Exploring Argentina's Iberá Marshlands in search of golden dorado
by Earl Harper - Thursday, Jan 24th, 2019
Photos: Earl Harper and Chad Shmukler, Words: Chad Shmukler.
When leaving the hustle and bustle of Buenos Aires' international airport, you'll see groups of anglers peppered throughout the masses of travelers assembling outside the customs exit—chatting with newly arrived companions, meeting with drivers that will shuttle them across town to the domestic airport, piling and stacking bags of gear. Almost all of them are headed south. And west. In search of trout in Patagonia or Tierra del Fuego. But instead of shuttling across town to catch a flight to San Martin, Bariloche or Rio Grande, we're prepping to ride north. North to Corrientes, to the Iberá Marshlands, the second largest wetland on the entire globe, a region twice the size of the entirety of the Florida Everglades, and home to seemingly countless rivers, creeks, streams, sloughs, lakes and ponds where the golden dorado is king.
Almost entirely protected as a nature preserve since 1983, the Iberá Marshlands—or Esteros del Iberá—is known for its crystal-clear, unpolluted waters. Due to the region's unique geology, the marshlands are a nearly closed system with no inflow—other than rainfall—and only minor outflow. The region is also uninfluenced by mining or industry, due to the lack of either in proximity of the marshlands.
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The sun rises on the Ibera Marshlands (photo: Earl Harper).
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Perched on farmland on the edge of the reserve is Pira Lodge, the only operation of its kind in the region and one with direct and easy access to the reserve (photo: Earl Harper).
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Ibera is essentially one enormous, landless floodplain—its creeks, streams, lakes and ponds formed by partially submerged, floating vegetation. Papyrus, lilies, water hyacinth, lettuces, hibiscus, victorias and other vegetation entangle to form floating mats called embalsados which channel and shape the marsh's waters and are commonly thick and strong enough to walk on (photo: Earl Harper).
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Navigating the marshlands means winding your way through mazelike channels and passageways, each turn offering the chance to discover something new—an unfished lagoon, creek or channel or even an unknown passage through the marshlands to a yet undiscovered part of the reserve (photo: Earl Harper).
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Life of all forms abounds in the marsh, which is known for staggering biodiversity. Over 4,000 different species of plants and animals, including over 350 species of birds, call Iberá home (photos: Earl Harper [top], Chad Shmukler [bottom]).
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Capybara (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris)—the largest rodent in the world at sizes up to 145 pounds—are seen daily throughout the marsh. Capybara, which are also called carpincho in Spanish, are highly social and are almost always observed in large families and groups (photo: Chad Shmukler).
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Both the yacare caiman (Yacaré negro), also known as the black caiman, and the broad-snouted caiman (Yacaré overo) are also encountered with regularity through the reserve (photo: Chad Shmukler).
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But it is the king of the marsh, the golden dorado (Salminus brasiliensis), that we have come to ply Iberá's waters for—to cast big, bushy, brightly-colored streamers through its rivers and streams and to swim and skate mouse patterns through its twisted channels, hoping to entice a strike (photos: Chad Shmukler).
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The quiet peace of the marshlands is shattered when a dorado takes. Lines lurch, water froths and the surface erupts (photo: Chad Shmukler).
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Dorado that fail to put on a show before being corralled and released are virtually non-existent. The only question once a connection is formed with one of the marsh's voracious predators is how many times and how high they'll leap (photo: Chad Shmukler [top], Earl Harper [middle, bottom]).
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In fact, should the surface not erupt, it's only seconds before all involved realize that another Iberá predator, the piranha, has grabbed the offering—more often than not sending back only this (photo: Earl Harper).
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In addition to the dorado, piranha like this one are in abundance throughout the reserve (photo: Chad Shmukler).
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Fishing Iberá doesn't just mean stripping flies through its smaller creeks and streams, it also includes time spent on Río Corriente, which courses through the marsh only minutes by boat from Pira Lodge (photo: Earl Harper).
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The river, like the rest of Iberá, offers consistent fishing for dorado and can be home to some of the marsh's bigger fish (photo: Earl Harper [top], Chad Shmukler [bottom]).
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Exploring farther into the reserve often means the hard work of navigating the skiff through impossibly tight channels (photo: Chad Shmukler).
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The payoff, however, can be more than worth the effort, revealing untouched channels, lagoons and more (photo: Chad Shmukler).
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Which, unsurprisingly, often hold some of the marsh's most zealous and impressive dorado (photos: Earl Harper [top, middle], Chad Shmukler [bottom]).
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Encounters with the king of the marsh, with the dorado that we've traveled halfway across the globe to chase, never seem to grow tiring. Each well placed fly that produces a strike right where you had expected one, each placid channel we pole and discover patrolling dorado, each up-close inspection of the dorado's gold-flecked scales, blinding yellow sides and crimson-hued tails only leave us in search of more. And so, as the stillness of dusk descends on the marsh, we steal a few last casts, greedily hoping to shatter the peace once more (photo: Earl Harper).
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