What's the best season?
The answer
isn't simple, because seasons in the rainforest do not correspond to specific
seasons as we temperate zone dwellers know them. The best season
is the "dry" season. Rivers in Amazonia all experience an extended
cyclical period of low rainfall sometime during the year, when the rivers
reach their minimum flow. This relatively dry, low
seasonal period is the only productive time to fish for peacock
bass. During the long "rainy" season, Amazonian rivers typically
overflow their banks and inundate huge areas of lowlying jungle
This flooded jungle (known as 'igapo' and 'varzea' in Brazil) offers superior
forage for various species of baitfish. Their predators, especially
peacock bass, follow them into the flooded vegetation. During the
almost eight months of high water, rivers can occupy a surface area often
hundreds of times larger than during the dry season; peacock bass
become all but impossible to catch.
When the rains stop, the rivers begin to withdraw
within their banks. The baitfish head back into the main river bed
and connecting lagoons to avoid being stranded in the rapidly drying 'varzea'.
The peacocks follow as well and begin to gorge on the now concentrated
food supply. This pre-spawn period during the early part of the 'dry'
season is when their accessibility and their aggressive feeding make them
the most exciting freshwater fish in the world. The post-spawn period
features hungry fish, seeking to regain the weight they lost during spawning.
These periods vary in their timing from river to river.
The dry season begins in the southern part of the
Amazon basin in July and August. Southern rivers such as the Rio
Marmelos or Rio Jari begin to provide great fishing in August. As
the dry season progresses on these rivers, the well-fed peacocks begin
to set-up to spawn (after about six weeks). As the fishing diminishes
in the south, rivers further to the north begin to get dry. The dry
season moves slowly north during October and November placing other rivers
such as the Matupiri and the Caures among the optimal destinations for
peacock bass in Brazil. By December, the dry season moves north of
the main body of the Amazon itself and rivers such as the Juferi, the Macucau,
the Tapera and the Araca provide the best Brazilian peacock bass fishing
on into March.
Venezuela's dry season corresponds with Brazil's
'northern' dry season, starting in December and running through March.
The peak here is late December through January. Peru's peak season
is August through October. Bolivia's peak season is December 15 through
the end of January. Although the answer is complex, it simply
means that great peacock bass fishing is available somewhere in Amazonia
from August through March. To keep it simple, Acute Angling will
make certain that you're a properly advised angler who takes advantage
of the seasons by fishing the right rivers at the right time.
For more detailed information
see: A Peacock Bass Primer - Part II - 'The
Fishery' - with a section about Amazonian seasons.
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