Trips To Take: Bolivian Golden Dorado

Trips to Take: Bolivia for Golden Dorado

The newest edition of American Angler magazine showed up in the mail last night and I was immediately drawn to the impressive photo on the cover:

I read the article and found it quite interesting. In August of 2009, American Angler contributor and filmmaker Dr. Grant Wiswell traveled to the remote Bolivian headwaters of the Amazon River on an exploratory trip in search of Golden Dorado. As I am trout fly fisherman I thought it was pretty cool how these huge Dorado behave similar to trout in the river. I can only imagine what it would have been like to cast to these huge beauties who had never seen an artificial fly before!

I did a little more research today about it, and the trip is no joke. It's an intensive trip into the middle of nowhere, in what has been called "Cocaine Country". What little reading I was able to find on the subject didn't sound all that dangerous though, but it isn't cheap. The author and a small party of angling adventurers stayed at a newly opened camp on the Itirisama River called Tsimane Lodge (http://www.tsimanelodge.com/). The lodge offers a 10-day trip, not including air time from the States to Bolivia. The site doesn't include pricing which lead me to believe it's not something I will be able to afford in the next say....20 years? Certainly not before the kids are out of college or I win big in Powerball *crosses fingers*, plenty of time to brush up on my Spanish.

Anyhow the article is interesting and I'd recommend it as it is a quick read.

Apparently they are creating a film of the journey as the trailer can be found here: http://americanangler.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1091

Yep, I am pretty sure I could handle that.