Rumble In the Jungle Amazon 2022 Day Two - Big Fish Caboclo

 

The alarm went off at 5:45 a.m., and just for a moment, I considered getting just a little more sleep.  But then I remembered where I was.  And what was about to happen.  It gets light about 6:00 a.m., and just as the sun begins to come up, the pacus, and several other species will begin to rise by the thousands in front of the lodge.  And I will be there with my three weight to greet them.  

It's not the only thing happening.  There's a hearty breakfast served at 6:00 a.m. every morning, and all the other guests typically rise to that.  But I've found out I can enjoy some pretty good fishing, roll in to breakfast late and gulp it down, and still be on the dock ready to leave by 7:15 a.m.  Today was worth it!  Landed several pacus, including this gorgeous fish.  And got cut off a couple times after spirited battled.   And no, the marking isn't blood, but looks so much like it that I tried to wipe it off when I caught my first one.  I haven't been able to determine the species, but the locals call this fish a Marie Antoinette pacu, which always makes me smile.

          Marie Antoinette pacu

I was pleased to find out that our guide today would be Caboclo. Caboclo has been guiding here for approximately 14 years.  He's a very accomplished fly caster and tyer.  And there is a reason those of us that have fished here multiple times call him, Big Fish Caboclo.  I knew that there was a very good chance I would catch my biggest fish of the week today, for two reasons.  One, Caboclo is extremely big fish focused.  It's the way he is wired and he's good at finding them.  To such an extent that I've hooked many very respectable fish that Caboclo barely glances at, in fact he doesn't acknowledge them in any way.  Also, the way Agua Boa is set up, each guide has a beat, and Cabaclo has one particular lagoon, that year in and year out, just stacks big fish.  It's almost uncanny.  So, the fact that Caboclo loves to search for big fish, and guides on the beat that typically has the largest fish is a very happy circumstance.

We spent the morning fishing a couple of lagoons (not THE lagoon), and honestly, fishing by Agua Boa standards was quite slow.  We hit a couple dozen butterfly peacocks, and few  spotted peacocks in the five to seven pound range, and then took a lunch break.  The guides here typically pull the boat up in the shade, and take a 30 minute break for lunch, some even catch a power nap.  Today, we pulled up on the edge of a deep, slow pool, and it looked a good place to catch some piranha, so I tied on a Clouser minnow and waded out.  I waded slowly, and slid my feet, so if I came into contact with a freshwater stingray, I would kick it, but not actually pin it against the bottom.  Good things, because I did blow up two stingrays as I waded.  A couple casts in my fly got hammered, and it was very apparent this was no piranha.  Mystery was solved when the biggest peacock of the morning flung itself into the air, and as it streaked by, and even larger one was keeping pace with it.  When I landed it, turned out to be around eight pounds.  I ended up catching a few more peacocks, and lost two flies to piranhas.  Was honestly a bit sad when Caboclos siesta was over and it was time to move, I was having a ball wading and fishing.  

We then headed to THE lagoon.  The water was still rising and off color from the rains.  The normal procedure here is to pole slowly, and the person on the bow casts to targets that Caboclo spots from his polling platform, but today he asked us both to blindcast into the  middle of the lagoon.  I selected a fairly large fly, an eight inch long, chartreuse over white EP pattern that I felt might stand out in the stained water.  Had a great take near the boat, unseen, and the fish, though powerful, mostly fought straight up and down, leading to some speculation about it's identity.  It turned out to a large, three barred peacock of 16.5 pounds, my best of the trip, and only slightly smaller than my best ever, a 17lb fish taken with Joseph two years ago.  Released the fish, and not ten minutes later was treated to maybe the best strike of the trip.  We were poling slowly, and I made a long cast to the middle of the lagoon.  On the retrieve, the fly swung up and behind the poling platform, and I was watching the fly intently so I could see how it was swimming.  With the fly shimmering about a foot beneath the water, a large peacock flashed past the fly, turned on it's tail and came back and absolutely garbaged it.  I couldn't give you exact dimensions, but it was obviously a special fish.  This was confirmed when it actually ran into the backing, which doesn't happen often with peacocks.  Eventually, had the fish at the boat, and it weighed in at 17 pounds.  We continued to fish the lagoon, and I landed three more fish between 10 and 13 pounds, and my fishing partner Scott, also landed several double figure fish.  

                             16.5 lbs!

                                   17 lbs!

                                                                                               

Once again, Big Fish Caboclo and his special lagoon did not disappoint.  From the lagoon, it was short run back to the dock and the tray of caipirinhas that awaited.  Another wonderful day on the Agua Boa.

Rumble In The Jungle Amazon Day One Everything Old is New Again!

                                                                 New species of pacu!

It's Saturday, the first of seven fishing days.  Despite having approximately two hours of sleep in the previous forty, when the small plane passed over the lodge for the first time, and I saw the twists and turns of the Agua Boa River, I felt a surge of adrenaline.  Within an hour, I would be casting flies into the familiar waters that I love so much.

With me on this trip is my friend, Captain Scott Hamilton.  Scott was, I believe, the first fly fishing only, blue water fishing guide, on the east coast of Florida.  He is innovative, curious, and one of the best fly casters I've met.  He also was a mentor when I was cutting my teeth in saltwater fly fishing many years ago.  This would be Scotts first trip here, and actually, his first trip as a client anywhere.  I felt a little nervous, as you typically do when you show something special to you to someone else.  Not under my control, but I really wanted the river to show out and show off!

We landed, got the customary flute of champagne, ate some breakfast, and hurried to the rooms to rig up.  I had actually pre rigged leaders when I was home, so I was down at the docks a bit before Scott.  This meant I got to do a little pacu fishing.  They rise all around the lodge dock early every morning, and there were a few still active.  I pulled out the three weight, took a couple of casts, and was instantly into a strong fish that almost ran to the backing.  Pacu on a three are no joke!  It was touch and go, and often with protracted battles, pacu, with their dentation will often cut through the leaders, but soon enough had a beautiful fish at the dock.  A new species of pacu, and a new species on fly, which makes 203!

Our guide for the day is Zenzino, also known as Joseph.  He has been guiding for 24 years, and is rumored to be Brazils first fly fishing guide.  I've caught many big fish with him, respect his knowledge, and even though he is by far the most, should we say, excitable of the guides, I was thrilled to start our day with him.  The way it works in the Agua Boa, is that you have six different guides, each with their own beat, except Joseph is kind of a rover, and can fish anywhere.  This being a shorter day, we wouldn't be traveling far, but I was a little disappointed when we literally went two minutes in the boat, cut the motor, and Joseph started poling the far bank.  In the past, I've found this stretch not to be super productive, and I was hoping maybe we were fishing it just so Joseph could see if the new guy could cast or not.  In the next few minutes, I was to learn that I really don't know anything.

The water is pretty high.  Wet season has kicked off early, the river has risen, and the classic Agua Boa sight fishing is going to be mostly reserved for the lagoons, where the water still has some clarity.  Basically, we were chucking streamers tight to the bank, and ripping them back as quickly as we could.  Just a few casts in, I had a wrenching strike, and it quickly became apparent that my first fish of the trip was going to be a good one!  Soon, I had a ten pound fish at the boat, and Scott on the bow was also hooked up.  From there, chaos ensued.  Almost every cast was a strike or a hook-up.  Small fish, medium sized fish,....big fish.  Scott lost a very large fish, that at the end of the fight, the fly simply fell out.  I had a good look at it, and was sure it was 14 pounds so.  Scott, surprisingly (he's an intense guy) took it philosophically, remarking that losing some of the big fish is part of the experience.  So grown up of him!  Sometimes losing big fish makes me a bit sulky.

We eventually came to an area where the river opened up into a lagoon.  We reeled up, and Joseph motored slowly around and through the trees and logjams, until it opened up.  Again, we're not five minutes from the lodge, and with all the authority of experience, I remarked that this lagoon was a numbers lagoon, but I had never taken a fish over six pounds here.  Yep, you know what happened.  We landed many fish over that number.

                                    Butterfly                                                                13 lbs!

I landed a 13 pound fish and an eleven pound fish.  Scott landed a 14 lb fish.  And honestly, one of the highlights were the butterfly peacocks.  The butterflies are the most beautiful of the peacocks.  Typically, they weigh 2 to 3 pounds, and anything over that is notable.  They are present in high numbers, and if you just wanted to focus on them, most days you could catch them all day.  This year...they're just bigger.  The first one I caught in the lagoon was probably pushing six pounds, and we caught many that were in the four to five pound range.  Honestly, rods were bent on hard fighting fish the majority of the time, and my fishing partner was giggling like a junior higher.  You may have heard someone say before, the fishing was so good it was ridiculous?  We had definitely climbed into the ridiculous category. 

We also landed a few of the fun by catch species, in this case most of them fairly typical.  I landed a jacunda, a kind of pike cichlid, and a piranha.  Scott landed a fish the Brazilians refer to as a dogfish, a fish with a mouthful of nasty teeth, that I've learned to avoid setting the hook on, when I see them flash on my fly.  If a person brought along a six weight and a Clouser minnow in the boat, you could be in to "other" fish all day, for sure. 

White Piranha

Jacunda

Dogfish

Butterfly

A quick note if you fish here.  It wasn't long before Scotts hands were torn and bleeding.  These fish are called peacock bass.  They're not actually bass.  Their mouths are much harder, more abrasive, and if  you keep sticking your hand in there, and the fish thrashes, your hands are going to be a mess by the end of the first day.  With the smaller fish, (under five pounds) lift them out of the water using that 40lb floro, grab them behind the head, and turn them upside down.  They will relax, making hook removal easier.  The larger fish, get a boga grip on them, you don't have to hang them from it, just use it instead of your fingers, and you can pop the hook out with the fish still in the water.  Trust me on this, or learn the hard way!

As we made our back to the lodge, we speculated on how many fish we had caught. Neither of us are really counters, but we felt conservatively, we had probably landed between seventy and eighty fish, on our "half day".  Scott remarked that he wasn't quite sure how it could get better.  But I have a feeling...

Snook: The perfect saltwater starter fish

I just want to get this out of the way.  I'm totally addicted  to salt water fishing.  I made the transition twenty years ago, and love it for so many reasons.  I'm not saying it's superior to other forms of fly fishing, because that would be making an ironclad statement about something that is completely subjective.  In the end, it's all about fun.  But here are three things saltwater fishing has going for it.

One of the best battles I've ever had from a snook...

First, the fish, as a rule, just pull harder, and battle more spectacularly than freshwater fish.  There are exceptions.  A hot chrome steelhead is a more exciting battler than a speckled trout, for example.  But just watch a tarpon video.  Or talk to someone that has watched a false albacore sizzle off a couple hundred yards of backing. 

Second, the places saltwater fish are found speak to me.  Some people love the mountains, I understand it.  But when I step on to the beach early in the morning, and watch the sunrise over the ocean, and smell the salt, and hear the pounding of the surf.....I just can never get enough of it. 

Third, the ocean is such a mysterious place, you never know exactly what is going to happen.  For the most part, on my local lakes, ponds, and trout streams, I know how  things are going to play out.  But on the ocean...it's another story.  You may see a shark the size of a small car, in fact,  said shark may relieve you of the fish you are battling.  Sea turtles, dolphins, whales may pay a visit.  Like variety?  So far, I've landed over sixty species of saltwater fish on fly...with so many more to go!

I hear a lot of fly fishers talk about venturing to the salt...someday.  Some of them have been talking about it for decades.  For my friends that talk about it and don't make it, I see a few barriers.  One is expense.  Saltwater fishing can be expensive.  The gear can be expensive, and the trips can be expensive, especially if you are staying at a lodge, or booking a guide for a week.   Second,  many people don't where to start, and often make mistakes about where to begin.  Hint....a Keys permit trip is probably not the ideal way to wet a line in the ocean for the first time.  Third, some people are concerned if their skills meet the demands of the salt. 

So, the ideal target for saltwater fishing would be a fish that encompasses all that is intriguing about the saltwater game, but also, could be pursued on the cheap, maybe fished for with equipment that many freshwater anglers already possess,  and maybe, might even be caught by the angler that can't put a fly on a paper plate at eighty feet.  (And yes, I totally understand that the more competant you are, the more fish you will catch and the better your experience will be).

Introducing the snook!  I have to remember, this is a blog post, not a book   But, I must say it, they are pretty much the perfect gamefish.  They're gorgeous.  Silver, with that jet black line down the side, and yellow fins, not gaudy, like a brook trout, or a dolphin, but beautiful,  in kind of an understated, classical way.  They get BIG!  My best on fly is 42 inches, probably between 25-27 pounds, and they get considerably bigger than that.   The way they fight is everything you could want from a gamefish.  Most of the time, you get a jump or two, they pull hard, and make you battle for every inch of line.  Some fish run further, some fish jump higher, some fish pull harder, but the snook does a little bit of everything.  They are also very inclined, unlike some species, to take flies.  I've had days when I've fished a long, hard day without a hookup, but I've had plenty of days when I've hooked double digit numbers of fish, and years ago, a friend and I had day when we landed over fifty in a morning between the two of us.

Caught this one blinding casting over a big bait pod.

They can also be fished for at minimal expense.  Have an eight weight, and a reel with a decent disk drag?  You are off to great start.  Don't have one?  A reasonable outfit can be purchased for $300 or so.  And you don't need a ticket to the Seychelles.  The best place in the world to catch snook on fly is Florida.  If you are an international reader, this may not be the case, but I can often find round trip tickets to Florida for under $200.  If I fish totally DIY, splitting a hotel with a friend,and rental car, I can fish for a week, lodging, plane ticket, rental car, meals, for under $1000, and I spend a chunk of my summer each year doing just that.

The best part?  If you have even rudimentary skills, you can catch snook on fly.  The summer, in Florida, is snook spawning season.  They spawn in the inlets, in heavy flowing water, but they don't spawn all at once, and for months, a significant number of fish are cruising the beach, hunting.  And when I say cruising the beach, they are literally a few feet off the sand, in fact, they are often right in the surge of the waves, chasing baitfish in the skinny water, moving forward and retreating with the waves.  Imagine, walking the beach, in a swimsuit, carrying your fly rod, standing about ten feet back from the water, watching intensley.  About a hundred feet away, you spot them, several large, silvery fish, casting shadows on the bottom, right in the trough, literally just a few feet off the beach.  When they are about fifty feet away, you drop a small baitfish pattern just ahead of then and beyond them, so that as you retrieve, the baitfish will pass

Sanibel Island:  The place I really learned to snook fish, and still amazing.

The view the snook fisherman gets every morning.  

a couple feet in front of them, directly in their line of sight.  As you strip, one surges forward and follows slowly, until it's almost at your feet, and then with a rush, it flares it's gills and sucks in your fly.  You strip set and the fish immediatly runs twenty feet, and then flies from the water, and your fly comes out....but it's OK, because just down the beach, you can already see your next target.  That scenario will be replayed thousands of times by fly fishers this summer.

You can have the mountains...give me this!

There are many other ways to catch snook.  In the mangroves, on the dock lights, even in the inlets with a full sinking line.  There is way more that could be said about this, and many have.  But this is just a blog.  I want you to know that saltwater fly fishing is amazing.  I want you to believe that you can be successful at it.  And I think snook are a perfect starter fish for so many reasons.  If your interest is piqued, I'd suggest  you reserach further.  There are many excellant books, Norm Zeiglers book, "Snook on the fly" is a good one to start with.  The Facebook group, Snook on the Fly, is also a great place to learn, as is the Facebook group, Snook Club, even though that group is mostly conventional guys.   Do your research, grab an eight weight, and your stripping basket, and once travel is safe again, head to Florida and give it a try.  If you do, feel free to contact me with any questions, and definitely let me know how you do!

The fish you see when you close your eyes, my top ten list, part two.

Note, the first two paragraphs of this blog, are basically the same preamble as yesterday, so if you read yesterdays, scroll down.

It's no secret I like to fish.  I picked up a fly rod for the first time at the age of twelve, I'm now fifty three, and I'm not even close to tired of it.  And thinking about fishing, while not as fun as actually fishing, often brings a smile to my face.  In fact, I have even discovered that thinking about fishing can be highly useful!   As I've gotten older, I don't sleep as well.   I never have problems going to sleep, but I sometimes have problems staying asleep.  So, when I wake up (usually between 3:00 and 4:00 a.m.), I've learned a technique that helps.  I choose some of my favorite fishing moments, and think about them, and soon enough, I'm drifting.  Sometimes, I try to make a list of the most memorable fish I've ever caught.  I usually only get a few fish down the list, and I'm sound asleep.

Today, I'm fully awake, but mostly homebound, trying to do my part and stay home.  I'm a little restless, I've got some time on my hands since the real estate market isn't booming, and if there were ever a time to make a list, this is it!  Although there are other things that make fishing trips memorable, the company, locales, food, etc., the fish are still the stars of the show.  These are ranked in no particular order.  I'll start each by giving the species, the size, the day they were caught, and if they were a quest, a target, or a surprise.  A quest is a fish you have pursued somewhat obsessively, a target is a fish that happened to be what you are actually fishing for, but the particular fish caught that day stood out, and a surprise is one of the wonderful fish that come like a bolt from the blue, that you could never have planned for.  And yes, as you scroll through, you'll notice this turns out to be a top twelve list. (Note, as this blog was written, it turned out to be a two parter, today, I'll share the second six.

Fish #7   Brown Trout, Sheboygan River Wisconsin
Date:  November, 1996
Size, 36.5 inches long, 21.5 inch girth,  aprox. 22.4 pounds
Category:  Target

To tell the truth, brown trout, in the fall in Wisconsin are a bycatch of swinging for steelhead, but they are an expected bycatch, some days you catch far more browns than you do steelhead, as was also the case this day.  Before I had left the house, I had my daughter show me how to use the timer on my point and shoot camera, (remember this was 1996), in case, in my words I would happen to catch the "biggest trout of my life".  It was a bitterly cold day, so much so, that I had the river almost entirely to myself.  When you steelhead fish, you are casting, allowing the fly to swing down and across, and then taking a step and doing it all over again, until you finish the run you are working.  On this particular day, about once an hour, I"d get a strong pull, and land a brown trout from five to twelve pounds or so, it wasn't surprising when near the middle of a hundred yard long run, in one of the sweet spots, I felt a fish nip at the fly a couple of times.  I just let it continue to swing and the fish almost took the rod out of my hand.  Lots of slow head shakes, and powerful runs back and forth near the middle of the pool, like most lake run browns,  it was not inclined to run far.  When I got my first glimpse of it, I realized it definitely was not like most lake run browns.  It was a beautiful male brown, long, but also thick, one of those fish that carry weight from their shoulders all the way through the tail.  In my mind, the mark for these browns is twenty pounds, and although I had already landed a couple of twenty pound fish in past years, I knew this was the largest.  Some quick measurements, that put it between 22 and 23 pounds, and a quick picture with the point and shoot camera, and back in he went. And it remains, 24 years later, the largest trout of my life.

Fish #8  Dusky Shark, Jupiter, Florida
Date:  July, 2019
Size:  300 pounds
Category:  Quest

I love sharks.  I've been fascinated by them since I was kid.  And since I've been fishing offshore in Forida for false albacore, I've been trying to figure out how to get the large sharks that are a constant presence around the boat, to both eat a fly, and once they eat, to land them.  The second part is more challenging than the first, most of sharks around the boat are in the 200-500 pound range, we're fishing in over 100 feet of water, and the first thing they do when you hook them is dive.  But, with lots of trial and error, I ended up with the right tackle, the right flies, and the right rigging, and began to have success slapping fish alongside the boat.  (not in the boat!)  Had a wonderful take from a giant right at the surface, got to watch it  slide past the fly, turn on it's tail and engulf it, and then with some good boatwork from the captain, and some hard pulling on the 16 weight, actually had the fish tired, and at the surface in about thirty minutes.  My guide called it at 300 pounds, obviously no measurements were taken.  Interestingly enough, in the picture you can see a hook in the corner of the mouth, but that's not mine, the fly is on the other side, and also a green tag. 

Fish #9  Snook, Jupiter Florida
Date  July, 2016
Size  41 inches and change
Category:  Target

Walking along a beach, in the sun, wearing only a pair of swim trunks, and casting to snook is about as good it gets.  Every summer, the snook, during their spawning time, swim parallel to the beach, often only a few feet off the sand.  It's stunning, visual fishing, at the best of it, you pick your fish, make the cast, watch the fish react to the fly, and sometimes, they will track and eat with the leader literally in the guides.  Not so on this day.  The water was murky, the surf was big, but there was a gigantic bait pod between the beach and the Jupiter jetty, and the snook were taking full advantage.  I made a long cast down the jetty, came tight, and the guy at the end of jetty, who with the advantage of elevation had seen the fish eat, called out, and said, "dude, that's a BIG fish!"  Nothing spectacular, the snook headed south, running parallel to the beach, not out.  Not in a hurry, but not letting itself get any closer than about 50 feet from the beach either.  The longer I walked, the bigger the crowd following me down the beach got, soon I had a group of about 30 people following me, plus a teenage boy in the water that was shooing swimmers out of the way.  To this point, I had never landed a really big snook, and when I finally was able to muscle it in on an inbound wave I about passed out.  40 inches is kind of a benchmark for snook even for the bait guys, a 40 incher on fly is a big deal.  This one stretched out the tape between 41 and 42.  The next couple of days, I even got to hear discussion about "the guy from Iowa" who had landed a big snook the other day. 

Fish #`10  Sawfish, Everglades
Date  July 2016
Size  Not really sure
Category:  Biggest surprise of all time

Walking the shoreline in Flamingo, after a good day of fishing the Glades.  Saw a fish that looked to be about three feet long approaching, looked exactly like a small shark.  As it approached, I dropped the fly to the side of it's head, twitched it, and when I did, it swung it's SAW at the fly.  I let the fly fall to the bottom like a wounded baitfish, and the craziest fish of my life, just sucked it up.  It was a little hard to release, because I just wanted to hold it and stare at it, even then, was pretty convinced that I would never have the opportunity to hold one of these again.

Fish #11  Northern Pike, Devils Lake, North Dakota
Date  May, 2018
Size:  40.5 inches
Category  Target

When I was growing up, northern pike carried a mystique.  They were full of teeth, known to eat baby ducks and muskrats, and could actually hurt you, if you weren't careful handling them.  They are actually named after a weapon.  My grandfather, who was both a fishermen and a storyteller, had lots of great fishing stories, and many of them involved pike.  Over the years, I had landed many pike on fly, both targeting them, and as bycatch, but Iowa isn't exactly a pike hot spot, and big ones are very uncommon here.  With that in mind, I headed somewhere with a bit more of a reputation, Devils Lake, North Dakota, which is absolutely loaded with pike.  The plan was to fish two days, and my hope was to land a forty inch fish.  On the morning of the first day, casting a large, chartreuse over white ep baitfish, it happened.  Nothing dramatic about the strike, or the fight, but somehow holding the fish, and then watching it swim away, it filled me with memories of chasing these fish as a child, my grandfathers stories, throwing the big wooden, tooth scarred plugs.  And you have to admit, although you might not call them pretty, a darn handsome fish in their own right.

Fish #12  Peacock bass, Agua Boa River
Date:  January, 2020
Size: 17 pounds plus
Category:  Target

Peacock bass are everything you want in a gamefish.  They are beautiful.  They love to eat flies.  They jump.  They pull so hard in the first thirty seconds or so of the fight that it's a little terrifying.  Joseph, our guide for the day, navigated us through a narrow creek off the main river, until it opened up in to a large lagoon.  He made eye contact, and said, "Check leader.  Big fish here."  And big fish there were.  In a short amount of time, I landed six fish over ten pounds, the biggest at fifteen.  But on the very last shoreline, just as my fly was swinging behind the boat, I saw a fish tracking it, and had just enough to think, "that's a BIG fish", when it surged forward and crushed the fly.  All peacock bass are great, this one was just a little extra.  I had never had one battle quite so hard, and wasn't particularly surprise when it also turned out to be my biggest.  And what made it a little sweeter, I took the family big peacock title (a mythical belt) back from my wife, who had landed a sixteen pound fish the year before.

And there you go.  Hopefully, some of these fish will be replaced in the coming years.  Or, I'll just have to make my list longer!  Would love to hear about some of years.  If you are interested in an Amazon peacock trip, contact me!

The fish you see when you close your eyes...my top ten fish of all time.

It's no secret I like to fish.  I picked up a fly rod for the first time at the age of twelve, I'm now fifty three, and I'm not even close to tired of it.  And thinking about fishing, while not as fun as actually fishing, often brings a smile to my face.  In fact, I have even discovered that thinking about fishing can be highly useful!   As I've gotten older, I don't sleep as well.   I never have problems going to sleep, but I sometimes have problems staying asleep.  So, when I wake up (usually between 3:00 and 4:00 a.m.), I've learned a technique that helps.  I choose some of my favorite fishing moments, and think about them, and soon enough, I'm drifting.  Sometimes, I try to make a list of the most memorable fish I've ever caught.  I usually only get a few fish down the list, and I'm sound asleep.

Today, I'm fully awake, but mostly homebound, trying to do my part and stay home.  I'm a little restless, I've got some time on my hands since the real estate market isn't booming, and if there were ever a time to make a list, this is it!  Although there are other things that make fishing trips memorable, the company, locales, food, etc., the fish are still the stars of the show.  These are ranked in no particular order.  I'll start each by giving the species, the size, the day they were caught, and if they were a quest, a target, or a surprise.  A quest is a fish you have pursued somewhat obsessively, a target is a fish that happened to be what you are actually fishing for, but the particular fish caught that day stood out, and a surprise is one of the wonderful fish that come like a bolt from the blue, that you could never have planned for.  And yes, as you scroll through, you'll notice this turns out to be a top twelve list. (Note, as this blog was written, it turned out to be a two parter, I'll share the first six today.

Fish number one:  Payara, Agua Boa River, Brazil
Date:  January, 2019
Size:  Not measured, maybe seven pounds
Category:  Surprise!

I've always been fascinated by the payara, or as some people call them, vampire fish.  It's not an original thought, but you can't help looking at that mouth, and just staring at the huge canines.  The fish actually have holes in their head that the teeth fold in to.  Last January, my wife and I were fishing on the Agua Boa River in Brazil.  It's a peacock bass destination, payara are quite uncommon there, and when they do show up, usually tiny.  But one day, my wife was retrieving her fly and there was a silver flash behind it.  The guide called out, "payara", and in her next few casts, she caught one.  It turned out there was a huge pod of them, and we hooked a couple dozen, although only four were landed.  They were amazing gamefish, each one taking to the air several times, so much like baby tarpon.  You might think the visage on these would give me nightmares, but thinking about them makes me sleep like a baby!

Fish number two:  Grass Carp, Hannen Lake, Iowa
Date:  April, 2001
Size  56 lbs, 11 oz
Category:  Definitely Quest

When I moved to Iowa, I devoted a lot of time trying to figure out how to get these guys to eat flies.  I couldn't find much information, and what I could find didn't translate well.  Once I did figure it out, I decided, for once, to get in "the book", the official record book that the International Gamefish association keeps.  The record for six pound tippet was approximately 25 lbs, I decided to wait until I got one that went over fifty and turn it in.  On a warm night in late April it happened, a giant sucked in the dry fly I was throwing, and when it went on the official scales, (three days after capture) it weighed 56lbs 11 oz and is still the record to this day.  I've caught some bigger ones since, but once through the somewhat tedious process that you have to go through to submit a record was definitely enough.  Grass carp remain the most difficult fish to entice to eat a fly that I have ever fished for.

Fish number three:  Striped bass, Lower Illinois River, Oklahoma
Date:  Summer 2018
Size  41 inches, somewhere between thirty and thirty one pounds
Category:  Target

In late spring, the striped bass move out of the main stem of the Arkansas River into the Lower Illinois, attracted by the cold water (The Lower Illinois is a tailwater), and probably, the huge stockings of catchable size rainbow trout.  Stripers are beautiful, hard pulling fish that whack flies aggressively, and I can't get enough of them.  Typical size is 3-12 pounds, but there are plenty of larger fish, and a few MUCH larger fish.  On an overcast day, I was chucking a large, eight inch, ep baitfish pattern, much like I would throw to pike, up against the far bank, letting it sink a bit, and then ripping it back fast.  A couple of strips in, I got whacked hard, the fish screamed up the river parallel to several snags, running beside them, but making no effort to get in them, reversed course and screamed downstream past several more, ulitmately choosing to slug it out downstream in a deep, snagless pool.  As big fish sometimes do, when it got close, it seemed to double in size.  Pulled my sewing tape out, and got a quick length girth measurement, before sending it on it's way.  Still gives me the chills thinking about it.

Fish number four:  Black drum, Hopedale, Louisiana
Date:  February, 2020
Size:  Bigger than 45 pounds, less than 50
Category:  Target

I had never caught a black drum, or even had the opportunity to throw for one.  Left the dock on this trip with the hopes to get a shot.  It turned out to be a brutal day of fishing,  windy, cold, cold water, and most disturbingly, muddy water,  and we poled all over, but in the first six hours of fishing had seen exactly zero fish.  The most exciting moment had been spotting a mudcloud where a fish had recently been.  But at 2:30, it happened.  In three feet water, the biggest tail I had ever seen protruding from the water in my life.  No heroic casts, but when the fly came close to the fish, it just ate.  And yes, I know it's ugly.  But...what a fish!  And what a way to salvage a day when you only see one fish!

Fish number five:  Steelhead, Kewaunee River, Wisconsin
Date, October , 1997
Size 39 inches
Category:  Quest

Steelhead are my favorite freshwater fish.  I love the way they hit a swung fly, I love what they do afterwards, and I love the way they look.  Half a lifetime ago,  I was on a quest to catch a 40 inch steelhead, something that in Wisconsin might be like looking for unicorns. ( I do know of one that has been landed)  On a cold, numbing, snowy day, I was swinging a small wet fly called a Night Dancer, through the gut of a deep pool.  Felt a pluck, another pluck, and then that wonderful, solid pull, that only those who swing flies can really appreciate.  The fish fought deep, with big headshakes, and no acrobatics, as is often the case for large bucks in deep water.  But when it finally hit the bank, it was a marvel.  Not a 40 inch fish, (an inch short), not the girth to be a twenty pound fish (probably a little over 18), but remains my best, and one of my best memories.  So long ago, that for the blog, I had to take a picture of the picture of the picture I have blown up in my den.

Fish number six:  Red tailed catfish, Agua Boa River Brazil
Date, January 2020
Size:  20ish pounds
Category:  Huge surprise (mostly)

I'm fascinated by red tail catfish, and really wanted one of thse beautiful creatures on flies.  But they are a VERY uncommon catch.  I happened to talking with my guide, and as we were floating in a lagoon, I asked how many red tail catfish had been caught on fly in his boat.  He said none.  He had guided this river for 12 years, 5.5 months a year, about 2000 days.  It didn't sound like my odds were good.  Two minutes later, he said, there's one!  And sure enough, there was one fifty feet out, two feet under the surface of the water, slowly swimming right at the boat.  Dropped the fly in front of it, gave it a couple of slowww strips, felt a pluck, and on the next strip he slammed it.  Yep, nothing amazing, pretty much just caught him.  But one of the very first fish that comes to mine, when I think about memorable ones! 

This is long....so I'm going to make this a two part blog.  Feel free to send comments or questions.  I still host a trip to the Amazon yearly and would love to chat about it with anyone that is interested.  And remember, if you have trouble sleeping tonight....think about your own top ten list!

The difference between one fish and no fish! February 27,2020

If you're a real fishermen, any trip to a fishy location, for any reason, is going to be accompanied by at least trying to carve out some time in your schedule to fish.  In this case, I was invited by the New Orleans Fly Fishers to come down and share my Amazon peacock bass presentation, and I used that as an opportunity to book two days with Captain Brandon Keck, of Southern Fly Expeditions .  Brandon guides out of Hopedale Louisiana, and while the primary goal was redfish, hopefully there would also be shots at other species, black drum, alligator gar, sheepshead....and the list goes on.

In the months prior to the trip, I did what most of us would do.  I watched the tantilizing videos on the website, of wave after wave of redfish attacking poppers.  I tied flies.  I day dreamed.  I even talked my buddy James into traveling with me.  I did everything right, I think, except a consultation with whoever is in charge of Louisiana weather.

I know later winter/early spring weather can be unpredictable.  And sure enough, as it got closer, troubling conditions crept into the forecast.  Wedensday the 26th, our first day on the water, called for 30 mph winds, and high temps in the fifties.  Thursday, the 27th, the winds were to drop, but lows were barely going to be 40, with a high of 50.  I talked to Captain Brandon the eve of the trip.  I told him, I would be more than glad to still fish, but I only wanted to fish if it would be merely difficult, but not impossible.  We made arrangements to talk very early the next morning.  Unfortunately, at 5:50 a.m. I received a text that simply said, "Conditions have worsened.  I recommend we not fish today.  It would just be a really expensive boat ride."  I hated to hear it, but appreciated the honesty.  So, Wednesday was spent on our own, a bit of exploring in New Orleans, and a bit of exploring road side canals, trying to find clean water, and looking for the odd seatrout or redfish.  It was cold, the wind was ripping, and it would have been a miserable day in the boat.

The next morning, I received a text, that said, "It's going to be really difficult, but not impossible."  Good enough for me.  No way I was going home without at least trying.  And honestly, if there is anything predictable about me, it's that I'm optimistic.  We headed off, and one of the great things about traveling and fishing is just how foreign everything is.  The birds are different, the trees are different, and for sure, the homes built on platforms twenty feet in the sky are different.


 The further we drove, the more optomistic I became!  By the time we reached Hopedale, I was sure we were going to whack em.

We arrived at the marina, met Brandon, and loaded five additional fly rods and a couple of big fly boxes on the boat.  Soon we were off and running, and it was COLD!  40 degrees and running in the boat are WAY different from 40 degrees and sitting still.  We ran a good ways to a place Brandon hoped to find clean water, and by the time we arrived, I couldn't feel my face.  There were two issues.  The gusty winds of the previous day had the water very turbid.  Secondly, the water was 51 degrees, which generally means fish sulking deep in the channels, not actively hunting for food.  We hoped that as the sun got on the water (it was mostly sunny), it would eventually move the fish up in to the shallows.

I had James start off in the bow, and my strategy was to have James fish most of the time.  I felt like our shots would be very limited today, and while I've caught some redfish, James had not.  Captain Brandon started poling and James (a very good caster) started firing off blind casts, covering water all around the boat as we moved.  I guess I'm going to sum it this way.  We covered water for six hours, threw hundreds of times, moved five times to new areas, and never saw a single fish by mid afternoon.  It was looking bleak.  Then James stepped down from the bow, and said, "I'm going to get something to eat, fish for awhile." 

Five minutes later, Brandon pointed, and said, "Black drum, Twelve o'clock" and there he was.  This gigantic fish, head down, tail up.  The first black drum I had ever seen in the flesh.  I cast, but not close enough, the fish moved, I couldn't see it, but thought I could, and cast to a mud cloud, instead of the fish.  It was a comedy of errors, but I finally got the fly in front of the fish, which immediately ate.  The fish lumbered off, and that is exactly the right word.  Black drum are never speedsters, and this fish was cold.  But also huge!  He would take twenty feet of line, I'd gain it back, and then he would put his pectoral fins out, and dig down for the bottom.  I would pinch the fly line and lean.  It was stalemate.  And then the fish would run a little, I'd gain it back, and we would do it all over again.  No way to make it a  Hemingway, Old Man and the Sea, exciting battle.  But eventually persistance paid off, and a really cool, amazing fish was in the net.  Black drum, and species number 140 on fly.

Black drum are interestingly shaped fish, their profile is so high, and so different from anything I'm used to catching, I had no idea what it really weighed.  I wondered if it was 50 pounds, my guide, who actually occasionally weighs these things didn't think so.  His judgement was at least 45 pounds, probably high forties, but not quite fifty.  I'll take it!   A quick photo session, and off he went.

And that was it for the day, and the fishing portion of trip.  The wind picked up even more, James gave it another half hour, and then we bagged it.  Then we sped back to New Orleans for my presentation, with the black drum slime still drying.  A wonderful group of guys at the meeting, and it looks like a few of them will be heading to the Amazon with me next year.

I read, and I don't remember where, that in fishing, the difference between one and zero fish caught, is greater than the difference between one and any other number.  Let me witness, so true.  Because I've already forgotten the cold, and the muddy water, and the somewhat poor casting once the fish was spotted.  In my mind, it's not the trip of one fish, it's the trip of the giant black drum! 

Saving the best for last! Amazon Day 7 (last day of trip)

I'm just going to get this out of the way, I don't think this day was the best day of the trip.  But it was pretty spectacular.  Without a doubt in the top three.  And I'm sure my fishing partner, Chris, will remember this one as being as the best.  It's fascinating to me how often the last day of the trip does turn out being the best of it.  Last year, the last day was poling over the white sand flats in my favorite part of the river, landing the two biggest peacocks of my life, up to that point, and also landing my first arowana on what was literally my last cast of the trip. 

This year, our guide for the last day was Irmau.  He is a quiet dude.  His English isn't quite as good as a few of the other guides, making it a bit more difficult to have conversations with him.  He may also may naturally just be a little more reticent.  But if you work at it a bit, there is a lot of depth with Irmau and he is a pretty interesting guy.  He will always have a special place for me, because last year, he put my wife and I on a bunch of payaras, a lifetime fish for me.

I teased Irmau at the beginning of the day, telling him I was hoping for something special.  It turns out that is what we got.  We went on a long run up river, and several twists and turns later, entered a narrow creek, and soon enough a hidden lagoon.  The first cast was greeted by an old adversary that has been largely absent this week, the wolffish or triara as they are probably more properly called.  The wolffish looks a lot like a fish from home called the bowfin.  At Agua Boa they typically run two to four pounds, whack flies hard, will catch some air, and are generally a fine gamefish.  At this point, I'm usually happy not to catch them though.  One, they are the slimiest fish in the world, and two, they are really rough on flies, because of their dental-work.  It would have been a shame to go the whole week and not catch one though, so there you go.

It's what happened next that stood out. At the entrance to the lagoon, our casts were greeted by swarms of butterfly peacocks in the two to four pound range.  Every cast, you would immediately hook a fish, and as you played it, there was a swirling, kaleidoscope of color behind it, as dozens of butterflies followed it.  Chris and I caught them two at a time for about fifteen minutes.  It's not that there weren't larger fish out there.  We could see them.  They just simply, for the most part, couldn't get to the fly before they were beaten out by their smaller cousins. 

Chris with his 11, me with the fish that lured it

On this last day, Chris had a goal, and that was to catch a peacock of over ten pounds.  So far, many, many things had went wrong to thwart this quest.  They were there.  I personally had landed 13 fish like this, my best week ever.  Chris had probably had close to that many eat the fly.  Today, would hopefully be the day when it would come together.  And just a few minutes in, it did.  I had a larger fish, maybe five pounds hooked up, and when it was wallowing at the side of the boat, a larger fish swirled up beneath it.  I told Chris to get his fly in there, he flipped out a few feet of leader, took one strip, and the big fish ate.  He struck it perfectly, and soon enough we had a fish at the boat that I was sure was double figures, and sure enough, the boga revealed it to be 11 pounds.  Pressure off.  We continued to land fish hand over fist in this lagoon, as we were nearing the end, a BIG arapaima rolled in front of the boat, and then another off to the side.  These were person sized arapaima, six footers.  I dropped the fly in the water and slowly crawled it back to the boat.  Just as I gave up, and started to lift to cast again, something down there in the depths grabbed it, but my line was hinged at a weird angle, and my hook set was less than ideal.  I just pricked the fish.  Just so we had no doubts about its identity, it boiled and left an enormous mud cloud in the water.  Heart breaking.  We fished our way back to the entry point of the lagoon, I'm sure we landed fifty fish here.  Before we left, I tied on a large popper that was just too big for the butterflies to handle, but a dozen would slam it as I popped it back to the boat, I was laughing the whole time.

I almost hated to leave this lagoon, but another treat was in store.  The next lagoon was larger, and just as good.   Again, one butterfly peacock after another, the difference was that in this lagoon, there seemed to be more big fish, although once again we had struggles with them not being able to get to the fly before a smaller one would.  We did take several midsize fish, and two experiences stand out.  Irmau pointed out a fish, I made the cast, and the fish ate right in a patch of sunlight where the colors it flashed on the take were brilliant and it was also simply enormous.  I got a good hookset, and the fish kind of plowed back and forth in the lagoon for awhile.  It was the point in the fight where you know you are going to land it, and you are just wondering how big it is going to be.  And then the hook just simply fell out.  I asked Irmau how big, he thought 15, which corresponded to what I was thinking.  Bummer.

A little later, Chris had a good fish hooked up, I seem to remember nine pounds or so, but I really don't remember that fish clearly because of what happened next.  As the fish was at the side of the boat, and I was getting ready to grab it (I was the designated fish grabber)  a huge form loomed up from the bottom.  A monstrous red tail catfish came out of nowhere, hovered in the water column, and basically put it's face on the big peacock.  Like it was taste-testing it, trying to decide if it was worth the trouble.  And then after ten or fifteen seconds, it just slowly sank back in the water column.  My  heart was racing, and it wasn't even hooked.  We landed another 35 fish in this lagoon.  I counted this time, just because I was curious.

A quick lunch under the trees, this took two tries, because the first try, we got covered up by wasps that appeared very interested in our lunch.  After lunch, we didn't even move, we just pulled the boat out and started pounding the bank of the river, where surprisingly we immediately were hot and heavy into the fish again.  We landed another 30 or so, and then headed back down river to look in some of Irmaus payara spots.  This turned out to be kind of a bust.  They just simply weren't there.  But one more memorable occurrence was still in our future.

We started working a narrow stretch of river with the striking white sand flats that you see occasionally here.  We saw a few peacocks.  But what we saw far more were the unusual surimbim catfish, resplendent in their black tiger stripes.  This is my last bucket list fish here, and on this flat they are everywhere.  Singles, doubles, even groups of eight or ten.  But like catfish everywhere, you need to get the fly down to their level, and I couldn't get the fly to sink to them before the boat spooked them.  I don't know why I didn't think of it, but next year, we will be pulling the boat up on the sand and I will be wading if we ever find that situation again. 

All to soon the day was over.  Without a doubt, we have landed over 100 fish today.  Back at the dock, talking with the other boats, everyone had enjoyed a good day.  Mark hand landed a 15 pound fish with Preto.  Ron and Bill each hooked large arapaimas, and got them on the reel, Bill even got a jump out of his hundred pounder.  Too many stories to share around the dock, so some of them got saved for dinner that night.

Did I mention I love this place?  Maybe this was actually the best day.