Hard to believe we're on day seven! It stings a little bit. On one hand, seven days in the jungle is a lot of fishing! On the other hand, it just went by so fast. A little of the sting has been taken out by the fact that we get to spend another day fishing with Preto, who has decided, based on our slow day on Wednesday, that we are going far upriver today. Little did I know we were about to experience some of the most unique fishing I have ever done in my life.
Started the morning fishing the dock, (where else would I be?), and landed a big pacu, and a small fish that looked like a combination of a shiner minnow and a tarpon, had teeth, and jumped like crazy. No idea what it is, but species number #205.
After a ninety minute run upriver, we swung into another narrow channel, opened into a lagoon, crossed the lagoon, and beached the boat in the sand. We then hiked across a narrow spit of land to another lagoon, where Preto indicated we were going to fish on foot. It was puzzling. Due to the rising water levels, the last twenty feet of water in the lagoon was flooded timber. Preto began to hack branches with his machete to give us channels where we could launch flies into the lagoon. It seemed odd, and even when I did find windows to cast, I caught nothing. The Scott yelled over to me, "They're in the trees!" I looked and picked a bathtub size spot between branches next to me, and with a few of leader hanging out of the rod tip, I dapped the fly in the spot, wiggling my rod tip to give it some action. A four pound peacock flashed up and smoked it. It was a crazy, close quarters fight that ended when I was able to grab the leader and derrick the fish in. I dapped the fly in the spot again. Instantly, a five pound peacock zoomed up and crushed the fly. This was repeated over and over, until finally after half a dozen fish, it slowed down. I waded ten feet through the jungle into the next likely spot, exactly the same method, which was basically cane poling? Tenkara? And immediately started railing on fish again. I heard splashing through the trees and Scott giggling as he went through close quarters combat with a fish. And so it went, in the next 90 minutes or so, between us we landed forty to fifty fish. I went back to the boat and grabbed a three weight, tied on a tiny wooly bugger, and tried to catch some of the smaller cichlids I had seen. I picked the biggest hole in the trees I had yet spotted, and was rewarded with monkeys thrashing through the branches only twenty feet away. Couldn't catch one of the smaller cichlids though, every cast with the three weight was a three to five bound bruiser butterfly peacock.
Yep, these trees are chock full of peacocks
We finally hopped back in the boat, and fished the lagoon we had just been wading. Not surprisingly, it was quite slow. Most of the fish were in the jungle. We did get a brief shot at a pair of arapaimas that cruised by, and Scott did manage to land a few respectable fish in the 7-8 pound range. Somehow, it wasn't quite as fun as the jungle bushwhacking.
We ended the day moving further upriver, and fishing a large lagoon, at least a half mile long, that I had never seen. We worked almost all the way around it, and only landed half a dozen smaller fish. Near our starting point, we found a little flooded spit of land where there were some larger fish working. Scott landed a nice fish, and then I took the bow and cast to a fish that Preto had spotted, but I didn't see. When the fly was about halfway back to the boat, I saw a large flash deep, but the fish didn't connect with my fly. I held my breath waiting for it come back, but it looked like it wasn't going to happen. Until I was literally lifting my fly from the water and the fish appeared from nowhere and absolutely destroyed the fly. It was an amazing take! After the take, the tough battle was a little anti-climatic, but finally got the fish to the boat, and it was a 12-13 pound male with a huge spawning knot on its head. Somehow, the knot on the head makes them even look more pugnacious than they are! It was a perfect fish to end our day, and our trip with.
Of course I couldn't leave well enough alone when I got back, and hit the dock with the six weight. Amazingly, first cast throwing a bead head wooly, got this hard pulling three pound paca, and followed it up with a bunch more of it's smaller brothers. Finished up by catching this very interesting barred pacu, a fish I had spotted off the dock before, but never been able to catch. A new species, number 206 on fly!
So hard to sum things up, and numbers don't do it. But we for sure landed close to five hundred fish in our boat, and I personally landed 15-20 fish over the ten pound mark. But numbers don't tell the story. It's the place, the people, and the fish that all combine to make this one of my favorite places on earth. Come join me sometime!