Well, it's the last day. Not sure how this happens. Not long ago, it was day one, and it seemed like your fishing was going to stretch into eternity. Now, it's the day seven, and you're plotting how it might be possible to stay just a little longer...or a lot longer!
Today, we will be fishing with Boo-yah, a second year guide, who has Beat 3, the water immediately downstream from the lodge. Little did we know that the highlight of the day would have little to do with fishing.
We started out fishing a lagoon literally five minutes from the lodge. It was quiet, I landed one strikingly marked, medium sized fish and we got a few other smaller ones. Then we motored back up river, and then Booyah spotted something and we headed for the bank. This needs to be said. I've always loved snakes, been fascinated by them, and my early desires to see the Amazon didn't have to do with fly fishing. I thought it would be amazing to see an anaconda. This wish was fulfilled on my third trip, when we saw a 17 footer laying beside our boat, and I even got to grab it by the tail. (long story). But I would never turn down a chance to interact with one of the apex predators of the Amazon jungle. As we pulled up, I could see there was a downed, hollowed out tree jutting out from the bank. And sunning itself on the tree was an enormous anaconda. We pulled the boat up to bank, and I climbed out and worked my way up the bank, until I was a couple of feet away from the tail (non bity end ) of the snake. A quick rough measurement with my nine foot fly rod put the snake at about 18 feet long. It has recently eaten something, judging by the bulge in it's middle, and seemed to be very mellow, almost like a person might get during a Thanksgiving food coma. I really wanted to at least give it a pat, but Booyah was already quite distressed that I was close as I was, and was indicating that we should leave. At least, that's what I discerned from "Problema, we go." Didn't want to alienate a guide I had never fished with before, right at the beginning of the day, so I complied. Something I now regret! Whatever happened with the fishing the rest of the day was just going to be frosting. My day was already made!
We then headed into the jungle, where we spent about thirty minutes working our way along a narrow channel, which eventually opened into a very large lagoon of a hundred acres or so, and this is where we spent the rest of our day. Booyah was calling for precise casting, asking us to hit small spots and pockets, and often requesting that we put several casts in the same spot. It was a different style of fishing, and I was questioning it, but on about my fifth cast to a small pocket that looked like all the others, I got mashed. There was an enormous flash visible when the fish took the fly, and then it pulled like a freight train for the jungle. After more excitement than I wanted, we eventually got it boatside, and it was an extremely long, but not very thick peacock, coming out at 16.5lbs. This would turn out to my final big fish of the trip, and was a pretty nice way to finish up.
We worked our way through the rest of the lagoon, and had a pretty steady bite of very large butterfly peacocks. We caught numerous fish in 5-6 pound range, and Greyson then hooked a fish that dug for the bottom, didn't want to give up, and when we got it boatside, I knew it was one of the biggest butterflies I had ever seen. On the boga, 8 pounds! Which is enormous! By the time we worked our way back to the lagoon entrance, we had landed around 60 to 70 fish, which is enough! More than enough actually, because about half way through the day what I was hoping was simply fatigue, bloomed into full grown sickness. I was feverish, weak, and making terrible decisions with my casting. We were 60 feet out from shore and I kept mis judging and launching 80 feet of line, I put my fly in the trees more in the last couple of hours than I did the entire week combined. So, when Booyah called it, maybe because he was tired of poling over to the trees to retrieve flies, I was a bit relieved.
It has been a memorable week here. We battled high water, but also battled lots of large fish. I finished with 20 over 10 pounds, and five fish over 16, including my all time best, a 17.5 pounder. I've hooked a hundred plus pound arapaima, almost patted an anaconda, and got up close interaction with pink dolphins. Good food, good company, at one of the most enchanted places on earth. I'll be back!
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