Mr. Tararira himself. Heiko Schneider photo.
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he tararira is prehistoric and a cousin of the bonefish, but a far more aggressive and an ambush feeder that gulps a top water fly. It is found in only some locales of South America, principally Argentina and Chile. The tararira is seldom fished for as a target, but is becoming more popular with South American fly fisherman and slowly recruiting some international anglers as well.
They are shy fish that come from deep water lakes at ice-out to hunker down in the runoff shallows and hide in the brush and cover afforded. They eat other fish, rodents, birds and are toothy, requiring a wire bite guard. It’s an 8-weight rod fish with your leader build preference around 10′.
The tools. Heiko Schneider photo.
The tararira is so aggressive that it will often strike and miss your fly. Your tactic is a wrist twitch off the weeds and lily-like plants leaves – fly should make noise. Generally, you’re going to see all the action happen in front of you as most of the water they inhabit will be clear. Generally, you’ll have to slog through waist high weedy water to get a shot.
At first, an unseen strike will feel as though you’ve hung up on a log, but by the time you feel a wiggle – too late, Mr. Wolf Fish is gone.
