Jump to navigation

Where dorado is king

Exploring Argentina's Iberá Marshlands in search of golden dorado

by Earl Harper - Thursday, Jan 24th, 2019

ibera marshlands argentina

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.

ABOVE
The sun rises on the Ibera Marshlands (photo: Earl Harper).
pira lodge
ABOVE
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).
Ibera marshlands
ABOVE
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).
Ibera marshlands
ABOVE
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).
Iberá marshlands bird
Iberá marshlands vegetation
ABOVE
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]).
capybara
ABOVE
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).
yacare caiman
ABOVE
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).
Iberá marshlands fly fishing
Iberá marshlands fly fishing
ABOVE
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).
golden dorado - Iberá marshlands
ABOVE
The quiet peace of the marshlands is shattered when a dorado takes. Lines lurch, water froths and the surface erupts (photo: Chad Shmukler).
golden dorado - Iberá marshlands
golden dorado - Iberá marshlands
golden dorado - Iberá marshlands
ABOVE
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]).
piranha eaten fly
ABOVE
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).
piranha
ABOVE
In addition to the dorado, piranha like this one are in abundance throughout the reserve (photo: Chad Shmukler).
Río Corriente
ABOVE
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).
golden dorado - Iberá marshlands
golden dorado - Iberá marshlands
ABOVE
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]).
Iberá marshlands
ABOVE
Exploring farther into the reserve often means the hard work of navigating the skiff through impossibly tight channels (photo: Chad Shmukler).
golden dorado - Iberá marshlands
ABOVE
The payoff, however, can be more than worth the effort, revealing untouched channels, lagoons and more (photo: Chad Shmukler).
golden dorado - Iberá marshlands
golden dorado - Iberá marshlands
golden dorado - Iberá marshlands
ABOVE
Which, unsurprisingly, often hold some of the marsh's most zealous and impressive dorado (photos: Earl Harper [top, middle], Chad Shmukler [bottom]).
Iberá marshlands fly fishing
ABOVE
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).

For more information on fishing the Ibera Marshlands for golden dorado, visit Pira Lodge.
Golden Dorado
Argentina
piranha

$3

HATCH MAGAZINE

Enjoying your reading?

Support from readers like you helps make our award-winning content possible.

Become a Hatch Magazine sustainer for as little as $3.

→ SHOW ME HOW
  •  
  • BLOG

    Latest Blog Post

    pike canada
    The case for Canada

    The best that can be said about the United States’ relationship with its closest allies and its neighbors to the north, with whom America shares the world’s largest...

    view blog post

    More Blog Posts

    fly fishing missouri river montana
    The Missouri River Gale of 2024
    upper delaware river dry fly fishing
    Should I cast or should I go?

    From the Archives

    laguna madre boat
    Never leave fish to find fish
    Allen Fly Fishing Olympic Series Rod
    Allen Olympic Series Two-Handers 40% Off
  • PHOTOGRAPHY

    Latest Photography

    Words: Todd Tanner.   Images: Tim Romano and Jeremy Roberts.

    There are days when I’m not convinced our society can tell the difference between a blessing...

    view gallery

    More Photography

    From the Archives

    Nirvana of the North: Jämtland, Sweden
    Nirvana of the North
    Golden Dorado
    In Search of the Golden Dorado
  • TRAVEL

    Latest Travel

    montana state highway - big sky
    Searching for a rainbow

    It takes a long time to become young.—Pablo Picasso

    Confucius is said to have once said, “It doesn’t matter how slowly you go as long as...

    view article

    More Travel

    pike canada
    The case for Canada
    canada north woods fishing shore lunch
    The shore lunch that almost wasn't

    From the Archives

    barataria estuary louisiana
    Winter redfish
    small ship alaskan cruise | the boat company
    A small ship cruise of Alaska's Inside Passage
  • CONSERVATION

    Latest Conservation

    flowers
    Remember

    “I arise in the morning torn between a desire to save the world and a desire to savor the world. This makes it hard to plan the...

    view article

    More Conservation

    fishermen tongass national forest
    What is the Roadless Rule?
    okefenokee swamp
    Land purchase halts controversial mine near the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge

    From the Archives

    beaver creek rainbow trout ottobine va
    Watershed people
    malheur wildlife refuge takeover
    'Teddy's turning in his grave'
  • REVIEWS

    Latest Review

    norman maclean a life of love and letters
    Book Review: Norman Maclean: A Life of Letters and Rivers

    Norman Maclean wrote A River Runs Through It, the book which inspired the Robert Redford film of the same...

    view review

    More Reviews

    the silent spotter film - off the grid studios
    The Silent Spotter: Fly fishing films are good again
    calling after water book cover
    Book Review: Calling After Water

    From the Archives

    the feather thief birds
    Review: The Feather Thief
    Sage METHOD Fly Rod
    Review: Sage METHOD Fly Rod
  • TIPS

    Latest Tip

    fly fishing in new zealand
    Essential trout skills

    You need two things to be an accomplished fly fisher. The first, of course, is knowledge. If you don’t know where the trout live, or what they eat, or which fly...

    view article

    More Tips

    pike fly fishing
    What makes a pike fly great?
    backing flycraft down boat ramp
    Unwritten rules when fishing from a boat

    From the Archives

    catch and release tools musky - loon apex needle nose pliers
    4 must-have catch and release tools for musky
    School of Trout
    The Hatch Magazine scholarship
  • NEWS

    Latest News

    fishermen tongass national forest
    What is the Roadless Rule?

    President Trump continued his assault on America’s wild, public lands this week, directing Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins to...

    view article

    More News

    okefenokee swamp
    Land purchase halts controversial mine near the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge
    crosswater creek fly shop
    The new fly shop

    From the Archives

    monte becker guiding
    Modernized FlyFishingJobs.com relaunches under Angling Trade banner
    Save Bristol Bay Seattle Meeting
    Attend the Seattle EPA Public Hearing on Pebble Mine
  •