Sometimes impossible stuff happens! Amazon Day 4

Today, I'm heading out to fish with Preto.  It's hard to exactly desribe Preto, but he definitely has a lot of cowboy/redneck in him.  One of the things he is known for is chasing/catching caimens with his bare hands.  And yes, he still has both hands.  He has a great sense of humor, will go above and beyond to put you on fish, and just might be the favorite guide of a lot of people who come down here.

I'm also switching things up and fishing with my buddy Stephen Ruiz for the day.  Steve is a fantastic caster and fishermen, and we seldom have had a chance to share a boat, even though we schedule numerous trips together.  Because of this, with the way they set the rotation, I'll be fishing with Preto twice, and I'll miss a day on perhaps my favorite beat on the river, the lowest downstream beat, but you take the good with the bad.

Steve with a good one.

We started off working a large lagoon, and it became apparent that the west bank of this lagoon, the one we worked first, was loaded with a big fish.  We hadn't covered any ground at all before Steve had missed three big fish and landed a ten pounder, and I'd landed a couple of mid-size fish.  I changed flies to Blantons Whistler, a fly that has landed a dis-proportinate share of my big peacocks.  On the first cast with it, a big fish hammered it a few feet from the boat.  The whole shoreline was lined with sticks and logs, and this fish immediately wrapped me under a stick, and kept running.  Soon, in fact, the fish had me into the backing, despite the fact that the flyline was wrapped under a log ten feet off my rod tip.  If it ran parallel to the shoreline, it was certainly gone.  I was able to get the rod around the log, untangle the line, and it immediately became apparent that I was lucky, and the fish may have been brainpower challenged.  It literally did the only thing it could have done that would allow me to land it, which was do a half hitch around the log, and head straight back out into the open lagoon. And then dutifully waited for me to catch up.  A gorgeous 12.5 pound fish that I never should have landed. 

The miracle fish

On the far side of the lagoon, we played hide-n-go-seek with several groups of big fish that were cruising through the shoreline brush, occasionally popping out into open spots where we could get a cast to them.  Some of the groups had as many as dozen fish, and when a fly did get on the water in front of them, fish were slamming into other fish trying to get to the fly first.  It was some of my favorite fishing of the trip, and by the time we exited the lagoon, Steve and I each had two double figure fish, and a few 6-8 pound fish.

We then entered a second lagoon, and although it was even larger than the first, it was pretty dead.  We each landed a few of the smaller butterly peacocks.  We had a little excitement when Steve hooked the only large peacock we found, abouty a nine pounds, and good size caimen came flying through the water with murderous intent.  It's astounding how these generally sluggish creatures can snap into crazy fast predator mode in a heartbeat.  I literally grabbed the leader and slung the fish right into the boat, not normal practice, and Preto smacked the caimen on the head with his push pole.  Good times!

Long before this trip, for years actually, I've wanted to catch a redtail cat on fly.  I know it's highly  unlikely, they aren't nearly as aggressive as the suribim catfish that share the waters, but I didnt know how unlikely until this day.  I casually asked Preto, "How many redtail cats on fly in your boat?"  He replied, "Bait on the fly?"  I said no, just fly.  His reply was "none".  It had never happened. 

Big spotted that played hide and go seek in the brush that you can see in the background

 I did the math.  He has been guiding 12 years.  Somewhere around 2,000 days, 16,000 hours on the water.  And then literally two minutes later, he said, "There's one."  And sure enough, a nice redtail, happily swimming about two feet under the surface, coming right at the boat.  I've catfished enough to know you want to get the fly at their level and move it slow, and for once, I made a perfect cast, about three feet in front of the fish, that would put the fly right at it's level by the time it arrived.  I made a slow strip, really slow, and thought it looked like the fish turned a bit.  On the second strip, I felt a bump, and on the third, painfully slow strip, I came tight.  The fish plowed out into the middle of the lagoon,, there was a lot of  yelling and screaming in the boat, and after a workmanlike fight, there he was, a beautiful red tail cat of 20 pounds or so, which Preto promptly hauled into the boat.  Hooked right in the corner of mouth, just like you would order.  The 17 pound peacock was pretty cool, but this was something beyond that.  For about the next 45 minutes, I could barely concentrate to fish, thinking more about what had just happened, than what was happening.

The last part of the day was spent on the main river, poling the clear sand flats (the river was clearing a ton each day), and we started looking for fish on poppers.  I landed a few, but it was Steve that scored here.  A big fish was sliding along the bank, Steve got the popper on it, and it chased, pushing a big wake, and then absolutely murdered the popper.  A fantastic 9.5 pound fish.

Another great day on the Agua Boa.  Not huge numbers, maybe 30-35 fish to the boat, but plenty of quality  fish, a day with a top notch guide and a good friend, and of course, a red tail catfish!