Dreaming of Fishing

[Squidnation]

OK - Here is the premise - I'm sitting hear dreaming of far off destination knowing that winter is just around the corner. Lets hear of your favorite places to go. BUT - I want to hear of the obscure places - Not cancun, Costa Rica, Hawaii or places like that. I want to especially hear from some of the military folks or first generation folks that have had the chance to fish obscure places.

One obscure place that I have fished is the Parana River in Paraguay. Strong running river fishing for Tiger Shovelnose Cat, Shovelnose Cats, Dorado and 9,000 other speicies of cats. For those of you into aquiruims our baits were brown knife fish. I know we usually pay about $15 a piece to put them in our aquariums but in Paraguay they cost about $2.00 a dozen. We caught a 18lb Pacu, 24lb Dorado, zillions of 4 line cats, Pirahna, A 45lb tiger shovelnose, spotted freshwater ray, 56 dorados up to 22lbs. We also used tinfoil barbs for bait as well as silver dollars and nightcrawlers.

Later that week I experienced one of the best fishing trip of my like when my cousin took me to the banks of the Paraguay river to fish. We stopped by the store for some staples before our adventure. Our staples included

onions
tomatos
patotos
salt
pepper
3 gallons of water
a gallon of milk
some other spices that I couldn't even begin to pronounce

a case of beer and a gallon of Johnny Walker red.

We fished the banks until about 11:00pm and caught every type of catfish under the sun. I sat their in awe as the old timers told stories of catching cayman crocs and giant tiger shovelnose cats by hand in their youth. Everyone shared the johnny walker straight from the bottle. At 11:00pm the pot was right so we gutted the cats and dumped them in the pot. 2 hours later we had the best damn catfish soup I had ever tasted. I think we even caught a turtle and threw in their as well.

These folks were poor, really poor but only poor in material things. They were some of the happiest people I have ever had the pleasure of fishing with. I remember looking in my own tackle box for a hook. The one I picked was rusted so I threw it in the river. My new found friend couldn't believe I just did that. Then I looked at my new found friends rig and realized that he was using a bent piece of wire for a hook. I leaned over and gave him my tackle box and he just about cried. My cousin couldn't believe I did that.

Whenever we would get a snag they would send one of the boys into the river to get the snag out. Their was no breaking off the line. I still to this day pack up a box of hooks, line and some lures and send them down once a year.

[Jer]

Great story, Bill!

[SeaBiscuit]

Nice story Bill, thank you.
I have fished in a few out of the way places myself. My favorite would be panga fishing in the Montenegro area of the southern Guatemala pacific coast. Launching & landing in the surf of barrier islands. Beautiful rolling pacific swell on black sand beaches.
Big, hungry roosters, jacks, macks and even a nice yellowfin, fishing just past the breakers.
The people are wonderful. The dollar is very strong. Sleeping on hammocks under the palms at the beach was good. The national beverage (Gallo beer) excellent and the local food surprisingly international and wonderful.
SeaBiscuit

[WAHOONBOX]

I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR MONTHS FOR A PINO EPIC......THANKS!!! MADE MY AFTERNOON

[Streamweaver]

Great story Bill, the question for you were have you not fished

[KEY-LIME-PIE]

Bill that is a very compelling story! Thank you for sharing it with us! Tom

[GoinCoastal]

Great stories.....I did some snorkeling in Okinawa Japan. Does that count? Of course not it wasn't fishing.