Fishing in Paraguay: a guide for Brazilian anglers

Paraguay shares with Brazil two of the most fished rivers in South America: the Paraná, which forms the border with the state of Paraná, and the Paraguay River, which comes down from the Pantanal forming the border with Mato Grosso do Sul. On the Paraguayan side you catch the same dorado, the same pintado and the same pacú, but under different rules: another licence, other closed-season dates and its own minimum sizes. This guide gathers what changes when you cross the border, with a source for every fact. The whole guide, with 117 lodges, guesthouses, guides and boats verified one by one, is available in Portuguese.

Before leaving: documents

Brazilians need no visa. They need a valid identity document in good condition: the RG card or a passport. A driving licence and professional cards are not accepted as ID at the border, according to the Brazilian Consulate in Asunción. The entry stamp from the Dirección Nacional de Migraciones is mandatory, even on bridges where nobody stops the car: whoever has no proof of entry, or overstays, pays a fine of Gs. 618,546 (about R$ 450) when leaving. Tourists can stay up to 90 days, extendable once.

Minors travelling without both parents need the travel authorisation with a certified signature. And anyone coming from Amazonas, Minas Gerais, São Paulo, Rio Grande do Sul or Roraima must show the international yellow fever vaccination certificate, with the shot taken at least ten days before.

By car the list is longer: vehicle papers (CRLV), a physical driving licence, because the digital version is not accepted, and the Carta Verde, the mandatory Mercosur international insurance. If the driver is not the owner, an apostilled power of attorney. The consulate also lists what the car must carry: seat belts for everyone, a valid fire extinguisher, a first-aid kit, a jack, a spare wheel and two warning triangles.

The MADES fishing licence

Fishing in Paraguayan waters requires the sport fishing licence from MADES, the environment ministry, lagoons and ponds included. Foreign visitors get a special licence, provided for in the regulation of the law (Decree 6523/11, art. 37 c). When fishing outside an authorised tournament, they register in the National Fishers Registry with a photocopy of their ID, a copy of their entry permit and the registration form (Res. SEAM 650/13); the licence form also asks for two passport photos. MADES publishes on its procedures page the cost of the standard sport licence, two minimum daily wages, but not that of the foreign visitor licence: in April 2025 it announced it on its social media, Gs. 322,881 for 4 days (three daily wages at the time); 2026 amount not published. Check it when you apply. If you bring your own boat, it is registered separately, for one daily wage, with the title from the Prefectura General Naval.

The card is issued at the MADES head office in Asunción, at the regional offices in Pilar, Ayolas, Ciudad del Este, Encarnación, Coronel Oviedo and Concepción, or online through SIAM, the ministry's system, with payment through the Bancard network. If you are going with a lodge or a guide, ask when booking whether they will get it for you, and request the receipt before travelling. Fishing without a licence carries a fine, and a high one. The step by step, with the form and the amounts the ministry publishes, is here: the licence step by step.

What to have on hand at a checkpoint

MADES does not publish a list of what to show at a checkpoint: its procedures page says what to file for the licence, not what to carry on the boat. So what follows is this guide's advice, not an official rule. Keep at hand the licence, or the receipt if your lodge got it for you; the ID you entered the country with; the Migraciones proof of entry, because without it there is a fine on the way out; and, if you bring your own boat, its registration.

Foreign visitors also have a number of fish to keep in mind: Res. SEAM 650/13 lets them take home as trophies up to 2 mixed fish plus 1 surubí or dorado, or up to 3 mixed fish (sábalo, boga, pacú or patí).

Closed season: the dates are not Brazil's

The Brazilian piracema has its own calendar, and it does not apply on the Paraguayan side. What applies is the closed season MADES decrees every year, in October, for sport and commercial fishing. The pattern is for it to start in the first days of November. In waters shared with Brazil the closure runs until January 31; in those shared with Argentina and on the country's inland rivers, streams and lagoons, until December 21. In other words: on the Paraná above Itaipú and on the Paraguay River to the north, the closure is longer than in Ayolas or Pilar.

Holding a licence does not allow fishing during the closure: Fine of 1 to 20,000 minimum daily wages depending on severity (Decree 1837/2019), today up to Gs. 2,342 million. Before booking a trip between November and January, check the year's resolution at mades.gov.py. Month by month, with the closure marked: the month-by-month calendar.

Minimum sizes and catch and release

Across the whole country the minimum sizes of Law No. 3556/08 on Fishing and Aquaculture (art. 34), enforced by MADES, apply, measured in total length, from snout to tail tip: dorado 70 cm, spotted surubí 85 cm, tiger surubí (the cachara) 80 cm, pacú 45 cm, pirá pytá 45 cm, boga 45 cm and patí 70 cm. On the stretch shared with Argentina the binational Unified Regulation (Ituzaingó, 2000) also applies and requires 75 cm for dorado: on the border, the higher limit rules. Anything below goes back in the water. Some tournaments, like the ray tournament in Carmen del Paraná, are entirely catch and release.

The fish, with their local names

• Golden dorado: the same Salminus brasiliensis called dourado in Brazil. Season: year round outside the closed season; best from March to May and from August to October.
• Surubí catfish: the local name for both the pintado (P. corruscans) and the cachara, which the regulations call P. fasciatum. Season: year round (outside the closed season); from June to September it holds in the deep pools.
• Pacú: season outside the closed season: on the Paraná, summer (December to March); in the Pantanal and on the upper Paraguay, low water from July to October.
• Pirá pytá: the piracanjuba, Brycon orbignyanus. Not to be confused with the Pantanal's piraputanga, B. hilarii, a different species. Season: spring and summer, outside the closed season; best in summer.
• Boga, Tararira (wolf fish), Patí catfish and Piranha complete the guide's 8 species.

Where to cross and the closest areas

Over the Friendship Bridge (Foz do Iguaçu to Ciudad del Este) you reach the Ciudad del Este area, on the triple border, with yacht clubs and fishing on the Itaipú reservoir: 4 places. Ciudad del Este. The Integration Bridge, between Foz and Presidente Franco, opened in stages from December 2025; in September 2026 only passenger vehicles of registered border residents could cross, so check what is allowed before counting on it.

Through Ponta Porã and Pedro Juan Caballero you enter the north: Concepción, the river gateway of the Paraguay River, with big surubí in the deep pools and the port the houseboats leave from for the Pantanal (11 places, Concepción), and Vallemí and San Lázaro, at the confluence with the Apa (7 places, Vallemí and San Lázaro).

The Paraguayan Pantanal is the Bahía Negra area, in the far north: you get there by light aircraft or by boat up the Paraguay River from Concepción, which is why it is fished on expeditions. 3 places. Bahía Negra and the Pantanal.

On the Paraná below Yacyretá are the classic dorado areas: Ayolas and Coratei, where around five hundred people already made a living guiding anglers in 2015, according to the state news agency IP (24 places, Ayolas and the Paraná Corridor), Cerrito, a magnet for Brazilian anglers for decades, with white sand beaches and guesthouses with boats (10 places, Cerrito), and Paso de Patria, at the confluence of the Paraná and the Paraguay (7 places, Paso de Patria). Encarnación, on the Yacyretá reservoir, is the city of the clubs that organise a good part of the tournaments (8 places, Encarnación and San Cosme). The twelve areas, river by river: the fishing areas.

Houseboats

The guide has 3 houseboats, where you sleep, eat and fish on board. The Pérola do Iguaçu sails the Paraná in Paraguayan and Argentine waters out of Ayolas and is run by Interação Turismo, from Brazil, with service in Portuguese. The Rejane is based in Humaitá, on the Paraguay River, between Paso de Patria and Pilar. And the Siete Cabrillas leaves the port of Concepción heading north, on expeditions of two to seven nights, reaching the Tres Gigantes Biological Station, in Bahía Negra, on the long trips. All three: the houseboats.

Open tournaments

The guide lists 15 tournaments, and several carry "international" in their name: the Dorado and Variada tournament in Ayolas, holding its 24th edition on 27 September 2026; the Holy Week tournament in Pilar, with 55 editions in 2026; and the Bella Vista tournament, in Itapúa, over fifty years old. Dates, venues and registration phones: the tournaments.

Money and contact

The currency is the guaraní. The guide's prices are on each listing, in the currency the provider charges, and most listings have the WhatsApp button of the lodge or guide itself: you talk directly to whoever will take you to the river, with no middleman. The guide charges nobody anything. And before leaving, check today's river levels: the official level of the river's stations, every day.

Frequently asked questions