Golden Winter, Esquina, Corrientes, Argentina.
An incredible weekend, along to Roberto Galbarini, found us amazed to start the fishing season much earlier than we expected thanks to Arnoldo Rohner from Posada Hambaré who opened us the doors of Esquina, Corrientes, a really wonderful fishery, where you can find fish all year with a fly or a lure, except for the month of closure. In this place you can find excellent sizes for Golden Dorados, Surubí, Mandubí, Chafalote, Pacú, Pirapita and several other species. It is euphoric, adrenaline, knowing that in any shot you can take the surprise of your life.
For all those people with little time to go fishing, this is an ideal fishery in which with two or three days you can go through different areas with very good fishing opportunities.
Thursday night, after traveling the 600 kilometers that separate Buenos Aires from Esquina, we finally arrive at the beautiful Posada Hambaré, very comfortable, excellent service, attention and the best, it is wonderful to go with family, something not very easy to find In all fisheries.
I start on Friday, very anxious, nervous, finally in the river, breathing that air that fills, internally slowly enters into a fishing situation, how I missed it, on sunny day, 20 degrees at 7 in the morning, what a welcome, What a debut, Esquina welcomed us with a warm hug! The designated guide was Juan José Esquivel, aka El Bicho, born in Esquina and a great connoisseur of its waters, so that morning he decided to go upstream to an area called Drains of the Bull. As always Roberto and I decided to start with different equipment and flies to see which is the most profitable configuration, he decided on a # 8 rod with a floating line and a fast sinking tip (wet Tip), and a 2mt leader. manufactured by two sections of flurocarbon (0.60 and 0.50) with a 30Lb shockwire cable. Knotted, from 15 to 20cm., 15cm streamer with cock saddle tail, synthetic brush body with some glitter and muddler head made of craft Fur plus large lead eyes. On this occasion the idea is that the fly imitate a small bait fish called Mojarra, because at that time the school was passing through that section of the Paraná, i decided to pick an # 8 rod with a floating linet, same leader, black fly well leaded, a nice amount of lead inside and chain eyes, cock saddle tail and body of Predator fibers and craft Fur head, all black, mmmm…. Very tempting. All morning we fished on a wide mirror of water, with several sectors full of camalotes (floating vegetation), sincerely thought or related golden dorado fishing in between underwater bushes, land/river edges, I don't know, but hey, one has to be open to new variables to continue learning. The clarity of the water was very good and the temperature tolerable in the month of July (full Winter down here). The idea of the shots is to make the fly reaches the camalotes, ravines or drowned bushes very close, there where the water runs faster, also in the water unions such as those of the Corriente river meeting with the Paraná where it is clearly distinguished. Whenever we throw the fly we let it deepen a few seconds and we vary the types of running, pauses, accelerated, etc. I really didn't know if it was because of the temperature of the water or what, but I felt the energetic and wandering strikes at the same time, like they nibbled on the tail and swimmed away, they weren't direct, maybe they were Golden Dorados or some other species, the strike was weird and could not nail them, haha it was very funny. We advanced the day testing different colors and types of flies to see which one was the most effective.
(One of good size, somewhat skinny, but very cute)
Late afternoon the adorable golden began to appear, Roberto clearly came up with the appropriate equipment, had several captures, all of a nice average of 3 to 4kg, as for me, before finishing the day I finally managed to connect with one, it seemed huge, I did not jump, but after a beautiful battle he gave in and I was finally able to lift a huge Palometa, very nice size. The boys laughed and did not understand why, because they do not take it as a sports fish because it gives very good fights.
(Beautiful Esquina Palometa, photo and back to water.)
Arriving with the last rays of light you could see the beautiful helmet of the inn illuminating the skiing night, almost as an invitation to repair a good shower and a well-deserved dinner, particularly I love eating all kinds of fish and precisely the menu offers a good variety.
We started the second day, Saturday, before leaving, the thunder could be heard in the distance, luckily throughout the day they moved away and the rain never came. We had prepared everything to start early with the appropriate equipment. We left with the mate (a local infusion) as the forth integrant and marched downstream, it was a very cold morning, clearly on the Parana were the unmentionable (wind) and many boats, all in the same direction, the water had good visibility, but had dropped a little its temperature with respect to the previous day, surely some degrees, I decided to face fishing only with black streamers, large and weighted. We had reached the destination, the mouth of the Inga river, immediately we could see that the different species of birds were posing in the corner very attentive to what was happening in the water under their legs. Already more closely we realized that what they were observing was an energetic hunting of Golden Dorados, how nice to see that, honestly something like that is hard to find. We had not arrived at the place and the adrenaline had taken all over my body, totally, with the fly in my hand, taking line out like crazy, with my tongue out and my heart with a thousand beats, once we arrived to the scene we both make our casts at the same time and managed to make a double capture, simultaneously, yes how cute! beautiful Golden, we took a few photos and back to water. We stayed at that very place for a while and we had been able to take some few more, in fact we took several, from 4 to 9 pounds approximately. The neighboring boats to see us and listen to us were getting closer, but we could not ask more, so we were forced to move, we continued going down, fishing along the cost structures, it was a tempting invitation to keep fishing such a good placed as we reached our following destination.
(Golden Doublet)
In the afternoon we stopped for lunch, to change and tie flies, to check leaders, to get repair from the wind and to heat some water, our guide Bicho improvised a campfire and put a bottle of water on the coals, very crazy, that action surprised me, a little while Rest, good (mate) and keep fishing. Sadly, I have to say that I am missing fishing hours, my arm muscles ached terribly, the hand that holds the butt, full of blisters, this fishing style is totally new to me, I also have to say that it was difficult to nail those Golden dorados, maybe because I'm used to wading, or I was afraid of falling into the water, but thanks to that I said several swear words. Oops.
Arriving at the inn, the only thing that came to mind was a good bath and take some pain reliever to go to rest in a very comfortable playroom that Posada Hambaré has. Meanwhile, Roberto took the opportunity to tie some more black flies for the next day, they disappear like the candies I always carry in my backpack.
(Posada Hambare is by far the best place in Esquina, Corrientes, where you can spend your days in search for golden treasures. All year round)
Third and last day, Sunday, got up very early to be 6am with our feet on the boat, again very cold, reminding us of the magic of being intense fishing days after Golden Dorados in winter. With all the predisposition to achieve a good fishing day we head north to the preferred sector of Bicho (Our guide), after an hour of navigation we arrive at a very particular place, why? Because in that area there are ravines, palerios (Drowned bushes), and camalotaje (Floating vegetation), ahhh, how much structure! also passes a channel attached to the coast, it is a crazy place; we were doing all the shots very stealthy, very neat, being the third day there was much more self-confidence of how to stand on the boat, the amount of meters and shots needed to do with the heavy equipment, looked at the panorama with other eyes, then everything was already spiced with faith. Shot by shot we took (mates) to maintain the temperature and before the sun came off the horizon a very good Golden appeared, Roberto had the pleasure of greeting the first of the morning, hard stopping take, beautiful fight, nice to know him, as always, photo and back to the water, we celebrate and keep fishing,
(Esquina Golden Dorado, beautiful specimen, caught with leaded black and purple streamer fly, 6inches long)
(Another beautiful Golden treasure that were clearly decided to bite)
A few more shots and a beautiful gold came out to say hi, ahhh! Isn't it cute? several more captures and something really extraordinary happened, in a sector of camalotes that was divided by sand beaches we began to see the large breeders in full hunting mood, jumping everywhere or at least they tried, because the girls were so fat. I didn't knew where to throw my fly at, it was a despair simile black sales of fishing gear. It was 10 minutes of pure show for our eyes, on that journey as I was in the bow I had more chances, but despair made me present the most horrible cast in history and thanks to a very difficult shot that was not necessary for that moment , the fly got nailed in a trunk, what #% & # * !!! the whole place got left to Roberto and just his fly touched the water, plafh…. How to describe it? that Golden Dorado were a very fat one, I was missing the popcorns, it was the best live thriller, i saw how the spine cut the water, got into the camalotes and seemed to want to touch any obstacle to detach the fly, that's how it was, it achieved its escape plan to perfection, total silence while they remained in full hunting. It was not for us, because we had run out of flies, we could only treasure the moment by keeping it in our retinas.
(A sandbar surprise, we don't know if it was stolen or if I attack badly, it came on the back of the spine, near the head, a red dot can be seen)
(one of the last ones, the good ones still appeared)
We decided to make a break to calm down, that situation was difficult to digest, we chose to tie some more flies on the boat and modified others by tying lead eyes to those that they didn't have.
Some more catches and we continue north, heading to the fisheries we visited on the first day, we approached the last hours, Roberto ran out of flies, the only relatively healthy one, was the one in my leader, in a moment we saw eating a Beautiful Gold, love at first sight, I told the boys, that's mine, I made some shots and I managed to keep my fly at the hot zone, but somehow my strippping speed was little slower than it should be and that Golden finally cutted my face after folowing the fly for more than 15 yards! Then, the three of us thought of a strategy, to go back to where the love of my life was, we had to start the engine, go up and go over it or take a long turn, the choice was simple and thanks to the knowledge of our guide that could cutt the road between threads so we could get again quickly to the same sector without another boat passed over the fishes!
In that transfer period we took advantage of checking knots and when we met again facing each other, Bicho preferred to tie us to the coast so we could throw the fly to the tip of the ravine, give line and let drift, Bicho had not finished tying the boat and the blue prince took my fly, I was happy for a moment and the fear of losing it did not let me enjoy the situation, I could not scream, everything I felt was saved, 15 'later we managed to make physical connection, I loosened when I had it in my arms, group celebration and congratulations to everyone, because when we catch a fish it is thanks to teamwork.
We ended the day celebrating the beautiful catches we had throughout the weekend. We returned commenting that despite the season of the year there is always fishing and with a good chance to get trophies, that is something I did not know. Now when I have three or four days free, I will return for more. It is never easy, but preparing and insisting makes it possible for wishes to be fulfilled. Until next time!! Vicky
