Rumble in the Jungle 2025  Day Three

Going to the gym.....the peacock gym.

I like mornings.  It's when I think the clearest, and feel the best.  But there's nothing like Amazon mornings.  The alarm goes off and I spring out of bed.  The horizon is just starting to lighten up.  Unfamiliar bird calls are music to my ears.  I can see the pacu rising down at the dock.  Who needs coffee when you have this!  And the best part, I have an entire day of fishing ahead at perhaps my favorite place on the planet.

Our guide today is Bacaba.  Our beat will be beat three, another downriver beat.  We had a quick consultation, the original plan was to start in a larger lagoon, but that would have been mostly blind casting, so today we opted for another day of floating the stunning lower river, alternating between fishing the flats on the main channel, and fishing the edges where these spots deepened up.

Again, we fished two different styles.  The person in the bow had a larger peacock fly tied on.  This was mostly a sight fishing game, where the guide would call out fish that he spotted, and you would make the cast, following directions as best you could.  Note, the guide will almost always spot these fish before you, but it is tremendously helpful if you can eventually see them.  I started in the middle of the boat and grabbed a six weight, adding a small trace of wire, and fishing whatever small streamer came out of the box. I would blind cast to any pocket of slightly deeper water, or to any of the log jams.  This resulted in a grab, not every cast, but never went more than a few minutes without something.

The first fish of the day was a bicuda, one of the two species here.  These are aggressive fish, built like the saltwater fish that their name evokes, the barracuda.  They are fast and quick to the fly, and once hooked are glad to show off with some acrobatics.  They don't get large here, and this one is about as big as I see.

Note Steve in the background landing a peacock.  I also landing plenty of matrinxa.  Another fine gamefish.  They look like shad, crush any fly that will fit in their mouths, can reach four to five pounds, jump like maniacs when hooked, and have a mouthful of teeth that can easily sever heavy tippet.  On this day I easily caught a dozen of these dudes.

I also caught a couple of Gouldings piranhas, the other bicuda species, and a bunch of small spotted peacocks.  The spotted peacocks are the no doubt the "pound for pound" award winner, pulling the hardest of the peacocks.  Steve started off his time on the bow with this one, and several others like it.

When it was my time on the bow, it was also my time to go the gym.  The guide spotted a fish that I just couldn't see, but I followed his directions, and dropped a cast in an indentation in the shoreline, sidearming it to get it under the tree branches.  Nothing.  He said "again".  I felt dubious, but dropped it in again, and there was an immediate explosion before I started stripping.  The fish ran parallel to the bank and made for a log jam.  I stripped down on it (under no circumstances try to get these fish on the reel) and pulled as hard as I could using the butt of the rod.  There was plenty of body english, certainly some inarticulate noises on my part, and although the fish still hit the edge of the log jam, somehow didn't get into the worst of it, and was free and running for the channel.  Wow!  Fishing for these things is so intense.  Landed the fish, and decided not to weighh it, but it was very stout, and likely in the 12 pound range somewhere, maybe pushing 13.

We stopped for lunch, and while people napped, I played with a school of pacus and lobetoothed piranhas, somehow landing several on beadheads.  Here is a typical sized lobed-tooth.

 

Then I waded into the main channel, and cast to some deep water.  This is typically home to some of the larger species of piranhas and that was the case.  Unfortunately, I had run out of wire, and sacrificed about a dozen flies.  I did however land three nice peacocks while the guide and Steve napped in the boat.

In the afternoon, we floated the main river channel, fishing the flats.  We were once again plagued by spooky fish, mostly bolting before you could get a cast.  Steve did catch the fish that was absolutely beautiful, with very dark, wide bars.  They don't get more stunning really.

Back at the lodge, it was drinks, shower, a little dock fishing.  I decided to sink a beadhead hares ear, in a size #16 on a the three weight, when I did this, this happened on the first cast.  Extremely fortunate not to get cut off, and honestly a lot of hard pulling on the small rod.

Did I mention I love this place?  So much.  Can't wait for tomorrow.  If you are interested in possibly joining me on this trip, I am putting together a group for January 10-17, 2026.  Reach out at randyrichter@ruhlhomes.com.