Inauspicious start today. Our guy today was Booyah, a new guide, that I haven't fished with yet. After a quick run down river, we stopped and worked a bank. A few casts, a couple of nice fish, and Booyah, said, "Go back to lodge" When I looked at him quizzically, he said, "No problem", and pointed at his side. We went back to the lodge, and switched out guides, and headed back out. (It turned out later that Booyah was having a stomach issue.) Our new guide was Daniel.
The first lagoon we fished was a little non-descript, but the fishing was not. I was on the bow, and Daniel spotted a large fish moving rapidly along the bank. I was able to get the fly about fifteen feet in front of it, one strip, and the fish was on it. This would be the second fish of the trip to run straight into the middle of a lagoon, and into the backing. It turned out to be a striking male, with deep greens and oranges, that I couldn't quite capture on film, and went 15 pounds. The fish this year are tanks! Working our way around the lagoon, we took about 20 more fish, including a couple more that went over ten pounds. Then we headed to the arapaima lagoon.
In Brazil, there are really two seasons, a wet season and a dry season. During wet season, the river levels rise by over twenty feet and the fish head into the jungle to forage. As the water levels drop, the fish head back into the main river channel, and also, many fish end up trapped in lagoons that become disconnected from the river. The lagoon in question always seems to hold a fairly significant population of arapaima.
We parked on the beach, and hiked back to the lagoon where another boat was stored. I stood up in the boat and couldn't believe my eyes. As far as you could see, butterfly peacocks in the 2 to 5 pound range, some a bit larger were laying near the surface in the sun. Any fly that hit the water was instantly attacked. Scott tied on a popper, picked up a six weight, and watched them fight over it. After landing ten or so, I stopped casting to look for bigger fish. And found some! I hooked a large fish near the shoreline, and despite doing the best I could to put the brakes on, even grabbing the fly line with both hands, it pushed away into the jungle and tangled in the branches. As we poled the boat over, Scott took a quick cast, and hooked a small payara, the only one we would see the entire week. The guide jumped over the side of the boat to try to untangle the fish, the fish untangled itself and ran back into the center of the lagoon, and Scott and I ended up with a 12 pound peacock, payara double.
Then we headed into the middle, drifting slowly, and hoping to intercept rolling arapaimas. The drill is to look for a roller, drop the fly on the roll, let it sink, and then strip it back very slowly. The problem on this day, was that even though flies are generally stripped back at high speeds for peacocks, there were so many peacocks in this lagoon that anything that hit the water was game on. When I finally had an arapaima roll in range, I was able to drop the fly right in the rings, but on the very first slow pull, I came tight to a peacock, I was able to shake it off, and second one grabbed it, and than a third, and as I was lifting
the fly out of the water, another peacock, this one a 12 to 13 pound bomber smoked the fly right on top of the water as I was preparing to cast again. It was just ridiculous. Scott somehow did manage to snake a small arapaima away from the peacocks. Even a small arapaima is a huge accomplishment in this fishery, which is not particularly known for them.
So, almost an indescribable day. It was the only day that I decided to count fish, and I stopped midway through the day at 65 fish. The payara/peacock double, landing another six or so double figure fish between us, the arapaima, the large peacock that ate the fly as it was being lifted out of the water, the biggest (and most) butterfly peacocks I had ever seen in my life. The Agua Boa. It doesn't disappoint.
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