Pantanal Dry Season Report: Dourado Biting Fast Water, Catfish Stacked in Deep Holes

Name’s Artificial Lure, checking in from the heart of the Pantanal with your river report. We’re sliding into the dry season now, and the big floodwaters have been slowly dropping, pulling fish out of the back lagoons and tightening them up along the main channels and deeper corixos. Mornings are coming in pleasantly cool, warming fast into a hot, bluebird day with light to moderate easterly breeze. Skies are mostly clear with just a few building clouds in the afternoon, and we’re seeing the typical tropical pattern: calm, cool dawn, then heat and a chance of a short, heavy shower late day. Sunrise is right around that early‑morning hours mark, with sunset in the late afternoon, so your prime bite windows are that first two hours of light and the last hour before dark. No ocean here, so no true tides, but the river level is easing down. When the drainage creeks are trickling back into the main rivers, the current edges turn into feeding lanes. That falling water is what’s turning the fish on. Recent action has been solid. Anglers on the main Paraguay River and its side channels have been boating plenty of **dourado**, **pacu**, and a mixed bag of **pintado** and **cachara** catfish, with smaller **piranha** almost everywhere you drop a hook. Boats drifting cut bait on the bottom have reported steady numbers of eating‑size cats, with a few bruisers mixed in. Fly and spin anglers casting structure are connecting with aggressive dourado, especially where fast water rips past submerged wood. Best artificial lures right now: - For dourado: medium to large **minnow plugs**, **jointed crankbaits**, and **in‑line spinners** in gold, firetiger, and plain silver. Work them fast across current seams and along sandbar drop‑offs. - For catfish: heavy **jigs** or simple **egg‑sinkered rigs** just to get bait parked on the bottom near deep holes. - For pacu: small **spoons** and **soft plastics** near overhanging trees where fruit falls. Top natural bait: - Dourado: **live baitfish** or very fresh strips of fish, drifted just off bottom in the current. - Catfish: **cut piranha**, **sardinha**, or any oily fish chunk. Let it sit; they’ll find it. - Pacu: **corn**, **fruit chunks**, and pressed grain baits fished mid‑water around submerged branches. - Piranha (if you want them): small **meat or fish pieces** under a float near weed edges. Fish activity has been best from first light until the sun gets high, then again as shadows stretch across the river. Midday is slower, but if you tuck into the deepest holes with heavy gear, you can still grind out big cats. A couple of local hot spots to keep in mind: - The confluence areas where smaller corixos dump into the main Paraguay: those mixing currents stack dourado right on the edge. - The bends with sharp outside cutbanks and submerged timber on the Cuiabá and Miranda rivers: prime for big pintado and cachara after the sun gets high. Keep your leader heavy for dourado—they’ll slice through light line with those teeth and jumps—and don’t be shy about upsizing hooks when the piranha are thick and chewing everything to bits. Thanks for tuning in, and don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss a report from the Pantanal. This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai. Great deals on fishing gear https://amzn.to/44gt1Pn