South America is home to what is considered some of the best and most untapped fishing areas in the world. Depending on your interests, you can fish in the tropical Amazon Basin, fly fish in Argentina or head off the coasts of Peru and Venezuela for deep sea sport fishing. Many South American fishing destinations can be visited on your own or you can hire guide companies offering relatively inexpensive tours that can be found online or in the country when you arrive.
Northern Patagonia is a fly fisher's paradise, set amongst stunning mountain scenery on several lakes and rivers in the area. Many of the fishing spots are accessible via the town of San Carlos de Bariloche, where there are lodge and budget accommodation for visiting anglers. Try out the Correntoso, Gallardo and Moreno rivers or the highly visited Nahuel Huapi Lake for brown trout, rainbow trout and landlocked Atlantic salmon.
Brazil's Amazon Basin lacks well-developed infrastructure for angler tourism. However, it is steadily growing in popularity among anglers primarily for its large game fishing of peacock bass, within the rivers and tributaries of the Amazon Basin. Peacock bass are found primarily in black water creeks and in abundance in the upper watershed region of the Amazon, where you can expect to commonly catch fish that weigh approximately 10 lbs. and less.
While Venezuela offers some of the most diverse fishing possibilities in all of South America, it is most popular for its offshore sport fishing. The northern coast of Venezuela is subject to a multitude of conditions that attract large quantities of baitfish and large predators to the area. Most commonly, anglers head to La Guaira Bank for the marlin and sailfish game fishing. You can also expect high numbers of swordfish, yellowfin tuna and Wahoo depending on the season.
As the southernmost region in South America where the Atlantic and Pacific oceans meet at Cape Horn, the Argentinean portion of the island of Tierra del Fuego, or "Land of Fire," contains the Rio Grande river with several tributaries offering some of the best sea-run brown trout fishing in the world. Some of the Brown Trout in this region weigh over 20 lbs. with average catches commonly containing 10-lb. fish.
Cabo Blanco is a historically popular fishing destination and home to several world records over the years. Though some of the fish off the coast of Peru have proven to be enormous, many of the fish populations have seen steady decline since the early 1980s. According to gofishn.com, the days of big game fishing of black and striped marlin near the coast are long gone and the fish have moved to areas that few vessels can realistically access.
