During the show season I will speak with thousands of anglers about Amazon Peacock Bass fishing trips. As we discuss destinations, I notice anglers often believe fishing in exclusive rivers is better than fishing in public rivers because there will be less fishing pressure.

I also assumed that there is more fishing pressure on public waterways like the Rio Negro because there are other fishing operation and anglers. However, I decided to be a little more analytical and research how to calculate fishing pressure, so I Googled how to calculate fishing pressure?  

Fishing pressure can be calculated by considering the amount of fishing effort applied to a specific area or population of fish. This can be done by measuring fishing effort (number of anglers, hours fished, etc.). 

Measuring Fishing Effort:

• Number of Anglers: Count the number of anglers fishing in a specific area during a defined period. 

• Hours Fished: Record the total number of hours anglers are actively fishing. 

• Effort per Unit Area: Divide the total fishing effort by the area of the fishing ground. 

• Effort per Fishable Area: Consider only the area that is actual peacock bass habitat.  

After researching this I thought, “how would traveling, catch and release peacock bass anglers define fishing pressure?

The right answer to this is complicated. However, when anglers ask me what the fishing pressure is like on a certain river, I believe they are really thinking about a few things:

1) Am I going to see other anglers?

2) How many times have the fishing spots been fished?

3) How many times have the fish seen a lure/fly?

4) Fish: Quantity and Size

AM I GOING TO SEE OTHER ANGLERS?

If you define fishing pressure as seeing other anglers, then exclusive fisheries might have less fishing pressure.

Please let me clarify why I think this is a maybe

On an exclusive fishery you may only have 8-12 anglers on a private stretch of river per week. However, it’s still likely that you will run into 2 to 4 anglers everyday out on the river. You only see members from an exclusive group, but you are still seeing people.

To clarify further, the last time I fished the Rio Negro (public fishery) I saw 2-6 other anglers per day. Half the time they were clients from other fishing operations and half the time they were Acute Angling clients. However, the last time I fished the Rio Curicuriari (Exclusive fishery) I saw 2-4 anglers a day, but they were only Acute Angling clients.

Math is about the same, but faces are more familiar with the exclusive destination.

HOW MANY TIMES HAVE THE FISHING SPOTS BEEN FISHED?

To know this, we would need to know the size of the total peacock bass habitat area divided by the total hours of fishing. 

At first glance one might think: Well, there are other fishing operations on the Rio Negro than on exclusive fisheries so fishing pressure must be higher. 

It is often the case that an exclusive fishery is a tributary river and even a limited section of the tributary river. Contrast that with the large public waterway of the Rio Negro which has hundreds of miles of fishable water, the river itself is 2-4 miles wide, it has dozens of tributaries feeding into it, and endless side channels and lagoons.

 It is best to visualize this yourself by opening google earth and viewing the Rio Negro. Starting from Manaus follow the Rio Negro upriver until approximately São Gabriel da Cachoeira. Take the measuring tool and note the width of the river in various stretches and zoom in to see all the side channels, lagoons, points, and beaches (Peacock Bass habitat). Then contrast this by studying a few single tributaries that feed into the Rio Negro in a similar fashion.

You will quickly see there is a significant difference in the amount of habitat on the Rio Negro vs a single tributary. Even if the Rio Negro had dozens of anglers per day it is difficult to calculate if the fishing spots (total peacock bass habitat area divided by angling hours) is more pressured than stretches of smaller/tributary exclusive fisheries with fewer anglers.

ARE THE FISH SEEING LURES/FLIES MORE OFTEN?

This doesn’t necessarily address the area of habitat itself, but how many fish per angler are in a river mile. 

To answer this, we need to know how many peacock bass there are per river mile in the various river systems we are comparing. Currently, there isn’t a lot of fish count data for peacock bass fisheries. So, to illustrate this we must use hypothetical examples.

For example, we will take two hypothetical Amazon Peacock Bass rivers: River A and River B. River A is a larger, more nutrient dense river with 2,500 peacock per river mile

River B is a small tributary with approximately 250 peacock per river mile.

If we assume that anglers fish the same amount of time on each river, that the anglers have the same skill, and that the water levels and weather are in similar conditions then it would take ten anglers per river mile on river A to equal the same amount of fishing pressure for one angler on river B.

FISH: QUANTITY AND SIZE

I think it is best to answer this with an example of two rivers The Curicuriari (Exclusive River) and the Rio Negro (Public River).

One of our clients caught 7 peacock bass over 20 pounds in a week of fishing on the Curicuriari. If you catch a 20 pounder on the Rio Negro that is a real treat because it doesn’t happen that often, and generally a fish in the teens will be a big fish for the week. 

However, last year on the Rio Negro we had a couple anglers who landed 408 fish in one day, and they had to quit a couple hours early due to fatigue in their hands. While more common catch rates are 10-40 fish per angler per day on the Rio Negro, several anglers catch over 100 fish in a day each season. No one has ever caught 100 fish in a day at the Curicuriari.

If you measured the size of a single fish the Curicuriari (exclusive fishery) is the clear winner. If you measure the total weight of all the fish caught in a single day the Rio Negro (public fishery) is the clear winner.

So which fishery do you feel is less pressured?

It depends on what you want as an angler.  

“Fishing Pressure” is often an emotional reaction:

When I see anglers on the river that aren’t part of my fishing group I automatically think, “great this place has fishing pressure.” However, trying to be more analytical about it, I realize reality is different than my knee jerk reaction. It would take some very in-depth studies by fisheries biologists to arrive at a more accurate answer.

DEFINE YOUR IDEA OF FISHING PRESSURE:

When this question comes up in the future, I am going to ask what fishing pressure means to the individual client. For some it may mean that they don’t want to see other anglers outside of their group. To others it might mean that they want to feel like no one has fished a specific lagoon all season. Others will be more concerned about the fish per angler per river mile than they will be with seeing other anglers.  

In summary “fishing pressure” is a complicated thing to define and measure for sportfishermen, and it deserves more in-depth discussion and understanding.

Sources:

1. Google: How to calculate fishing pressure