LA ZONA REPORT FOR MAY 15 TO 18

Friend, Wilson Cox, reports good fishing out of La Zona which is located on the Uruguay River on the Argentina/ Uruguay border.  The water levels were normally high but fluctuated during the weekend whereas large rocks were exposed near the dam.  Wilson said trolling Mag 30s and CUCU lures were extremely productive.  Also home made heavy wire spinnrbaits were really good but destroyed after a few dorado bites.  According to Wilson, the weather was exceptional!  The staff and guides did a tremendous job says Wilson.  Having been a La Zona seasoned veteran, Wilson claims this was one of the best trips he has taken to the "zone", and is already planning on returning in 2016.
The largest golden dorado landed in his boat was by his partner, a 46lbs monster.  Wilson says everyone missed a few over 40lbs near the boat, but he did landed 5 golden dorado at 36lbs.

LOUISIANNA POTENTIAL STATE RECORD REDFISH

Angler Darrel Gilbert recently landed the redfish of his dreams.  While fishing with Capt. Mike Frenette of Redfish Lodge of Louisianna, Gilbert landed and released a monster redfish measuring 53.5 inches with a girth of 31 inches.  The bull red was estimated at 65lbs which exceeds the Louisianna state record of 61lbs.  The current IGFA all tackle record for redfish is a monster 94lbs 2oz caught out of North Carolina.
Gilbert was fishing the shoreline in the South Pass out of Venice, LA.  He was using a pumpkin and chartreuse Strike King redfish magic glass minnow tied to a 3/8 oz jighead and positoned about 2.5 inches above a popping cork.
The Venice area holds lots of monster redfish.  I have personally fished with Capt. Keith Kennedy of Born to Fish Charters and highly recommend his services.  Who knows, maybe you can top Darrel's record catch as they are swimming in the waters around Venice!

LAU LAU RIGS

Heavy duty rigs are required to land the monster Lau Lau.  For my recent trip to Suriname, I made numerous rigs before settling on using the Gamakatsu Octopus Single Eye 4X STRONG 10/0 hook tied to an Owner ST66 4/0 treble with 300lbs Kevlar Cord.  The Gamakatsu Octopus 4X is an extremely sharp and strong hook capable to penetrating the hard mouth of the Lau Lau.  Owner ST-66 or Owner ST-76 are in my opinion the best treble hooks on the market and are extremely strong and razor sharp.  The Kevlar cord was very easy to work with in tying knots.  I first tied the single hook to the Kevlar cord then ran about 5 inches before tying on the treble.  I superglued each knot and placed some shrink wrap over the knots for added protection.  A 6ft- 300lbs Kevlar Cord was then used as a leader

and tied to a 325lbs SPRO swivel.  First, a sinker slide was placed on the leader so heavy sinkers up to 16oz could be taken off without tying up a new rig.  Part of the fun of these trips is experimenting with new rigs before the trip actually takes place.  I found that when using the heavy egg sinkers, I placed a screw eye into one of the holes which could hold the sinker in place but let lose in case of snags so I would not lose the entire rig.  Also, give Kevlar Cord a look for your next leaders for monster fish!

TOP RODS FOR LAU LAU

During the trip to Suriname's rain forest, I had a long search for quality 2 piece fishing rods capable of handling monster Lau Lau.  With strict restrictions on the size of checked baggage, my normal 1 piece rods could not make the trip.  The best rods I found to team up with the previously mentioned Daiwa Opus spinning reel and Fin-Nor Marquesta 30T conventional reel

where the Okuma AC 602MH which is a 2 piece casting rod at 6ft length.  The rod is more of a jigging rod, capable on landing any fish species on this planet.  The rod is very comfortable, lightweight, and has quality guides and reel seat.  The choice of spinning rod was the 2 piece Magna MX-3 Gorilla Big Fish spinning rod.  This rod is made in Europe mostly for carp fishing.  It comes from www.psfishing.com which can ship to the USA with no problem.  The rod was extremely strong and handled the Lau Lau without a problem.  One of the guys in the group also bought a travel rod made by this company and it looked fantastic.  Check out their site as most have never heard of it.
With the size problem imposed by airlines, I have contacted various fishing tackle companies such as Daiwa to take the lead of making quality strong 2 piece rods for the International River monster seekers.  Will hopefully see some new products to my liking very soon!