Amazon 2025  Day 5, Revenge of the Nerds

Another day, another beautiful sunrise, blue skies, and looks like temperatures in the eighties.  It will be nearly 100 degrees warmer today here than it is at home.  Suffering in the Amazon.  Started the morning with some dry fly pacu action, although they were a bit shy, and thne returned to the cabin to rig up and jump in the boat.  Today, we were on another upriver beat, with Daniel, on beat five.  

This is Daniels fifth year at Agua Boa.  Like many of us, he has improved rapidly at his job.  He is enthusiastic, a good communicator from the poling platform, and loves to get his clients into a good arapaima.  Coincidentally, I also enjoy a good arapaima myself, so it's a good match.

Today we parked the boat on the beach at the edge of the river, and walked a good bit to get to an isolated lagoon where a boat was stored.  The spot we stopped at on the beach itself looked like good water, fallen trees, deep water, and bunch of pacu showing bright red colors rising by the boat, but I have learned to pick my spots, and didn't say anything.

We reached the main body of the lagoon, it was long and narrow, with one shallow arm, and we pretty much worked the whole thing without a hit.  I had something I thought was grab, but the fight was strange, and I found out I had a freshwater stingray snagged in the back.  This was exciting in the not good way, and after trying to figure out how we could remove the fly without our guide being incapacitated and our day ending, we cut the leader.  Not proud of this one, and it doesn't count because it was fouled, but here he is.

Once we finished the lagoon, we went back up to the top, and started to work it again.  Things had changed.  Large fish were suddenly popping up on the margins of the lagoon, and although we had many refusals, we also put  a few good fish in the boat.  Arapaima were also beginning to make an appearance.  They are air breathers, and reveal their presence this way.  Although most were far away, a few rolled up within casting distance, and we were able to drop flies on them.  We also saw large muds where arapaima were disturbing the bottom and blind cast into these.  This can be tough as you are often casting to where a fish was, and don't even necessarily know what direction they are facing/headed.

We set up for a third time through, and then a fourth.  The sun got higher and things started getting even better!  I cast to an arapaima roll, dropped the fly on it, stripped slowwwwly, and got grabbed.  It was quickly apparent that this fish was not an arapaima, but a hefty peacock.  Not turning it down.

Steve than got a good one in a more traditional manner, spot, cast, watch the fish crush it.  Here it is.

Steve even hooked up an arawana by blindcasting.  Of course, since his destiny is never to land one of these creatures, it came off,  We ended up catching several peacocks between 10-12 pounds, but the most excitement came from fish we didn't even hook.  We started to see several free swimming arapaima, and actually got to drop flies to sighted fish.  This is fairly uncommon.  These fish ranged from about 40-100 pounds, and we got shots at a half dozen of them.  It seemed none of them showed the slightest interest in the fly, but blood was flowing and hearts were racing.  To see these giants causally swimming in waist deep water was wild.  Have I mentioned I love it here?

Eventually, on our fifth pass, Daniel asked if we were ready to try something different.  I said, lets give it 20 more minutes.  We got one more decent peacock, and the arapaima still eluded us, so we made the long walk back to the boat.  

Here's where it pays to remember sometimes that you're the client.  The guides pick lunch spots that are in shade, which makes sense.  The spot our boat was in, was not in the shade, but was swarming with fish.  I told Daniel I would like ten minutes with the three weight here.  One of the fish I could see swimming was a double banded leporinus species that I had not had shots at before.  One to add to list.  A funny thing happened.  As I was dropping a bead head hares ear around the sunken tree by the boat, our guide got into it.  He figured out which fish I wanted and which I didn't, and started excitedly calling them out and instructing me when not to set the hook on a pacu or piranha.  I started out (between numerous fish I have landed before) by landing this new leporinus species, which I found out later is the scissor tailed leporinus.

Then, I cast to one of the beautiful red pacus, and got it to grab.  I have landed a couple of these before, but will never turn down a shot at them.  In the aquarium trade, they are called disc pacu.

And no, this fish is not photoshopped.  It's just wild!  Here was the highlight.  Daniel had been pointing out a different leporinus species, one with spots instead of stripes, one I had never seen before.  Finally, I hooked up, the fish promptly took me into the tree branches and wrapped me.  I stepped gingerly into the water, looked for stingrays, and ended up wading up to my chest and grabbing the fish.  Hoisted it into the boat, and got the pic.  So, here is where the fish nerd in me comes out.  I sent the pic to a Brazilian ichthyologist (dudes who study fish) and he had never seen one before.  He sent it to another fish scientist, who specialized in the leporinus family.  He had never seen one either, and they both believe this to be a fish undiscovered by science.  I didnt know, or I should have thrown it in a jar of formaldehyde, and maybe it would now by Leporinus Richterii, but alas.  Still, for a species chaser, pretty cool.  And I believe #342 on fly.

After this, we finally did hit a lunch spot, where hilarity ensued with multiple other species on the three weight.  Finally, we spent the last couple hours drifting the main river channel.  Mostly uneventful, we caught a few peacocks and I caught this Gouldings Piranha.

But not completely uneventful!  A fish I have a great desire to land is the suribim catfish, otherwise known as a shovelnose or tiger catfish.  They love the shallow sand flats of the river.  The largest problem is you are drifting in the boat, and by the time you see them, you don't have time to sink a fly to their level before you spook them.  Like most cats, the fly needs to be in their face.  I told Daniel I would really like to catch one of these and he had an idea.  As we approached a spot in the boat, he said he expected to find cats here.  He slowed the boat to a crawl, and boy, were there cats!  In about a fifty yard stretch of sand, there were no less than 150 catfish from 5 to 15 pounds, laying in small pods.  I started to work them, and while some became aware of the boat, others made small turns at the fly, and near the end of the group, I had a fish turn and track the fly for about ten feet, and then put his lips literally on the tail of the fly.  Not really a strike, more like a nibble!  Then, our time was up, and it was time to go back to the lodge.  I believe if I could have waded, and had fifteen more minutes, I would have gotten one.

Day five in the books!  Did I mention I love it here?