The Pull: Rumble in the jungle - Day 6- Land of the giants

Today we are fishing with Coboclo, which is legit cause for excitement. Each guide has a certain beat on the river, you get a different guide every day. Coboclos beat has been a big fish beat this year. And Coboclo is a big fish guide. He really doesn't want you casting at the butterfly peacocks, and often, will try to talk you into shaking even four to five pound peacocks off the hook, so you can hone in on the big guys.
He is also very directive, reading the fishes body language as it chases your fly, and directing your stripping accordingly, often, this will change several times in a cast. "Fast, fast, stop, slow, slow, fast." And he is usually right. He is very good at what he does. My biggest fish ever at Agua Boa is a 12 lb fish, I hoped for at least a 14 lb fish today.

Before we went out, I had a little early morning session down on the dock, looking for new species. And I caught three. The first was really fun, I hooked it in the first couple of casts, and it powered off like a rocket, nearly taking me to the backing on a five weight. Just look at the tail on that thing! Great fish. The locals call it a cabeza gorda, or big head. Haven't got a good ID on it yet. This was followed up by a small, minnow like critter called a covina, then by a new species of piranha that I haven't been able to identify yet.

After breakfast, it was off to the big fish lagoons with Coboclo. At first, honestly, it was pretty slow. We spotted plenty of good fish, but even when we made what seemed like perfect casts, many of them were spooking. Lengthening the leader, and messing around with fly selection didn't really make too much difference. We spent several hours and didn't have much to show for it.

In the early afternoon, it was like a switch flipped. Suddenly, all those fish that were barely paying attention to flies, were crushing them. Very few of them were small. True to form, Coboclo began treating anything under six pounds or so as a pest, encouraging us to give them slack so they could shake the barbless hook. In a pretty short time frame, I had landed four fish of 11 pounds or larger, 2 11's, and 11.5, and a 12, and Terri had landed a couple of tens. Then it happened, just not for me. We came across a very large fish, Terri made a nice cast, hooked up, and I knew from the second I saw the fish, that it was 15 or better. It screamed off and immediately powered under a sunken tree trunk that was right off the bottom,and continued to run off line. Then, everything stopped. We were unsure if we were still hooked up or not. The guide jumped in the water, freed the line, and the fish was still on! After a little more big fish drama, the fish was boatside. I looked at the guide, and said, "16"?, and when we put the fish on the boga that is exactly what it was. Just an amazing fish. Just something I want to clarify. I was very happy for my wife. Proud. Elated. And a little bit insanely jealous at the same time. It's not that I didn't want her to catch that fish. I just very much want one just like it!

I did have a shot. As we were drifting, a fish suddenly loomed up from deep water and was cruising the surface not twenty feet from the boat. The biggest peacock I've ever seen. Easily twenty pounds! I got off a quick cast, but the fish just slowly sank back into the depths, never to be seen again. See you next year!

We closed out the day blind casting a deep bank in the main river channel. Terri was done fishing at this point, apparently having reached her saturation point with big fish. And this bank was loaded with big fish, it was simply one seven to nine pound fish after another. And they were all the spotted peacocks, which somehow seem to pull twice as hard as the others. Some of the nine pound fish, it felt like I was hooked to the bottom of the earth! They're tough! Too soon, the day was over, and we were headed back to the lodge. But what a day it was! I didn't get my 14, but Terri got a 16, and between us we landed 7 fish of ten pounds or over. Cobloclo definitely got it done.

On Thursday night, the guides have casting contents amongst themselves. A course is set up for both distance and accuracy, and all the cabins kick in some dollars. It's a good time, and fun to see how skilled the guides were with the long rod. After this, Terri and I headed down to the docks, I played guide to see if I could get her into something she hadn't caught yet, and she got a nice aracu! Tomorrow, we will be fishing the lower river with Sam, one of my favorite guides. I can't wait!