Its Colombia... Not Columbia
Оригинал взят у t2thek15 в Its Colombia... Not Columbia
Дорогие друзья, я просто не могу не запостить вот это...!
Мой друг Том Керсберген, с которым отрыбачили два сезона на Озерной (который влюбился в Дану Борисову из газеты Аргументы и Факты), взял с меня "пример" и открыл свой блог на ЖЖ отчетом о рыбалке в Колумбии. Куда, кстати, он попал благодаря приглашению Алехандро - гостя-рыбака, у которого мы были гидами на Озерной.
Алехандро оч выделялся на фоне американских рыбаков своим веселым нравом, искренней и непосредственной радостью в рыбалке. А еще тем, что привез и угощал ромом в картонных коробочках (как сок) и тем, что он единственный умудрился засадить себе муху в губу... насквозь.
Если сказать, что фотоотчет Тома впечатлил... - не сказать ничего!
Колумбийская рыбалка - это просто "бомба"!!!
Early this April I had the chance to visit the Orinoco River Basin near Puerto Carreño. We fished the Tomo and Terecay Rivers which flow into the Orinoco River near the Colombia/Venezuela border. The trip started and was made possible because of Alejandro and his friend Juan who live in Medellin Colombia. Alejandro joined a Yellow Dog fishing trip to the Ozernaya river in Kamchatka Russia where I guided the summer of 2014. I only fished with Alejandro one day in Kamchatka but I spent every night outside a campfire listening and learning about Peacock Bass in Colombia. I could tell by his photos and stories that Alejandro was on to something good, but wasn't until we actually arrived in Colombia that it fully sank in and we knew we were on to something really special.
I spent a the 2015 winter season guiding at Martin Pescador Lodge in Patagonia Chile and my friend Hayden guides at Patagonia Base Camp in the same region of Chile. We researched the usual spots for traveling in South America and started asking around. I got ahold of Alejandro and he sent us some ideas about Colombia. His favorite fishing is for Peacock Bass, but Colombia also gives fly fishermen shots at Bonefish and Permit along the Caribbean coast between Panama and Venezula. The west coast of Colombia has all the blue water species of game fish associated with the Pacific including Blue Marlin, White Marlin, Sailfish, Tuna and Dorado. But we kept coming back to Peacocks and I'm glad we did!
This trip exceeded my expectatons on all levels. The dates we had to work with were in early April which marks the start of the rainy season. Luckliy the heavy rain held off and we had beautiful weather around 80 degrees each day. Also I had no idea how much wildlife we'd actually get to see. I've heard of the Freshwater Dolphins, Giant River Otters and Tapirs but I had no idea we'd get to see them let alone see them so close we'd scream like little girls. We actually started a joke each day called 'What the heck was that?" Each day we'd come back and joke about what we saw that scared the crap out of us. The list includes: Giant Grasshoppers (6 inches long), Capybaras (largest rodent in the world), River Dolphins porpoising right next to the boat, dozens of weird insects (my favorite we named a Frickard - Frog, cricket, lizard creature), King Fishers the size of Hummingbirds, Tapirs swimming across the river, Giant Dragonflies that looked like drones and Anacondas in the mangroves to name a few.
Packing up the truck for the 3 hour dirt road haul from the airport in Puerto Carreno to the camp on the Terecay River.
Our hosts taking our gear up river to the next camp aboard El Fugitivo
El Fugitivo - Not sure why its named that but I like it
A Piranha Alejandro landed. Most of the Piranha broke us off, but every time they atleast tore our flies to shreds.
Tying up some flies... Many styles worked but our most consistent producer was a cute deceiver style fly named the Alejandrina
Our humble abode. The extra layer of plastic kept the tents dry, since most days we saw rain, but never enough rain to keep us off the water from fishing.
Juan holding a Pavon Mariposo. Of the 5 species of Peacock Bass we caught the Mariposo are on average the smallest and usually found in faster water.
Alejandro giving a grip and grin with a Pavon Cinchado the largest species of Peacocks we caught. We mostly caught the Cinchado along the sand bars, and many times we could sight fish to crusing fish along the shallow dune sand bars. The sand bars created depressions and dunes where we could sneak up on these bad boys.
Hayden with a Pavon Pinta De Lapa. These were the most numerous and we caught them in all sizes from little guys up to 10 pounds.
The Pavon Real was easily identified by their unique lateral line.
Guide Remigio and me holding a Pavon Guacamayo
We'd see dozens of Caiman each day and Hayden couldn't resist throwing flies to each one
All in all we counted 17 different species of fish we caught. 5 species of Peacock Bass, Yamu, Pompano, Black Piranha, Red Piranha, Dog Fish, Matta Guaro, Arawana, Catfish, Alari and Moncholo.
Remigio throwing scraps to a caiman.
Tapirs were visible along the beaches, but prefered to be in the thick forest. These critters look like pigs, horse, cow creatures.
Jaguar tracks- Our first morning in camp we woke up to the sound a Jaguar growling across the river.
Shore lunch prepared by Miguel
Short canals seperated the main river to some really fishy lagoons.
Tapir Track
I had to get in on some of the Caiman fun too!
Alejandro making a cast to the Avatar tree
These ladies could do it all. We had some great meals and plenty of fresh fish.
With this tirp being Hayden and my excursion to Colombia we didin't know what exactly to expect. We'd heard stories of the cocaine traffickers in the jungles and the guerilla armadas that defended them. But from everyone we had the chance to meet in Colombia and the people we talked to who actually knew Colombia, there was a common thread. It was very aparent that the Colombians were excited about the future of their country and proud of where they have came from in the last couple decades. I feel very lucky to have had the chance to visit and fish in this beautiful country, see abundant wildlife and meet some fantastic people. I'm looking forward to my next trip, only next time I'm going to plan on a longer visit!
Дорогие друзья, я просто не могу не запостить вот это...!
Мой друг Том Керсберген, с которым отрыбачили два сезона на Озерной (который влюбился в Дану Борисову из газеты Аргументы и Факты), взял с меня "пример" и открыл свой блог на ЖЖ отчетом о рыбалке в Колумбии. Куда, кстати, он попал благодаря приглашению Алехандро - гостя-рыбака, у которого мы были гидами на Озерной.
Алехандро оч выделялся на фоне американских рыбаков своим веселым нравом, искренней и непосредственной радостью в рыбалке. А еще тем, что привез и угощал ромом в картонных коробочках (как сок) и тем, что он единственный умудрился засадить себе муху в губу... насквозь.
Если сказать, что фотоотчет Тома впечатлил... - не сказать ничего!
Колумбийская рыбалка - это просто "бомба"!!!
Early this April I had the chance to visit the Orinoco River Basin near Puerto Carreño. We fished the Tomo and Terecay Rivers which flow into the Orinoco River near the Colombia/Venezuela border. The trip started and was made possible because of Alejandro and his friend Juan who live in Medellin Colombia. Alejandro joined a Yellow Dog fishing trip to the Ozernaya river in Kamchatka Russia where I guided the summer of 2014. I only fished with Alejandro one day in Kamchatka but I spent every night outside a campfire listening and learning about Peacock Bass in Colombia. I could tell by his photos and stories that Alejandro was on to something good, but wasn't until we actually arrived in Colombia that it fully sank in and we knew we were on to something really special.
I spent a the 2015 winter season guiding at Martin Pescador Lodge in Patagonia Chile and my friend Hayden guides at Patagonia Base Camp in the same region of Chile. We researched the usual spots for traveling in South America and started asking around. I got ahold of Alejandro and he sent us some ideas about Colombia. His favorite fishing is for Peacock Bass, but Colombia also gives fly fishermen shots at Bonefish and Permit along the Caribbean coast between Panama and Venezula. The west coast of Colombia has all the blue water species of game fish associated with the Pacific including Blue Marlin, White Marlin, Sailfish, Tuna and Dorado. But we kept coming back to Peacocks and I'm glad we did!
This trip exceeded my expectatons on all levels. The dates we had to work with were in early April which marks the start of the rainy season. Luckliy the heavy rain held off and we had beautiful weather around 80 degrees each day. Also I had no idea how much wildlife we'd actually get to see. I've heard of the Freshwater Dolphins, Giant River Otters and Tapirs but I had no idea we'd get to see them let alone see them so close we'd scream like little girls. We actually started a joke each day called 'What the heck was that?" Each day we'd come back and joke about what we saw that scared the crap out of us. The list includes: Giant Grasshoppers (6 inches long), Capybaras (largest rodent in the world), River Dolphins porpoising right next to the boat, dozens of weird insects (my favorite we named a Frickard - Frog, cricket, lizard creature), King Fishers the size of Hummingbirds, Tapirs swimming across the river, Giant Dragonflies that looked like drones and Anacondas in the mangroves to name a few.
Packing up the truck for the 3 hour dirt road haul from the airport in Puerto Carreno to the camp on the Terecay River.
Our hosts taking our gear up river to the next camp aboard El Fugitivo
El Fugitivo - Not sure why its named that but I like it
A Piranha Alejandro landed. Most of the Piranha broke us off, but every time they atleast tore our flies to shreds.
Tying up some flies... Many styles worked but our most consistent producer was a cute deceiver style fly named the Alejandrina
Our humble abode. The extra layer of plastic kept the tents dry, since most days we saw rain, but never enough rain to keep us off the water from fishing.
Juan holding a Pavon Mariposo. Of the 5 species of Peacock Bass we caught the Mariposo are on average the smallest and usually found in faster water.
Alejandro giving a grip and grin with a Pavon Cinchado the largest species of Peacocks we caught. We mostly caught the Cinchado along the sand bars, and many times we could sight fish to crusing fish along the shallow dune sand bars. The sand bars created depressions and dunes where we could sneak up on these bad boys.
Hayden with a Pavon Pinta De Lapa. These were the most numerous and we caught them in all sizes from little guys up to 10 pounds.
The Pavon Real was easily identified by their unique lateral line.
Guide Remigio and me holding a Pavon Guacamayo
We'd see dozens of Caiman each day and Hayden couldn't resist throwing flies to each one
All in all we counted 17 different species of fish we caught. 5 species of Peacock Bass, Yamu, Pompano, Black Piranha, Red Piranha, Dog Fish, Matta Guaro, Arawana, Catfish, Alari and Moncholo.
Remigio throwing scraps to a caiman.
Tapirs were visible along the beaches, but prefered to be in the thick forest. These critters look like pigs, horse, cow creatures.
Jaguar tracks- Our first morning in camp we woke up to the sound a Jaguar growling across the river.
Shore lunch prepared by Miguel
Short canals seperated the main river to some really fishy lagoons.
Tapir Track
I had to get in on some of the Caiman fun too!
Alejandro making a cast to the Avatar tree
These ladies could do it all. We had some great meals and plenty of fresh fish.
With this tirp being Hayden and my excursion to Colombia we didin't know what exactly to expect. We'd heard stories of the cocaine traffickers in the jungles and the guerilla armadas that defended them. But from everyone we had the chance to meet in Colombia and the people we talked to who actually knew Colombia, there was a common thread. It was very aparent that the Colombians were excited about the future of their country and proud of where they have came from in the last couple decades. I feel very lucky to have had the chance to visit and fish in this beautiful country, see abundant wildlife and meet some fantastic people. I'm looking forward to my next trip, only next time I'm going to plan on a longer visit!