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El Dorado – Is possibly the Ultimate Freshwater Fish!
The Dorado is an extremely aggressive fish known for its incredible acrobatic skills, strong lunges of
incredible strength, and stamina. Their razor sharp teeth can bite through wooden lures, puncture plastic
lures and generally destroy anything that gets near its mouth. Its aerial acrobatics are breath taking and
combined with their drag screaming runs, qualifies this fish as the ultimate freshwater fish to many
enthusiasts around the world!
The Dorado’s body shape is similar to a salmon, but with a golden body and black stripes. Dorados can
grow to be over 50 pounds and their enormous heads are full of small, razor-sharp teeth. A schooling fish,
they travel in groups, feeding on schools of sabalos and other baitfish. But unlike the salmon, Dorado do
not die after spawning and do not wander beyond the river mouth into the open sea. .
It is important to remember when fishing for Dorado that the fish is primarily a pescavore, meaning that its
diet consists of other fish. An aggressive fish, the Dorado will readily attack an assortment of lures and
flies that resemble large, fleeing forage species. Because of the aggressive nature of the Dorado, its
spectacular leaping ability, herculean strength and stamina this fish has gained the worldwide reputation
of the ultimate freshwater gamefish.
If you want to catch a Dorado, you should plan on a trip to Uruguay or Argentina for the best examples of
this freshwater monster. As for how to catch Dorado, the Dorado behaves similar to the trout in that it
lurks behind boulders, rock piles and other underwater obstructions ready to pounce on other,
unsuspecting, smaller fish species in the river and even other small Dorados. In fact, its appetite is so
voracious that it will devour most anything in its path.
At the time of writing (2011) the all-tackle International Game Fish Association (IGFA) world record for the
Dorado is an astonishing 55 lb. 11oz, which was caught on January 11, 2006 by Andre L. S. de Botton on
the Uruguay River.
Paul Katsus is a Katy, Texas area fisherman who likes to share information on fishing. Paul Katsus works
as a Service Consultant for the Electric Utility Company, Centerpoint Energy.