Big surubi cats

Questions about Freshwater Fishing

Big surubi cats

Postby Cast4golD » Tue Jul 08, 2008 8:10 am

Hi Larry. Yesterday i was fishing with a friend of mine and hooked up the biggest Surubi i´ve ever seen. 45 minutes to winch him up on the 15-30# old series Convergence and a 400 Calcutta B using 20# PowerPro. I estimate it was somewhere near the 100 pound mark. Couldn´t wheight him because he was too long to hang it from the scale. The thing is that the fish striked a custom deep running crank when trolling for dorado. I´m seriuosly thinking in getting a heavier rig to fish for this monsters, but not too heavy so i can enjoy catching 20# average dorados on it since they strike on the same lures. What do you recommend?
I also found some spots i´ll be visiting next week where i can consitently catch surubis while casting. Most important factor is bottom contact. I was thinkink in large silicon shads like Berkley´s powerbait paddletails. Do you think they might work? All of the fish i caught so far striked dorado crankbaits accidentally.
Thanks for your advices, Bruno.
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Postby Bob Daly » Wed Jul 09, 2008 12:12 pm

Bruno: Great catfish! 8) Looking forward to seeing you at La Zona next April. :D Hope your fishing for dorado goes well. Also, are you still going to try for the grande peacocks in the Amazon?
See you in April
Good fishing, Bob Daly
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Postby Cast4golD » Wed Jul 09, 2008 6:33 pm

lo Bob. Hope we meet in April in la Zona.
That fish was, in fact, incredible. Not common to see nowadays. I remember that 10 years ago you could almost for sure set your hooks on one of those monsters daily.
I wish i could book the amazon fishing right now, but i´m yet to confirm. Maybe i´ll have to do some scouting on the northern Juramento and Tarija rivers in Bolivia and Argentina. The word has gone out that new dorado, pacu and surubi waters has been discovered in very remote places well inside the jungle. I know some places alike and they are by far the best places to hook up 20+ pound dorados and even pacus or 10 pound matrinchas on flygear. Wish i could organize to do both -the scouting and the amazon trip-.
Fishing is hard in the upper Paraná right now, but lots of mid-sized cats and lunker dorados on deep trolling.
Middle Paraná is great now. We´ve spotted very large groups of mid sized dorados (10-18 pounds max) with very bad humor. Despite the low temperatures, we´ve been able to make them smash topwaters. Rare indeed. I´ve only seen this once before. Going back tomorrow to track them and see if i can predict how far north they´ll migrate.
Best wishes, Bruno.
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Postby dahlberg » Thu Jul 10, 2008 12:08 pm

hi bruno,
I think the rig you're using right now is fine, just increase the line strength to 65# braid.
I've caught surubi casting big cranks as well, and have had similar experiene regarding bottom contact.
I know of cats caught here in the US and in Spain with 9" swimbaits, I would think a surubi would whack one.
I've had very good success with 3/4 rattle traps sight fishing for smaller surubi in brazil. Just get up current and swing it in front of them and the bite almost every time. Might try the same with a larger rattle type bait. Suggest removing the rear hook entirely and replacing front hook with larger stronger one and of course, stronger split rings.
good luck!
L
Larry Dahlberg
The Hunt For Big Fish
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Postby Cast4golD » Thu Jul 10, 2008 1:19 pm

Thank you for your advice Larry. 3/4 Rattle traps, RN8R´s and 1 Oz strike pro rattlers with HyperWire splits and ST-66´s. I´ve also inserted some McCoy glass tube rattles to holes made in super shad raps and sealed the holes with non flowing epoxi. Man they are loud! Hope this helps. How can i post the pics?
Best regards, Bruno.
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Postby Cast4golD » Fri Jul 11, 2008 10:24 am

I´ve just came back from the water. I went exclusively to try for Surubi. Lots of strikes and lots of fish getting off. Hard fish to hook up! I had better success with stout topwater sticks rather than usual crankbait rods i use. The 15-30# 7´ Teramar with a 201DHSV Curado spooled up with 50# braid worked great. Caught 7 from 10 to 35 pounds on Berkley Powerbait swimbaits and 3 on the rattlers, but i avoided using them because smaller dorados didn´t let them reach the bottom.
Great advices Larry!!!
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Postby Bob Daly » Fri Jul 11, 2008 2:28 pm

Bruno: You might want to try the similar Giant Shad Raps made by Cabelas. They are bigger than the Rapala models and are made of hard plastic so the dorados do not destroy them. 8) Also, they have rattles in them. Caught many big dorados on them this April at La Zona.
Will bring some up in April for you to try.
Good fishing, Bob Daly
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Postby Cast4golD » Mon Jul 21, 2008 2:50 pm

Ok Bob, thak you. I´ll be very gratefull. I´m tired of using Super Shad Raps. One good bite and water starts penetrating the wood till paint comes off. Already discarded a lot of them, and here they cost nearly 35 dollars!!! Guess they are not designed for toothy predators but they just work great.
Best regards, Bruno.
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Postby Bob Daly » Mon Jul 21, 2008 4:27 pm

Bruno: Ask Enzo at La Zona about the Cabela Shad Raps. He will verify that they are great for big dorados and last much longer due to being made of hard plastic. 8) Again, will bring some up for you in April.
Good fishing, Bob Daly
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