Day 2 on the Juramento River

Sunday, November 16, 2008

J. V. Gonzalez, Argentina

Day 2 on the Juramento River

After a wonderful meal at a small village restaurant last night and my first good night’s sleep in 3 days, Alex picked me up this morning at 8:30 and we headed for the river. Once there we met the guides and the other “sport,” Aldo Boucher, an Argentinian from nearby Salta. I suspect Aldo, (perhaps 65) has shares in Orvis… or he should… he has every do-dad Orvis ever produced… all in mint condition. A nice gentleman, but with no English, so communication was limited at best. There were two rafts ready to go. Aldo and I set out with Emiliano (same guide as yesterday), while Jose and Alex’s wife left with the second guide. I suspect their trip was by way of research/practise/etc. They are obviously very dedicated to their craft. Both Emiliano and the second guide speak limited English. Both are young, knowledgeable, friendly and very good on the oars. Emi is a good guide, constantly offering advice and encouragement in a very non-threatening manner. He's headed to the Yucatan in January to do whatever it takes to survive there for a couple of months: raft, fish, bartend, etc.... and find time to do some bonefishing...

We must have drifted more than 20 km today…must remember to check tomorrow. If we drifted 15 yesterday (as Alex told me), we did at least 25 today. But it was a very different day than yesterday. I had 2 touches, no hookups, Aldo caught a 6 lb fish very late in the day (about 6:15pm), the second of Alex’s rafts (Jose, etc) got 2 strikes; another raft that pulled out at the same spot we did caught one fish (5 kg) early in the day and had nothing else. ( I was quite amazed at what Aldo went through for this fish {small by dorado standards]... he had Emi take both pics and video, hung it from a "lip vice" for more than 5 minutes and seemed completely unconcerned for the well beinbg fo the fish... quite weird... differnt standards of "consevation" than we're used to, that's for sure)

Today was bright sunshine… I’ve got the sunburned casting hand to prove it… yesterday was cloudy. We covered a lot of great water and threw a lot of flies…. My right arm feels like it wants to fall off… it'll take Ibeprofin (sp) to get me through tomorrow, I’m sure. But as they say, “a day on the river beats most anything else anyway.” Dorado fish resembles atlantic salmon fishing in that it is cast, cast, cast, and cast again… and it’s a longer day… 10.5 hours today. Longer day, more casts… And talk about going through flies… you’re constantly casting as close to the shore as possible and the shoreline (and lots of other places in the river) is lined with snags, debris, etc. And once you're downstream of the fly in an inflatible raft, it's almost impossible for the guide to get you back to the snag... well, not impossible but it seems to be a one-in-five proposition... I’ve been through more than a dozen, perhaps 15 flies (not sure if they are part of the deal… though it doesn’t matter as I’ll either pay for them or add to the tip).

Anyway, long day, good day, in spite of no fish, but it’s now almost 9:30pm and I just finished dinner at the gas station next door to my hotel. The restaurant I ate in last.night is closed (Sunday) but the owner (and her 3 yr old grandson) escorted me over here (this is also where the internet hookup is) and arranged for my meal to be taknen care of. Very gracious people...

Now I've got to go and fall into bed, dream of golden dorado smacking a large bright fly and hope to wake in less pain than I am now...

Tomorrow we'll fish until about 3:00pm and then I'll get a stopover at Alex's house to shower and change. Then it's off to Salta (2 hours) and an 8:15 flight to B.A. for another short sleep before I head to Patagonia. Am I too old for this? Definitely not, but it'd be slightly less wearing if I was a a bit more of a pup...