglers brought their own. The spinnerbaits are made by Kermit Adams and called GD Magnums. They come in 5- and 6½-ounce weights, and are rigged with an 8/0 hook and No. 8 spinner blades. They cost $38 online, so losing one hurts.

The lodge offers a collection of homemade lures, mostly big sinkers with rubber skirts and single hooks. The hooks slip smoothly into the corner of the dorado’s jaw, which results in fewer tosses during jumps.

The water stayed high and muddy for our last two days, and the biggest fish were caught on these crazy spinner baits. The fish eagerly destroyed them, but only 20 percent of the fish stayed hooked. Roberta Arostegui set three IGFA records on her trip, with the biggest weighing 44 pounds. (The big fish were weighed on a certified scale.)

Several weeks after our adventure, my friend Herb Fritch fished Salto, and the water was still high and muddy. I had told him about the giant spinnerbaits, and he brought a dozen with him. In four days, Herb landed seven fish weighing more than 50 pounds, 22 fish in the 40s and more than 50 in the 30s. He also caught a 44 and a 34 on poppers. He had to respool his 65-pound braid after two days because the fish were finding rocks and cutting him off.

The golden dorado bite at Salto is astounding. I’ll be investing in a bunch of big spinnerbaits for next year’s trip, and I’ll definitely move up to 65-pound braid.