South American golden dorado are magnificent iridescent golden fish that strike viciously, leap maniacally, burn off line and destroy tackle and lures. Most dorado run from five to ten pounds, sometimes as large as twenty pounds. In the fabled, highly-restricted "La Zona" on the Uruguay River, the dorado routinely go 30-40-50, even 60 pounds!

Quoting from the March, 2006 issue of The Angling Report, "La Zona is a place where the normal rules don't apply. The dorado are so huge and numerous it is like something out of prehistory..Since La Zona opened last April, literally scores of fish exceeding the largest fly-caught IGFA record have been caught, including one that weighed more than 50 pounds. That is nearly triple the previously record! On top of that, at least one fish has been caught on baitcasting tackle that exceeded the previous world record by nearly ten pounds."

The guides are quite experienced and the fishing is done from new, spacious 22' center console boats-all first-class. Fly fishermen, spin casters and bait casters can all expect to hook/jump anywhere from ten to thirty dorados each day. These aggressive fish are a real handful once hooked-guests have experienced dorados fighting over lures, had them run completely under the boat leaping eight feet in the air on the other side, and have even seen a hooked fish leap high out of the water and a second, competing fish leap in the air, crash into the hooked fish and knock the lure out! In order to keep the fishing quality at this amazing level, only four boats (two Argentine and two Uruguayan) are allowed in La Zona per day and fishing is allowed only Monday-Thursday. Larger groups can divide their time between the fishing and the excellent bird hunting.