here is part 1 of my 2-week trip in June to the Isiboro Secure National Park and Indigenous Territory.  this trip was first and foremost a scouting mission to see what these rivers fished like at that time of year and explore a couple “new” rivers .  we were also there to check on the progress of the construction of the new lodges for the new fishing program called Tsimane, named after the indigenous people who live in this area.

i was accompanied by my long-time friends Noel Pollak, Felipe Morales and new friend Rodrigo Salles of Untamed Angling who are deeply involved in the launching of this amazing new program.  Joining me was my good friend Stahl Urban from Austin, Texas and Mike Nelson of Bozeman, Montana who came to do some video work.

we hopped in a couple of Cessna planes that took us to the community of Asunta, a small village right in the heart of the Yungas, the forested eastern slope of the Andes.  the scenery was quite breathtaking on the approach to the small landing strip cut in the lush jungle.  upon arrival, we were immediately greeted by the friendly natives (referred to as Tsimane) who took us and all of our gear past their huts down to the river where we loaded up into dug-out canoes.  the Tsimanes have few visitors and are really isolated from more modern civilization, but were quite happy and curious to see us.

after a brief visit and dropping off of supplies we brought for them, we proceeded up the Rio Secure to the location of the first lodge with some hired hands (local men of the village) in their dug-out canoes.

the next couple of days found us dilly-dallying around as Noel, Felipe and Rodrigo were monitoring the construction.  we found time to venture upstream into the mountains and fished the clear waters of this freestone stream which normally hold huge quantities of dorados later in the year.  we caught a few dorado and saw a few in the 20 pound range, but we determined that the fish hadn’t arrived in full numbers from their seasonal migration upstream.  also, a recent cold front and rain had shut down the activity,  so we decided to head downstream and not waste any more time, as we had plenty of water to cover down below.

the rest of the journey had us covering many more miles and several other pieces of water.  the further we went, the more dorados (and bigger) we encountered.  here is Felipe with a fish about 28 pounds and Stahl with one around 15.  more to come later!!…(photos © Joey Lin, 2009)