Brazil 2025, Day Four  You know it's a tough neighborhood when the fish jump out of the water and catch birds!

Another restful night, with maybe a bit of help from a dose of Nyquil.  Awake before the alarm went off, and surprise, slipped down to the dock to catch some pacu and watch the sun rise.  

Today, we were on our first upriver beat, beat 4, with long time Agua Boa guide, Preto.  He is a bit hard to describe, but Preto has been with the lodge for 17 years, and perhaps the best way to describe him is intrepid.  Need your guide to stop in a pouring rainstorm, and get you back to the lodge late, just so you can catch a few more fish.  He's your guy.  Need someone to capture a caiman with his bare hands, or show you the spots where the turtles lay their eggs.  Again, Preto is your guy.  Always funny, and always on point, his guiding skills are fantastic, and I have had some of my best days, and clearest memories on his beat.

With that said, today was the slowest day on the water I have ever spent with Preto.  We started the morning at the mouth of a lagoon, and were pretty instantly into fish.  I landed a mid size spotted right away, and we picked away and landed several more, what I would call mid size fish, quite quickly.  

We spotted a large fish laying up at the spot where the lagoon emptied into the river, but after several casts with no response, the fish, which was well over ten pounds, just drifted off and disappeared.  We then fished the lagoon proper pretty hard, with only a couple of smaller fish to hand.

 The main event was a larger lagoon, and although we worked it for several hours, it was reluctant to give up it's secrets.  We did get some shots at arawanas.  These eel like fish are often seen traveling in small schools, moving languidly near the surface.  They even eat flies languidly.  It is necessary to strip the fly quite slowly, but when they eat it, things change, exactly what you would expect from a fish that has been known to leap from the water and eat birds!  First, you have to strip set more firmly than you might believe possible, the mouth of the arawana is very hard.  Then the fish usually puts on an aerial show, jumps interspersed with quick runs.  Ideally, it is good to have a six weight on hand specifically rigged for them, with a terrestrial like a Chernoybl ant.  But today, as is often the case, I was standing in front of the boat with an eight weight and a large peacock fly in hand, when suddenly a group of 3 appeared near the bank, about forty feet off the bow.  I put a cast on them, stripped slowly, could see one drifting up behind the fly, and suddenly got jolted.  Surprisingly, everything held together, I survived the jumps and soon had my first arawana of the trip in hand.  Love them.  Check out the scale patterns on this dude.  

Later, after a slow period, Steve had been in the bow for awhile, so we prepared to make a switch, but before we did, Preto spotted a big fish.  Steve made a perfect cast, fought the fish like a true Iowan, and soon we had it on the boga.  This fish was long, skinny, and had a huge head.  He didn't exactly look malnourished, but he wasn't in prime condition, it was apparent conditions in the lagoon weren't perfect for him.  He weighed 13 pounds, Preto mentioned that in great condition he should be 17-18 pounds and I agree with this assessment.

We spent some time searching the main river channel, but only turned up a couple of smaller, butterfly peacocks.  So ladies and gentlemen, this is what a slow day on the river looks like here.  We probably landed about 15 peacocks and a few other assorted species, and somehow, it was still a full and fulfilling day.

 

At the dock that night, I landed a leporinus species that I have only seen a couple of other times, the Brazilians refer to them as fat heads.  Cabeza gorda.  Even with their fat heads, they are pullers on the three weight.  I also down sized my flies and landed a couple of these red tailed tetras.  I've got the Latin, but I won't burden you with it.  Big news today is that Craig has landed a giant, an 18 pound fish.  Can't wait until tomorrow.