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December 6, 2011
Becky wasn’t crazy about the idea of me jumping in with Dale today as she and I have been having a blast fishing together, but as group host I like to fish with the others if it’s possible. And today actually worked out fine because Becky got to fish with Steve whom she knew before the trip and they definitely had fun together. Fishing has been a little slow for Dale so my goal today was to try and figure out why. Also nice was I got to fish with Dales guide Moe who I enjoyed fishing with last time I was in Brazil. In fact, the last day Moe and I fished together I landed an 11lb and a 13lb peacock.
One thing Moe likes to do is get deep into the jungle. He has been guiding and running these waters longer than any of the guides. He has so many secret spots that I’m lost about ten minutes into our boat ride. It’s really amazing how well he knows this area. Today he ran Dale and me for about 45 minutes before we eased into a gorgeous little lagoon. A lagoon that had a few monster caiman lurking.
It took about two seconds to realize Dale could cast. Casting certainly wasn’t causing him not to catch fish. Dale can hit the targets and his fly was landing where the fish were. But it was his line control. When you land your fly for peacocks it's essential to get an immediate strip. When a fly hits the water it attracts attention and sometimes an instant strike. If you are making a strip you hook the fish. If you’re still reaching for your line you can miss them easily. The other thing is if you think about a creature falling in the water – its not going to just sit there. The creature starts struggling. So your fly needs instant action. I advised Dale and he made an effort to get that first strip going quicker.
I landed a nice peacock almost immediately after we started. My catch made it obvious how important that first strip really is. Sure enough Dale started getting some looks at his fly too. By now the sun was cranking up the heat and adding a morning glow to the submerged rainforest. It was really spectacular when wham! Dales fly was consumed and all hell broke loose! It was a huge fish and unlike me where I hold on tight to the line until my fingers catch on fire, this big boy stole the line and in seconds snapped Dale off in the trees. Moe and I smiled and with a look of panic on his face Dale asked what happened? Then we laughed and I told Dale the line always slips but to try not to let it happen so soon. I’m telling you, when a big peacock eats IT IS SCARY!
An hour later I was the one getting schooled. Dale was resting and Moe was challenging my casting skills deep in the jungle. It was like being in a shooting gallery. It was a real kick trying to cast both lefty and righty as well as back hands and forward casts. I even slipped in a few roll casts to hit the unhittable spots. On one of my retrieves there was a huge boil behind my fly. I’d landed a few more small peacocks but this swirl was serious. Moe advised to rest the spot so we paddled away for ten minutes then went back. I changed to a Warpath jiglike fly and tossed it to the area where the big fish hung out. On the first strip I got pulverized and I clamped down on the line with all my might. Not a chance. This brute pulled the line from me within seconds and took for the forest. He purposely went around a couple trees and then snap. Only this wasn’t my 40lb leader. I lost two feet of the end of my fly line. Yikes! Giant peacocks are unreal!
The real monsters can manhandle about anyone with a rod. I don’t care if you’re an expert fly fisher or even a professional bait caster with 80lb test braid, peacocks frequently win. Other than an enormous lizard that leaped into the water after my fly and luckily missed it, our midday fishing was a little slow. The main reason was that Moe was searching us out a big fish. He saw us each break one off, now he wanted one in the boat. As he paddled us along the forest he noticed a disturbance in the middle of the lagoon. It was bubbles from a big peacock. And it was far from the forest. This peacock was 100 feet from the nearest snag. “Cast”, Moe screamed to Dale as he pointed. Not knowing peacocks ever leave their fortress Dale questioned Moe. “Why cast out there? There’s no fish out in the middle of the lagoon”, Dale stated. That’s when I yelled cast and pointed until finally he launched. He made a great cast. “Strip fast”, I shouted. The next thing I knew Dale was hooked up.
Again the line squirted away from Dale and the big fish charged for the trees. “Stop him! Stop him!” I was freaking out. Finally Dale at least slowed the fish to the point that when he reached some bushes he was tired. And when the peacock got tangled in the bushes he didn’t have enough left in his tank to break Dale off. He was stuck and we just needed to dig him out.
Moe is one of the best and overboard he went and into the brush with his Boga. There was a bit of commotion when the fish saw Moe's face but he really was spent. Moe slipped the Boga to the peacocks’ mouth, cut Dales leader and swam out with the fish. Moe is awesome! He handed the fish to Dale and Dale landed what appeared to be one of the greatest fish of his life. I know the look. It’s a smile from ear to ear and the rest of his face and body was in shock. Dale went from not catching many fish to catching an 11lb Godzilla!
No ones day could have gotten any better after that. I love to see a friend catch a big fish. Dale was glowing. Moe had the pressure off and so did I. We fished a little more this afternoon and I ended up with ten fish. Dale only got one but it seemed like a hundred. Dale doesn’t drink beer at all but he had one with me on the ride home.
The ride home was interesting. There isn't much boat traffic out in the boonies of the Amazon. We don’t even see many locals in dugouts. But there’s been a decrepit boat on the river the last couple days. It turns out they were locals from the village of Vale and they were hunting. When we saw them on the way to camp tonight Moe brought us over to see what they were up to. They had just shot a tapir for dinner. It was skinned out and dressed and the hunters were very pleased. I’ve never eaten tapir but they resemble a pig, a cow and perhaps even a small elephant. I’ll bet they taste great.
When we got back to camp I took a swim. You can swim in the Amazon as long as you keep your feet out of the water, otherwise you’ll lose your toes to piranha. Actually unless you’re bleeding to death and thrashing in the water a piranha attack on humans is rare. What you do have to worry about though are caimans and anacondas. They don’t scare me however – I’m just a crazy. . . . !
December 4, 2011
It’s hard to beat waking up in a camp on the banks of the Amazon. Some of the coolest birds make their morning calls. Dolphin chase bait in front of your cabin. And the camp staff has delicious coffee made by 5:30. Life really doesn’t get any better.
I got up around 5 AM. Believe it or not I was freezing. Obviously it’s not cold here but River Plate cabins actually have air conditioners. Becky and I accidentally set ours so cold we froze to death. So bad that I turned it completely off in the middle of the night only to awake about an hour later just roasting. Then back on again and freezing by daylight. I ended up opening both doors and the windows to let the hot air back in. This morning John told us exactly what number to set our air conditioner at and we should be set for the rest of the week.
Breakfast is served at 6 AM in camp and the sooner you finish the quicker you head out fishing. Here at River Plate guides are eager to go and ready when you are. Becky awoke to a dismal looking rod hand. You may remember I said this trip is her first time casting heavy rods, well let’s just say she developed some aches and pains. She says her wrist is killing her and she has a terrible blister on her hand. Luckily, she’s about as close to a doctor as you can be and she fixed it up with some goo and tape. She’s also a maniac like her older brother and after the first half hour fishing she wore away the pain.
Fishing started rough for us again. Luckily there were no equipment failures. My artillery of Ross Rods and Reels and my Scientific Angler lines were doing their part. We simply couldn’t find the fish. I lucked into one tiny speckled peacock but that was all we got before lunch.
Lunch generally consists of a woofing of a sandwich in the shade. But due to the slowness of today, Matu set Becky and me up with some hammocks. We relaxed in the shade, ate and drank a beer. Then Matu took us on one of his jungle-maze runs and we popped out in a beautiful lagoon. Becky and I were stoked and overflowing with confidence, but I heard Matu growl and looked back only to get hand signals from him that the water here was much too high. Knowing this would likely be the case everywhere I signaled back that I was willing to give it a try.
This appeared to be a great time for Becky to rest her arm so I went to work casting from the bow while Matu eased me along with an electric trolling motor. Even though I wasn’t catching any fish I was having a good time. One thing about peacock fishing is that the deeper into the jungle you land a cast the better you do. At this particular spot casting was like a game. I wasn’t even thinking about fish. I was just taking casting risks one after another lucking into a few casts that surprised the hell out of me. But it wasn’t some great cast twenty feet back through a small gap in the forest that drew the first strike. The brutal attack on my fly occurred about ten feet out towards the boat. And it’s a good thing.
Big peacock bass hit a fly harder than any freshwater fish I’ve ever met. They make trout and our bass seem like wimps. They hit harder than Nile perch, tigerfish, pike and the list goes on. They hit and run so ferociously it scares you and it often takes a miracle to stop them. This peacock that hit me dropped me to my knees. I fish a ridiculously strong five feet of straight 40lb shock tippet and that’s my leader. I attach it to a whipped loop on the fly line that I make myself. It’s the only way to have a chance. What dropped me to my knees was that at first I attempted not to let the huge fish run because if I did he would run so far back in the submerged trees, vines, bushes and etc that I’d never see him again.
Even with 40lb test, my 9-weight Ross and a lot of experience with peacocks I could only hold on for a few seconds. Gradually the line burned through my clenched hands, thumb and fingers. But my efforts slowed him enough. The one weakness of a peacock bass is that their fierce run is short lived. They give everything for about fifteen seconds. Then they fight about half as much and you steer them into the middle of the lagoon. I led my fish to Matu's massive net after about four minutes.
You could say that Becky was in a state of shock. She was very impressed with what turned out to be a 13lb peacock. But it was the power of the peacock that awed her most. She was flat out frightened. This fishes strike and run had me grunting and groaning, nearly yanked me off the bow and bent my rod deeper than you could do by hand before finally giving in. Becky gave me a nervous smile, shook her head and said had she not seen that fight with her own eyes she would never believe it. And she said she wouldn’t have had a chance.
Everyone has a chance. Fish do stupid things just like people. Probably not as many though. I just put the screws to the fish long enough to get him. My hands too were now messed up. I’d put line blisters across my thumb and several fingers. Worthwhile scars and I hope there are more to come.
I acquired another wound while handling the beefy peacock. Just as I took him off the Boga for a few pics before releasing him, the muscular fish started a tantrum and his dorsal spines clipped my leg. My leg was a bloody mess that even after I stopped the bleeding, ached from the poison that all fish spines leave. No big deal though. We usually get the fish but sometimes they get you. It’s all part of the deal.
The rest of our day remained decent. Becky and I went on to nail about a dozen more peacocks including one of 7lb. When we got to camp I learned of mixed reports from the rest of the group. Ken and Dale had a rough day. They nailed just a couple small peacocks and Dale took a hook to the lip. He’ll be alright. Steve and Bill each caught a fish and Steve fell in. All is good though as Steve held onto the rod and didn’t lose any body parts to piranhas. We can laugh about it now. Mark and Linda had and exceptional day. They landed many peacocks and Linda landed this beautiful 12lb giant. In these conditions – absolutely fantastic!
December 3, 2011
Last night Becky and I rolled into the Tropical Hotel in Manaus, Brazil at about 11:30 PM absolutely exhausted from the long two days of travel from the States. Our overnight at this hotel was the last leg of the journey before heading to the Amazon today. Most of my seven guests arrived on earlier flights and were sound asleep, all but my buddy Steve Berry from Phoenix who was in the bar waiting for us. Once Becky and I checked in we joined him for one late night brew.
During our brew I was quickly informed that our flight into camp was leaving at 5 AM sharp. In past trips we’ve never left for the Amazon before about 1 PM. The early departure was great news however here we were tired as can be having a midnight beer. We pounded the Brahma fast and headed to the room for the short sleep.
As expected the 4 AM wake up call came quick but we bounced from bed and headed for the lobby for a snack and coffee. Before we knew it we were at the Manaus domestic airport weighing our gear to prove we were light enough to board our amphibian Caravan plane. Once that was done we were on our way. I couldn’t believe we got this early of a start!
The flight into camp on the Xeurini River takes about 11/2 hour. We hit some huge pockets of rain and dodged some massive thunderheads but soon I looked below and saw camp. After a sound water landing we were greeted by fishing guides in their boats and were hustled into camp where we met camp manager John. John gave us a short orientation and then a rundown on the fishing. The water is higher than high and fishing will be tough. Tougher than tough actually, and he made it very clear fly fishing may not prove successful at all.
The camp I use for this trip is operated by River Plate Outfitters. I book the famous “floating tent camp” for eight anglers. Most those in this trip are friends however on some years I am short a few and offer the trip to anyone. If you love cool fish in an adventurous environment this is the trip and you can contact me to see if I have room for next year.
“Fly Fishing may not prove successful” are tough words for me to swallow. Evidently they are tough words for my group to swallow as well for not one of them flinched or showed any fear towards the camp manager John’s statement. They simply let John finish his spiel and then headed to their tents to unpack and rig the fly rods.
All eight of us were fishing before 9 AM. Becky and I fished with a local guide named Matu. Matu doesn’t speak a lick of English and hardly any Spanish. In fact, I’m not even sure he speaks Portuguese, the language of Brazil, and therefore he is extremely hard to communicate with. Nevertheless, Matu can run the River Plate fishing boat and knows where the fish are.
This is only my third trip to the Xeurini River yet it didn’t take much for me to realize just how high the water was. It’s literally about six feet above the banks. And sure enough at the first place we stopped we were casting into deeply submerged trees. The problem with high water is that the peacock bass can swim far back into the forest where the boat can’t go. The jungle is basically flooded. No matter how close you cast to the structure, the fish could be another 100yds further back into the trees and never see your fly. At the first spot we stopped Becky and I cast relentlessly for over an hour and saw nothing. Not only did we go fishless but I shattered my 8-weight in the middle of a cast. The very rod that performed so well on the Wisconsin musky trip last month. I’m not sure why it broke but I do know this was a very bad start!
I had several other back up rods on board so by the time we got to Matu’s next fishing spot Becky and I were ready. We’d driven, paddled and macheted through about a mile of tropical rain forest to get to this place and because we were so far back the depth was relatively shallow. It would be hard for peacock bass to hide from us here. The only problem was you could hardly cast because of all the overhanging trees and dangling vines. This kind of fishing is all new to Becky so I sort of stayed back and watched her get familiar with the tight casting. Also, Becky has never chucked a big stick before so the 8-weight took some getting used to as well. Like most first timers to peacock fishing she spent a fair amount of time tangling in the overhead trees and snagging on sunken logs. This is always entertaining because most trees have a few sleeping bats and Becky was waking them up left and right!
Meanwhile I was still a little ticked about breaking a rod in the first hour. I bring a bunch of extras expecting a few rod fatalities amongst my group but not this soon and not without a fish. But gradually the broken rod frustration faded and I started nailing some decent casts to where fish just had to live. Soon enough I nailed my first peacock of the trip – a very encouraging sign.
Our day improved from there. Becky and I ended up catching ten peacocks today. Becky got her first two and really learned a lot and fine tuned her casting. The peacocks we caught consisted of a mostly what is called the gray bar or fire belly. These are beautifully colored peacocks usually glowing in orange around the gill flaps and then have a gray smudged bar above the belly. Then they have a few spots along the back. They are one of the smaller peacock species and rarely get more than 3lbs.
Today was a great day to start the trip. Everyone in my group except for Ken caught fish. The wildness of the Amazon was evident with all the gorgeous birds and we saw a ton of the famous freshwater dolphins. The high water is a threat but it appears we may be able to work through it. Now the biggest fear we have is that the water may come up more. We experienced some heavy rains several times today. The rain felt good because it cooled us down in the steamy jungle but we don’t want the water to rise anymore.
I’m really exhausted now and its time to score the first decent sleep since I left Victor. Hopefully tomorrow we can get into some of the larger peacock bass species and the water doesn’t rise. Stay tuned.
December 2, 2011
My sister Becky and I survived the overnight flight to Sao Paulo, Brazil with flying colors and find ourselves in a 9 hour layover waiting to fly to Manaus, Brazil tonight. We’re doing our best to kill off the time. I sorted flies, walked every square inch of the airport and now we’re sucking a few local beers and watching the people. We arrive in Manaus tonight around 11 PM and tomorrow we fly into the Xeurini River to start fishing.
The long journey has begun. I’m presently at the San Francisco airport en route to the Amazon. It was a snowy windy night in Victor, Idaho. My flight left Idaho Falls at 6 AM. Needless to say I couldn’t sleep to well worrying about the morning road conditions and the fact that I had to leave my house by 3 AM. As expected, the roads were treacherous all the way to the airport and it was a good thing I gave myself some extra time.
The flight from IF to San Fran was a cake walk and my next jump is to Houston. My younger sister Becky is on this Amazon trip so I will meet her in Houston and tonight we fly together to San Paulo, Brazil. We’ll get in around 11 AM tomorrow morning. We have most of the day to kill there before we fly up to Manaus, Brazil and sleep there and meet up with my group. Then Saturday we take the bush flight into the Xeurini River.
Fishing conditions look to be difficult. It’s unfortunate because I have a great group of folks. In fact, this is the group I was taking last March and we had to reschedule at the last minute because of flood conditions. Anyhow, water levels are high but not enough to cancel again thank goodness.
It’s been a challenging year in the Amazon. Many trips have suffered the consequence of high water. What it adds up to is far less fish caught overall because the fish can literally swim deep into the rainforest where boats can’t reach them. And you don’t exactly wade around in the Amazon. The blame goes on El Nino causing far more moisture than normal.
We’ll give it our best. I should note that catfishing is supposed to be excellent during high water. The Amazon has some of the world’s largest and most amazing looking catfish imaginable. You can expect I’ll be dunking a piranha at least a few times this week.
As always I will report about each and every day of the adventure. However it’s likely I will not have much internet access until after the trip. Stay tuned – this is going to be interesting!
This will be one of the shortest blogs ever as I’m a little pressed for time. I floated the South Fork today. It’s possible this was the last time this year but hopefully I’ll get out in December. As usual the fish were all over the streamers. Here are a few pics from the day.
The reason for the short blog is that I’m leading a group to the Amazon starting Thursday. I haven’t packed a thing. We are faced with high water again but this time not quite as bad as when we rescheduled in March and we’re going to deal with it. That means organizing some specialty sinking lines and carefully chosen deep riding flies. And a variety of odd flies so I can take advantage of some of the smaller less sought after species that prowl around. I might even set us up for some catfishing. The Amazon has some of the largest most interesting catfish on the planet!
It’s impossible for me to report while in the Amazon. I hope to give a quick update from Manaus, Brazil on Saturday morning just before we fly into camp. I’ll write up my blogs every night after fishing but realistically they won’t start posting until around December 10th. They should be worth waiting for!
An eye catching trend has occurred in my life. In 2009 I fished 14 days in November. Six of were in Baja. Last year in November I fished eight days. Five were in Africa. But as of today I have only four days fishing in November. Luckily I’ll raise it to five tomorrow but I believe I’m getting more dedicated to my self employment. I heard that it takes two years to blow the steam and then you get serious. That theory is right on.
What helped me most was that winter came early to Idaho. That always leads to more time indoors and less fishing. Here’s a glimpse of just a few of my November art projects.
Becky wasn’t crazy about the idea of me jumping in with Dale today as she and I have been having a blast fishing together, but as group host I like to fish with the others if it’s possible. And today actually worked out fine because Becky got to fish with Steve whom she knew before the trip and they definitely had fun together. Fishing has been a little slow for Dale so my goal today was to try and figure out why. Also nice was I got to fish with Dales guide Moe who I enjoyed fishing with last time I was in Brazil. In fact, the last day Moe and I fished together I landed an 11lb and a 13lb peacock. 
Moe is one of the best and overboard he went and into the brush with his Boga. There was a bit of commotion when the fish saw Moe's face but he really was spent. Moe slipped the Boga to the peacocks’ mouth, cut Dales leader and swam out with the fish. Moe is awesome! He handed the fish to Dale and Dale landed what appeared to be one of the greatest fish of his life. I know the look. It’s a smile from ear to ear and the rest of his face and body was in shock. Dale went from not catching many fish to catching an 11lb Godzilla!
No ones day could have gotten any better after that. I love to see a friend catch a big fish. Dale was glowing. Moe had the pressure off and so did I. We fished a little more this afternoon and I ended up with ten fish. Dale only got one but it seemed like a hundred. Dale doesn’t drink beer at all but he had one with me on the ride home.
The ride home was interesting. There isn't much boat traffic out in the boonies of the Amazon. We don’t even see many locals in dugouts. But there’s been a decrepit boat on the river the last couple days. It turns out they were locals from the village of Vale and they were hunting. When we saw them on the way to camp tonight Moe brought us over to see what they were up to. They had just shot a tapir for dinner. It was skinned out and dressed and the hunters were very pleased. I’ve never eaten tapir but they resemble a pig, a cow and perhaps even a small elephant. I’ll bet they taste great.
When we got back to camp I took a swim. You can swim in the Amazon as long as you keep your feet out of the water, otherwise you’ll lose your toes to piranha. Actually unless you’re bleeding to death and thrashing in the water a piranha attack on humans is rare. What you do have to worry about though are caimans and anacondas. They don’t scare me however – I’m just a crazy. . . . !
