.
Initial fishing reports from the river
we were planning on targeting were
very encouraging with tales of big
peacock bass and lots of them. A few
weeks can be a long time in fishing
and weather terms. A couple of days
before we were due to leave Australia
I received an email from Paul Reiss,
owner of booking agent Acute
Angling, advising that the heavens
had opened in the Amazon and that
for the past two weeks they had
received a bucketing. Everything was
now in flood and all of the rivers in
our intended target area had broken
their banks and inundated all of the
lowlands. It was not good news as
the fish would now be scattered far
and wide. Whilst disappointing, these
types of things are meant to try us and
I always love a challenge.
Fortunately, we were not booked
into a fixed camp but instead fishing
from a highly mobile houseboat,
the well appointed Blackwater
Explorer. Although built in traditional
Amazonian style with two levels and
a flat bottom - so necessary in order
to traverse the many sandbars that
dominate the main river systems (even
in flood) - the vessel possesses many
comfortable modern conveniences
including ensuite cabins and airconditioning.
Although the Amazon experiences
a wet and dry season (which are
opposites depending upon whether
you are north or south of the equator),
unseasonal rain can fall at any time. If
you happen to be booked into a fixed
camp or lodge your trip will be pretty
well ruined. If, however, you are
booked on a mobile houseboat set-up
there is some flexibility by shifting the
operation to areas that are known to
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Our wagon train of dinghies being towed by the Blackwater Explorer. |
produce peacock bass, even in flood
conditions.
With the river still rising upon our
arrival, Reiss made an assessment
that we should now fish the Caures
River, a system that had produced
in the past during floods. It was not
going to be a walk in the park, but
with persistence we should catch fish
according to Reiss.
Any trip to fish the Amazon begins
and ends in the provincial hub city
of Manaus (meaning ‘mother of the
gods’). The city lies at the confluence
of the Negro and Solimoes Rivers and
has a population of over 2 million
people. The more times I go there
the more I enjoy its dynamic nature,
and frontier ambience. It’s a city of
contradictions where the pervading
jungle is met by a sea of humanity
replete with the din of the fish
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markets and the hussle and bustle of
the waterfront contrasted against an
almost surreal - and some would say -
out of place, imposing European-style
pink opera house.
A night out on the town would
be our last brush with suburbia for
some time. After an early breakfast
we were whisked from the stately
Tropical Hotel out to the domestic
airport and were soon flying over an
impressive landscape of flooded river
plains, braids and sand-bars. In places
the Rio Negro arm of the Amazon
was many kilometres wide and often
divided into various channels with a
seemingly unending number of small
islands punctuating the landscape.
Landing in the small community of
Barcelos we boarded the Blackwater
Explorer and spent most of the day
travelling downstream in order to
reach the Caures River.
An evening shake-down session
fishing the flood-plains soon had all
anglers on the scoreboard with bass,
although nothing bigger than 2-3kg.
In these conditions it pays to have
two types of lures set up at any one
time and interchange them depending
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In addition to being
one of the world’s
most attractive and
hard fighting sportfish,
peacock bass are dumb.
God bless them for that
attribute! |
upon the prevailing scenario. On
the first rod a peacock rattle jig (the
Halco whiptail jig is based upon it), in red and white or red and yellow
colouration is the most often used
lure. On the second rod a shallow
runner suspending lure such as a
Rapala X-Rap is a good choice.
Pelado, our guide, was very
particular in the way the lures should
be worked. When winding the jig it
was necessary to impart long twitches
to make it flutter. With the shallow
runner, plenty of wrist action was
imparted in order to make the lure
dart from side to side in a typical
wounded baitfish syndrome. I also
have little doubt the erratic shimmy
of the lure and the resulting refraction
of colour and flash attracted the
peacock’s attention beneath the
surface. |
Another charter operator trailing a floating mobile tented camp. |