If you’ve been to Birch Forest Lodge and talked with me(Adam) at all, you probably know I am crazy about fishing. I have countless conversations each day with people about fishing and every spare moment I get at the resort I go out on Pelican to go fishing. Many people think I do this because I want to have up to date info to better help people catch fish or for accuracy for our weekly fishing reports. And yes, those are good reasons for me to fish, but let’s be totally real. I fish because I love to fish. My fishing passion, borders on being a problem. Don’t believe me? Just ask my wife.

So then, what does a guy who loves to fish and runs a fishing lodge all summer do in the winter? Well, I do have lots of winter work to do… but I make sure to find time for a couple of fishing trips! This winter I had two big trips. The first was to Argentina with my wife for our 20th anniversary. While we didn’t go for the sole purpose of fishing, I did make sure to get some fishing time in! In Argentina we tried a little trout fishing, but it was cold and the trout weren’t bitting well. So we spent most of our time hiking and exploring. But at the end of the trip I decided to stay for a few extra days and tried to fish the Parana river near Corrientes for golden dorado. We had been traveling with another couple(from Alaska) and Jeff and I wanted to stick around a few extra days even though our wives were headed home. For 5 days we fished hard on the Parana and caught several dorados each. But, if you know me, catching small or even average size fish don’t get me super excited. But not to worry, on day 3 of fishing I landed an absolute monster of a golden dorado! Check out the pic-

This dorado fought super hard and was worth every minute of the fight. Came in at almost 30 pounds and was 37 inches long! What a beast. I’d put this fish in the top 10 fish I’ve caught in my life.

As usual, I did take a small group to Belize and guided them around the country. While I was there I did try to do some handline fishing, but it wasn’t great. And I was working so I didn’t have much time to spend fishing. But in February I went on my second big trip of the winter-I went to Guyana for an Amazon Jungle fishing trip! Brock accompanied me and we spent 7 days fishing hard for various species such as piranhas, peacock bass, vampire fish and various catfish including a redtail catfish. This was an epic fishing trip. Arguably the best fishing I’ve ever experienced. The lodge we stayed at wasn’t great. In fact, it was very rough. And the food was barely edible some days. But the fishing, it was unbelievable. And if I had the chance to go again, I probably would, the fishing was that good! During the week I caught more than a dozen species of fish. And for braggable fish I caught several species including a yellow peacock bass, a red pacu, a jau catfish, a redtail catfish, an arapaima, black piranha, a bicuda, and a gorgeous shovel nosed tiger catfish! Rather than show all the pictures here-I will link a video to the trip. We actually made 3 different videos about this trip and they are all worth watching. But I’m only going to link the one for now. I hope you check it out!

I’m so excited for this upcoming fishing season. I can’t wait to be on the water casting for smallmouth bass or slow trolling for walleyes. I miss talking with guests about fishing and hearing their stories. If you want to hear more about one of my winter fishing stories just ask. I’m always happy to share a fish story!!!