Golden Dorado Feeding Behavior:
Understanding This Amazing Fish
In recent years, the reputation of the Golden Dorado has spread to the four corners of the world and international anglers have placed it at the top of their species bucket list.
There are wonderful videos that highlight the Golden Dorado’s ferocious attacks on gamefish and flies, but the reality of their nature is more complicated. It’s easy to see how fishermen might come to the wrong conclusion, that they are easy to trigger into a bite, after watching film of these toothy creatures with powerful jaws launching unstoppable assaults on anything that moves near them. But this conclusion is far from reality, and it’s essential to understand the Dorado’s true predatory behavior to know why.
The primary prey fish of the Golden Dorado is the Sabalo, a medium sized schooling fish that often weighs between 3 and 5 pounds, which requires a bit of strategy along with opportunity. Catching prey fish like the Sabalo often means the Dorado will have to work in schools, as a team themselves, and wait for the right conditions. Changes of weather or water levels usually cause the Sabalo to react and lower their natural guard, making them vulnerable for a strike. The fact that Golden Dorado patiently wait for these moments and windows of opportunity to become active and attack, is what truly defines them as a species.
There is still a very opportunistic side of the Golden Dorado that makes them a threat to many different types of potential prey. While fishing for other species, like Pacu and Pirapita that are native to the same waters as Golden Dorado, we’ve seen Dorado sipping fruit flies from the surface. Then during the same day of fishing, while fighting a Pirapita, Golden Dorado have charged in and stolen the Pirapita from our line! Besides other fish, Golden Dorado can also be regularly seen eating lizards, mice, large bugs, and even snatching birds that fly too close to the surface of the water. So, they are incredibly diverse predators.
Being prepared to take advantage of changes in weather or water levels, which often trigger many different fish to become active and feed, is a solid approach. But these windows of opportunity are usually difficult to predict and sometimes, just a matter of luck. Keeping an eye on the prey fish and using strategy to work the available cover is a more predictable method of always having a chance at a strike from a large Golden Dorado.