So much better than I deserve! Amazon Day 2

Today, we are fishing with Zezinio, or, as most call him, Joseph.  I have high hopes for this day.  Joseph has guided in the Amazon for TWENTY TWO years!   He claims to be the first fly fishing guide in the Amazon.  He is a first class waterman, knows exactly how to pole and position a boat for any fly caster, and can read the moods of the fish.  I also have a little trepidation, because my cabin mate Chris is a new fly caster, and Joseph can be a little, let's say, "demanding."  We were discussing this last year, and we made note, that if you get the "look at me", comment you're in trouble.  However, if you get a whistle, after you make a great cast, that's the highest of compliments.  Joseph gives, and Joseph takes away.  

We traveled far upriver, and then left the main river channel and wound our way through what was basically a labyrinth, with Joseph occasionally leaving the boat to pull out or cut through obstacles that were in the way.  Finally, we reached what is always the goal of journeys like this.  We could see light ahead, and soon we left the darkness of the outlet and entered a small, open lagoon.  Immediately I hooked a large dogfish.  Dogfish are a little bit of a nuisance.  They are generally small, and so full of teeth that they can be really rough on flies.  I generally don't set the hook if I see them slashing at the fly.  However, they are also a fine gamefish.  They jump like crazy, pull well, and if you threw five weights to match them, they would be awesome.  This one was a big one, and well hooked, so it came to the boat for a photo-op, then Chris landed one as well.

After the dogfish, it was a parade of butterfly peacocks.  For awhile, it was fish on demand in the one to four pound range.  By the time we had circled around the lagoon, we must have landed a couple dozen.  Fun, not that I didn't have hopes for something more, but that's only because I'm spoiled.  So I felt satisfied, with just a hint of disappointment as we prepared to leave.  But wait, we weren't going back the way we came.  We were winding through another creek, breaking through new obstacles, and on our way to a new lagoon behind this one.  It felt like a lost and secret world, and then Joseph said, "Check leader.  Big fish here."  Well, OK then.  Looking at the lagoon, you felt that tingling in your spine that just says, "something special is going to happen here."

12 lbs

15 lbs!

I was on the bow, and in my first few casts, I got slammed.  There is nothing that can really prepare for you for how hard a big peacock pulls in those first 30 seconds after they are hooked.  They can literally yank you out of the boat.  If you can make it through the early part of the fight, you usually have them, my battles with big ones usually just last a couple of minutes.  But the strike and initial run can be shocking.  And so it was with this fish.  Jospeh spotted it cruising, I tossed a fly five feet in front of it, and a millisecond later, I was hooked up.  When the fish did make it to the boat, it was just perfect, a male in prime condition, with thick shoulders, and a big hump on it's head.  It weighed in at 15 pounds, which is tied with the biggest I have landed here.  There was some whooping and hollering (note, the hollering was all from me).

A few minutes later, I landed a twelve pound fish, and a few minutes after that, another twelve pounder.  My first year, twelve pounds was my largest of the week.  Some of the big fish we hooked were followed by other big fish, swirling below them, looking like they were trying to take the fly out of the mouth of a hooked fish.  Joseph called out, arowana, 11 o'clock, and there was one my favorite fish, sliding through the water in an easy, almost serpentine manner.  Of course, when the fly hit the water, the fish destroyed it, and then responded with two towering jumps.  Because it was that kind of day.

Chris meanwhile, was learning some hard lessons.  Primarily about strip striking.  Chris comes from a spin fishing background, and when you have a "bite", you lift the rod.  But if a big peacock eats your fly, and you lift your rod, you are almost NEVER going to hook it. Peacocks also have an annoying habit of basically eating, and then swimming directly at you, so you have to learn to strip hard and then keep stripping until you come tight. This lagoon was loaded with big peacocks.  They were hungry and willing.  Chris was casting well, stripping well, presenting the fly, and had some amazing eats from six peacocks, every last one of them double digit fish.  And he executed what the lodge manager calls the "fly protection program" every time, yanking it right out of their mouths.  After the third one, Chris got the "look at me", from Joseph.  And then a speech, "when fish eats, no lift rod (accompanied by a pantomine of someone lifting a rod) strip strike (accompanied by pantomine strip striking)  Immediately after that speech Chris missed two more big ones, and then had a huge fish in the 15 pound range eat right at the boat, a terrifying strike which he reacted to by simply jerking his rod to the left.  It was rough.  But the only way to land big fish is to lose some first.

17 lbs baby!

/We had finally worked our way around most of the lagoon.  I was blindcasting, and just as the line swung back towards the poling platform, near the end of the retrieve, I noticed a fish following the fly, in the second I had to process, and think, "big fish", there was a huge yellow flash as it ate.  From the beginning of the fight, this fish was different.  Not to over dramatize it, but it had a lot of weight, and a lot of heart.  After several minutes, it still was digging deep, and making short runs to the center of the lagoon.  We hadn't seen it, but I was pretty sure it was the biggest I had ever caught.  When we did finally catch a glimpse, Joseph whistled, which is always a good sign.  Finally we had the fish at the boat, and I wasn't surprised when it weighed slightly over 17lbs.  Importantly, my wife used to hold the family record at 16.  I feel a little bad that she is not here to defend her crown....a little.

We exited the lagoon and took a break for lunch.  I'm not much for siestas though, so I grabbed a five weight and walked the shoreline a bit.  I found a nice school of matrinxas, and landed one, getting broken off by two others.  I'm always fascinated at the variety of fish here, and probing around at lunch time with a small Clouser, a tiny beadhead, or even throwing some bread in the water and fishing a fly that looks bread, will almost always be rewarded with something.

After lunch we worked one more large lagoon, which I barely remember, except I did put two more double digit peacocks in the boat.  Our day with Joseph ended on a nice note, two large arowanas meandering down the bank, Chris making just the right cast, and then strip striking!  Arowana on.  I never get tired of these unusual looking fish, which are said to eat birds.  I'm just glad they eat flies so well.

I finished up the evening at the dock, catching some aracus and pacus under the watchful eye of Rex, the 16 foot black caiman that is kind of the lodge mascot.  There are days a day of great fishing makes you want to share it with everyone.  But sometimes it's so good, it leaves you in kind of a stunned silence, almost feeling overwhelmed by the fish.  This was that kind of day.  It was so good it just made me wish everyone I know gets to experience a day like it...at least once.