Words and Images Provided by Yellow Dog Client Rob S.
My son and I have been on numerous trip with Yellow Dog( three trips to Cuba plus Belize, Mexico and Smith River). We also have done numerous fishing lodges/guides on our own. By far, Pinti's Dorado on the Fly is our favorite to date. While reviewing numerous fish photos on our flight home, both my son and I commented that if Pinti's were in a more convenient location, we would do this trip twice a year!
Pinti's Dorado on the FlyĀ is not a high end luxury lodge. Rather, it is a full service fishing camp that focuses on amazing fishing in a very unique fishery. The rooms are basic but clean with great AC, shower and bathroom. (Laundry service, daily clean room & towels was a treat!). The food was excellent with large helpings of hardy local fare. Pinti and our guide shared dinner with us every night. This was fun to rehash the day's events and to plan the next day's strategy. Dorado on the Fly (DOF) also provides magnificent Argentina wines and a full bar. But for my son and I, the fully stocked beer cooler loaded with a variety of Argentina beers was a sign of a class operation! DOF is everything an avid fisherman would ever need.
I think what makes DOF unique is the quality of the guides. Pinti's guides are solely focused on the client experience and are constantly willing to adapt to the clients whims. This sounds simple but our experiences in Cuba, Puerto Rico, Belize and Montana prove otherwise. l feel many lodges and fishing guides get stuck doing the same thing and their egos are not receptive to trying something different or input from the client. (Case in point, several weeks ago, a friend and I fished for two days in Puerto Rico. The guide had us throw only black or brown cockroach with little success. We saw Tarpon but no takes. I asked to switch to something different and the guide was adamant it had to be black or brown. Finally I just cut off his fly and switched to my favorite tarpon fly. After several hooked tarpon, the guide meekly switched my friend to a similar fly..... But at DOF, we were catching Pacu on the berry imitation "fly." I told the guide I wanted to try to make a fly out of an old bass foam fly that I had in my box. That night over many beers I made my own Pacu fly. The guide was extremely excited about the concept and I actually did catch a nice Pacu on my creation! Honestly, I think the guide was more excited about this than me.
My son and I love to fish hard and cast streamers all day. We want to go to bed exhausted and shoulders throbbing. For me, one of the hardest things to do is sit in a boat and watch another person fish -- even if it is my son. The wonderful thing about DOF is we were both able to fish at the same time the whole time. The DOF boats are ideal for two people to comfortably cast. (4 1/2 days of fishing and we only crossed lines once and that was when I cast at a big Dorardo that was following a small dorado on my son's line...). The DOF boats have large stable casting platform at each end. The boat is powered by a Riptide Mini Kota trolling motor that the guide remotely controls with a hand held device. Many times my son and I had doubles on Dorado because of this setup. (Also allowed my son to fish for Pacu which he loved while I cast streamers for Dorado which I love at the same time...).
Fishing Variety: We caught Dorado, Pacu, pirapita and even several piranha. We threw streamers, divers, grasshooppers, "Pacu Dry" flies and big saltwater poppers. Our guide split up the fishing day to match our desire and tiredness. First day and a half we threw big streamers until our arms ached. Days 2-4 we fished hard all morning by tossing big streamers at structure for Dorado. After lunch/siesta, we spent 2 hours "relaxing" the arms by tossing "dries" for Pacu. Then ended the day with several hours of casting streamers for Dorado.
Fishing Gear: We bought three new lines for this trip not knowing what to expect. This was totally unnecessary. Any tropical tarpon line would work for Dorardo. In fact I used the 8wt Rio Flats pro with 8 ft clear tip and it was ideal for this type of fishing. For Pacu, we used 6wt Rio outbound short and my son used Rio Bass with great success. During the summer heat any warm water/tropic "big fly" floating line would work. There is zero need for intermediate sink at DOF. I think the fly fishing industry make flyfishing more complicated and expensive then it needs to be -- (KISS---Keep It Simple Stupid). Your guidance on leader materials was perfect with 40& 30lb fluorocarbon and bite wire. I had great success with several of my favorite tarpon and saltwater streams but Pinti's flies worked the best and is sure a lot easier...BUG SPRAY IS CRITICAL AND SHOULD BE STRESSED!!
Buenos Aires Transport: After talking to numerous people who have recently traveled to Buenes Ares we decided to try Uber for local transportation. I 100% agree with Yellow Dog's advice to avoid taxis. But Uber is simple and safe. We spent three days in BA and did 14 Uber trips with zero issue. I think your travel summary should be updated to reflect this viable option.
