About Lois

Lois Deutsch created this vibrant peacock bass image in oils on the rear bumper of a 1995 Dodge Ram pickup truck! The somewhat rickety old truck is being kept on the road as a tribute to the beautiful work adorning its otherwise rusty rear end.

Lois Deutsch was also a talented and prolific ceramicist. She created her art in Hunterdon County, NJ and shared her knowledge and talent with the students of the Hunterdon Learning Center. Lois left behind a legacy of character and dedication to her work.

Painting

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Pottery

The Amazon is home to a vast array of creatures above and below the river's surface; the diversity of fishes alone rivals that of any ocean, with over three thousand known species- and scientists are finding more species every year. Ray painted this seven-by-fifteen-foot-long mural over the course of nine months in 1999-2000, filling it with pink dolphins, a manatee, a curious squirrel monkey, a large black caiman, an anaconda, and a paradisiacal host of fishes. Brad Matsen and Ray can be seen on the back deck of the boat. Ray has a fishing rod in his hand and is wearing a life jacket, revealing his cowardly tendency to panic in dangerous situations. Brad is standing fearlessly with an Antarctica beer in his hand. The original painting is in the Miami Museum of Science's traveling exhibit called ˜Amazon Voyage: Vicious Fishes and Other Riches."

Ray Troll's fine artwork is printed with high quality, lightfast inks on heavyweight acid-free paper. Each art poster is individually signed by Ray. Different sizes are available. Shipped in sturdy round tubes.

From his tree lined studio, high on a hill above the Tongass Narrows in rain-swept Ketchikan Alaska, Ray Troll draws & paints fishy images that migrate into museums, books and magazines and onto t-shirts sold around the planet. Basing his quirky, aquatic images on the latest scientific discoveries, Ray brings a street-smart sensibility to the worlds of ichthyology & paleontology.

FISHES OF AMAZONIA Mural

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Payara Research Logo

Ray Troll's Payara Research Logo adorns a great looking T-shirt made as a fund-raiser for Projeto Pirandira. The project studied payara behavior and sportfishing survival rates. T-shirts are still available in some sizes. Call Acute Angling at 886 431-1668 for more info or click below to email us.

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Mysterious Muckfish

The Amazon is home to a vast array of creatures above and below the river's surface; the diversity of fishes alone rivals that of any ocean, with over three thousand known species- and scientists are finding more species every year. Doctor Paulo Petry has explored and identified many new species in his forays through the Amazon. Dr. Petry is currently the Freshwater Specialist for The Nature Conservancy and is working to protect freshwater ecosystems in Central and South America. The lead scientist in Acute Angling's Projeto Pirandira, Dr. Petry inspired Ray Troll's vibrant payara research logo.

Amazon Mermaid

Ever wonder about the really big peacock bass that got away? Maybe this is what happened

Along with our website update, we decided we needed a new logo. So we went to fish artist Karen Lybrand who created this classy (and biologically accurate) action image of a peacock bass doing what it does best. With this beautiful image in hand, we've created a new Acute Angling T-shirt (available at www.tackle-box.net). More of Karen's beautiful work can be seen on her website at www.Karenlybrand.com..

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Carlos R. Heinsohn is a lawyer and finance executive and an avid fly fisherman from Bogotá, Colombia. He spends much of his free time fishing, tying flies and studying the aquatic ecosystems and the fishes of the Amazon and Orinoco. Carlos assists several local, nonprofit nature conservation foundations. In 2010, he wrote El Buen Pescador (The Good Fisherman), a guide to fishing ecologically, with emphasis on Catch and Release principles. As a result of his research, he is in the process of illustrating the most representative Orinoco and Amazon gamefish, some of which we present for you here, at AcuteAngling.com.

Cichla temensis is the largest member of the peacock bass genus. Its violent behavior and awesome tackle-busting power is the primary attraction that brings avid sport fisherman to the Amazon. This top level predator is considered by many to be the most powerful freshwater gamefish in the world.

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Cichla temensis is the largest member of the peacock bass genus. Its violent behavior and awesome tackle-busting power is the primary attraction that brings avid sport fisherman to the Amazon. This top level predator is considered by many to be the most powerful freshwater gamefish in the world.

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Also called "borboleta" (meaning butterfly in Portuguese). This nomenclature often causes confusion among Amazon visitors familiar with Florida’s "butterfly peacocks" (transplanted Cichla ocellaris). The species occurs naturally in the Negro, Branco and Orinoco drainages. Attains weights of up to about 12 pounds.

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Called "popoca" or "botão" in Brazil, Cichla monoculus is widely distributed along the Amazon main stem and up to the mid-upper Rio Negro and tributaries. It is also found in coastal rivers. Typically attains up to 5 pounds but has been known to reach 10

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C. ocellaris is found mostly in northern Guyana shield drainages. It only occurs in the upper Rio Branco (Tacutu and Urariquera) in Brazil. Temperature tolerant, it has been successfully transplanted to Florida where it is called the "Butterfly” peacock, leading to confusion with C. orinocensis. Attains up to 12 lbs

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Known as the "Royal" peacock by American anglers. Cichla intermedia is found only in the Orinoco drainage, reaching as far south as the Casiquiare,. Typically found in lotic (faster) water. Attains weights up to about 6 pounds.

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Cichla piquiti is one of the newly described (Kullander and Ferreira, 2006) species of Cichla. They are uniquely marked as adults with 5 wide dark vertical bars. Cichla piquiti is found in Brazil in the upper and lower Rio Tocantins and Rio Araguaia drainage. They have also been introduced and extensively stocked in reservoirs and fisheries in Brazil's southern regions.

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Looking like super-sardines, "apapa" are large, migratory clupeids, feeding mostly on other fishes. They are most active in twilit hours and focus mainly on surface oriented prey. Typically encountered in large schools. They can present anglers with extended fishing frenzies.

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The traira (Hoplias malabaricus) is the smaller of two similar species in the genus Hoplias, usually well under 10-pounds. They are found from the northern Amazonian periphery in Venezuela all the way to central Argentina in the Paraná River drainage. These fish prefer slack water and will attack largemouth bass-sized topwater lures or fly rod poppers and sliders with reckless abandon.

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The fantastic dentures of the payara are a remarkable adaptation evolved to help it catch big, quick baitfish in fast-water jungle rivers. These powerful predators congregate in swirling eddies and rushing currents below waterfalls and rapids in South America's tropical, high-gradient rivers. Using their great hunting speed and power, payara strike a bait with amazing force and immediately take-off on line peeling, breathtaking runs punctuated by wild, acrobatic leaps.

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An interesting target for anglers, especially on light tackle, aruana are found in a wide-range of water types. They have earned the epithet, monkey-fish (macaco d'agua) due to their penchant for leaping out of the water to pluck unsuspecting insects and even small birds from overhanging branches. They will strike both surface and subsurface baits as well as well-presented flies

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If a catfish can be called beautiful, this is the one. Sorubim boast an elegant pattern composed of hieroglyphic black markings on a silver gray background dorsally and stark white ventrally. The common name sorubim is used for several similarly shaped species in the genus. Body markings, typical habitat and maximum size differ. P. tigrinum (shown above) is commonly encountered by anglers in Amazon lowland, highland and Guyana shield fisheries

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