New Pro Staff Member Profile: Armando Giraldo of Colombia

October 29, 2017

Armando Giraldo is the founder and CEO of Orinoco Flies as well as the co-founder of Orinoco Angling in Colombia.  A native of Colombia, fly fishing was somehow in his blood despite not knowing anyone in the country that fly fished.  Over a couple of decades Armando has pioneered predator fly fishing in the jungle and now runs trips and fly fishing schools in the Orinoco region with Pyara his favorite target.  About Armando:

"About 25 years ago I started in the mosqueo, at that time I did not know anyone who did it here in Colombia, for me from very small the shape of the mosque cane and what I read about the subject in books and magazines that I my father gave me a lot of interest in the subject, until a good few years later I had my first reed, reel and others, with all that this entails; it was no longer just the team, it was the knots, the backing, the line the leader, the tippet etc ... and above all the toss!

I learned alone, I destroyed flies, leaders, I was hooked, I hooked the others, I did not know how to collect the fly, nor handle the winds anyway ... but all this took me more and more to really learn about the subject and specialize to the point to obsess with the different sets and to be efficient so as not to get tired and to continue fishing all day for several days.

This is why I have been teaching the mosque for a long time, it is definitely key to have a person who shows what to do in a quiet, dynamic and didactic way. This fishing technique is incredibly sensory, technical and satisfactory and it is a real pleasure to teach it with all the aspects of observation and conservation that it carries with it."

---

Also in News