So, right out front, I'm going to share I felt this could possibly be the dreaded "slow day". Even in the Amazon jungle, in the midst of a week where you are catching hundreds of fish, there is almost always a day that, well, nothing much happens. Today, we were fishing a beat far down river. When the water is low, it might be my favorite beat, mile after of mile of beautiful sand flats. With the water high, we were going to forced out of the main river channel into the lagoons, and with the sheer volume of water downriver, they were very likely to be highly stained.
The day did start out on a positive note with some receptive pre breakfast pacu. It never gets old, as soon as one rises, you drop a small terrestrial pattern in the rings, if they don't hit it immediately, you pick up and drop on the next one. Most days, I pick up a couple, some days I pick up a lot, this was one of those days. One was large, and possibly a new species, still trying to figure it out.
Our run down river was well over an hour, and then we had to navigate our way through a tiny, brush filled channel. We entered a lagoon, and then motored through this lagoon for another twenty minutes before it widened out and we began fishing. It was very slow. For some reason our guide posted us up eighty to ninety feet from the edge of the trees, and had us begin working them. Maybe it was a novelty for him to have people that could throw that far? Not sure, but by the end of the day, my arm/shoulder felt like it might actually detach from my body.
We picked up a couple of better fish in the 7-8 lb range, a few butterflies, and quite a few of a species the guides refer to as a "tawa", in other areas known as a firebelly. They are a small peacock species, I've haven't seen one over three pounds, but interesting because they are different. You might not come across one the whole week, but once you hit one, you seem to find more of them and we landed about a dozen. When I remember this day, it won't be any fish that we actually landed that stand out. But...
Tawa
There were a good number of large arapaima rolling in this lagoon, every minute or so, one would surface to gulp air. Some were giants, literally human sized fish. I decided to try for one. The arapaima drill is stand at ready, and if you are lucky enough to have one surface in range, immediately drop your fly on it, let it sink, and slowly strip it back. You have to give up the peacocks to do this, because if you make a ninety foot cast on one side of the boat for the peacocks, you can guarantee an arapaima is going to roll thirty feet from the boat just as your fly hits the water. So, I stood, scanning the water for about 30 minutes, while Scott fished from the bow catching the occasional peacock. And then it happened. 40 feet in front of the boat, an absolutely huge arapaima rolled, well over a hundred pounds. I made a good cast, dropping the fly on it's head, and let it sink. On the second strip, I came tight, hit it as a hard as could, and when the fish took off, it felt....implacable....enormous....unstoppable, all of these things. Just the sheer weight being transmitted as this thing headed out was shocking. It was pushing a huge bow wave, and then, it was off. The only evidence that it had happened was the giant mud cloud hanging in the water for fifty yards. Arapaimas mouths are extremely hard, you just have to find a soft spot, and I didn't find one. Heartbreaking...yes. Exciting......you bet!
Also, had a small group of red tailed cats that we spotted foraging on the edge of the lagoon. They are impressive creatures, and I was fortunate enough to get one on my last trip. This group was in a tough spot, right amidst the logs, and if they didn't eat the fly right away, it would surely get entangled. I dropped a fly on them, immediately snagged a log, left it, grabbed another rod, got in a few casts, but then they were gone. I've included a picture of the fish I got in 2020 (right before the shutdown) It was a bucket list fish, but once I caught one, it just made me decide I want another.
Last years redtail
Slow. But still.....not a bad day on the Agua Boa. And I did finish it up nicely. After arriving back at the lodge, I rigged up three weight with a small, beadhead wooly bugger, and proceeded to rack up seventeen peacocks, almost all of the spotted variety from the dock. On one strike, the fight was just different. Much less sheer pull then even the smaller peacocks, and then, down in the stained water I saw a fish that was bright red. Bright red! I was filled with curiosity about what it might be, and dread that I might lose it before I got a better look at it. But I did land it, and turned out to be a new species of jacunda with stunning colors. Yes, one of the days highlight fish...right off the dock.
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