A Colombia Fishing Adventure And Grieving For Victims Of This Week’s Tragic Earthquake There
ditor’s note: Editor Chris Cocoles recently visited Colombia and filed the following in our August issue. On Monday, a 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck western Colombia, killing more than 250, with the death toll constantly rising. There are various ways you can donate to help the victims of this natural disaster, including here, here and here. Please consider a donation. Colombia is a beautiful country with wonderful people.
Update: Just chatted with my Colombian guide, Juan Felipe Gutierrez, who let me know that Medellin, where he’s based out of, didn’t suffer any significant damage, but he mentioned the devastation in cities such as Cali, Manizales, Pereira (we flew in and out of that airport back in July during our trip) and in the Department of Chocó, located on Colombia’s western coast. If you do make it down to Colombia in the future, definitely reach out to Juan’s Anglers Colombia (anglerscolombia.com) for some outstanding fishing.
The following appears in the August issue of California Sportsman:
GUATAPÉ, Colombia–“Are you having fun, Chris?”
I understood Juan Felipe Gutierrez’s question. It had been one of the longest days of many long days during an almost two-week trip to Colombia, my first time on the South American continent. I was sunburned, my arms were sore from casting and reeling for hours, and the bass bite was getting sporadic.
Yet as I told Juan, my guide for this day’s fishing trip at popular Colombian destination Lake Guatapé, “I couldn’t ask for much more: I’m outside at this beautiful lake, with great company and I’m fishing. This is a great way to end my trip.”
Last month I joined my sister, brother-in-law and niece in this vibrant, friendly and at times chaotic nation. But I knew I wanted to try and get in some fishing.
When I corresponded with Juan, who’s based in the fascinating and previously infamous Colombian city of Medellin, he sold me on his description of what was a full-service experience: pickup and drop-off from our hotel in Medellin, a homemade breakfast and lunch of traditional and hearty Colombian cuisine, snacks and all the gear we’d need to target black bass at one of the largest lakes in the country. And the cost – a little more than $300 US – made it an absolute bargain.
Juan, whose primary job is a digital specialist for a Medellin TV station and who also operates Anglers Colombia (anglerscolombia.com), is a successful tournament fisherman who on our drive mentioned some of his accolades. He is also the president of his local fishing club and he’s proud to say that his young daughter has become a fishing fanatic.
By the time we picked up our food from a local woman near the lake and linked up with Juan’s fishing buddy and our boat’s motorman, Jairo, the rain that drenched us throughout the drive from Medellin was replaced by warm sunshine but mild conditions. That was a welcome reprieve for me after beginning our Colombia trip in humid, sultry Cartagena and Santa Marta along the country’s north coast on the Caribbean Sea. (Colombia’s quaint coffee-growing region in the Andes Mountains near Salento was also significantly cooler, and the coffee we tasted at a couple local farms was top-shelf.)
All I cared about at the lake was catching a few big bass, but alas, despite Juan and Jairo putting us in what looked like prime fish cover – docks, rocky points, partially submerged stumps and grassy marsh water – the overnight rainfall likely slowed the bite. Still, we managed to land a handful of small fish that we took quick snaps of before putting them back (Juan is a staunch believer in catch-and-release fishing).
At midday, Jairo beached the boat in a secluded cove and set up an impromptu picnic on a shady hill overlooking the lake. We feasted on a typical Colombian dish of pork belly, chorizo, plantains, rice and other goodies. With his English better than my Spanish, Juan and I talked about – big shocker – fishing, including his trips to fish for bass in Florida and his love of online tackle shopping at American retailers like Sportsman’s Warehouse. But I was eager to get back on the water and catch bigger bass.
In reality, the scenery alone made it a worthwhile day. Lake Guatapé is man-made – it’s officially known as the Peñol-Guatapé Reservoir – but it’s a picturesque setting at 6,200 feet in Colombia’s stretch of the Andes. Its most famous attraction is the El Peñón de Guatapé, a large rock formation with 708 twisting steps to the top that my sister and niece climbed on the same day I fished.
As we headed past the rock and the overwhelmingly colorful city of Guatapé toward another fishing spot, we passed by several beautiful lakeside vacation homes, including side-by-side estates owned by local buddies and former brothers-in-law James Rodriguez and David Ospina, teammates on Colombia’s World Cup national soccer team (watching matches at
Colombian sports bars was an epic part of our trip), plus an abandoned, condemned home that was once a retreat for infamous drug lord and crime boss Pablo Escobar.
While the big bass eluded us – Juan cursed in Spanish when at one point he just missed what would have been by far our biggest fish of the day – like I’d told Juan and Jairo earlier, I was having the best time to wrap up my adventure.
I managed to catch and release one last bass before Jairo took us back to unload the gear and for Juan to drive me back through bass before Jairo took us back to unload the a heavy traffic jam to the hotel in Medellin.
The sun dipping over the mountains behind the city that was among the world’s most dangerous places during the volatile Escobar era in the 1980s and early ’90s made for quite the backdrop.
We said our goodbyes and Juan said he’d love to fish with me again someday (check out his Instagram page @AnglersColombia for some of his clients’ bigger catches). If I make it back to this beautiful country, I’ll for sure take him up on it. -Chris Cocoles
