South America’s Rio Negro holds giant peacock bass, many of which have never seen a lure. Fishing them is an adventure like no other.
You step off the LAB aircraft after a 4 1/2-hour flight from Miami to Manaus, and are surrounded with fishermen — the long the short and the tall, all wearing hats that proclaim their quarry. They’re here for tucunare’— the fabulous peacock bass of the Amazon basin.
Everything in the Amazon is oversized. Giant river otters, kingfishers, macaws and toucans all seem to be colorful exotic creatures of a sci-fi movie.
You are quickly ushered into another smaller aircraft, and after a short flight, you debark in Barcelos, a little riverine village that vibrates with the action of native fishing boats bringing their catch to market.
The heat envelopes you, pushing your senses into a sweat-drenched but euphoric state. A moment later you and your gear are in a 15-foot Tracker, powered with a 90-horsepower Evinrude motor.
As you speed up the Rio Negro, you are awed at the vastness of your surroundings. This tributary of the Amazon River is 30 miles wide. Islands 3 and 4 miles long break the river into confusing patterns.
It’s an eye-opening ride with an azure sky and billowing cumulus clouds, thick tropical forest down to the water’s edge, pristine sand beaches miles long. There’s no sign of pollution. Only an occasional thatched hut on a bluff give evidence of man’s invasion of this sanctuary.
You are greeted at the lodge and your gear stowed in one of the cabins, while you are ushered into a dining area for lunch and an offer to fish until 5 p.m. if you wish.
Forget about roughing it. Amazon Tours lodges and their cabins are air conditioned. A comfortable bed, a shower with hot and cold water, a refrigerator filled with soft drinks, water and beer — what more could you ask for? And, you’re in the middle of the world’s largest rain forest!
Down to the bass boats, and soon you’re casting a Luhr-Jensen Woodchopper to a bank lined with deadfalls and small drainage canals. If you’re after numbers of smaller fish, try any lure you’d use on redfish or speckled trout. Peacocks 3 to 7 pounds love them. For almost an hour, all is quiet.
Suddenly — an explosion! No other word better describes that savage strike. Your line goes taut and the fish peels it off. You’re sure it’s going to spool you. Your native guide is whispering, “big fish.” They don’t speak much English, but those two words are all you want to hear. Your heart is beating ragtime.
Then the fish is airborne. Colors that are surreal — reds, pinks, greens, yellows and blues — flash before your eyes.
As the fish twists and turns in the air, your line goes slack and the lure is flying back at you. You can’t believe it. You thought he was yours. Your guide is muttering, “big fish.” Hell, he didn’t have to tell you!
You land half a dozen small fish, 3- to 5-pound butterfies (a smaller tucunare’ species), a 3-foot-long arawana (that ancient silver species that you see in Vietnamese restaurant fish tanks), several piranha and a saber-toothed dog fish, another primitive scrapper that can take a chunk out of a piece of shoe leather.
Then another explosion. You set the hook with two good solid pulls on your Falcon casting rod. You can’t stop him. He heads into the mangrove trees that line the bank, and you’re hard and fast to solid underwater debris. The guide slips into the water, and disappears.
Suddenly your line starts to pull out against a heavy drag. He has managed to free your line. You carefully work the fish back to the side of the boat. The guide slips the net under the fish, and you have your first trophy, a 12-pound peacock.
His mouth is big enough to hold a large baseball. The No. 3 treble hooks that held him are almost straightened, and the raw power of this rascal has showed you why 80-pound Power Pro braided line is recommended.
Some fishermen bring their own reels, loaded with lighter line. On day two, they all are asking the lodge to replace this with Power Pro.
Amazon Tours makes it unnecessary to bring your own tackle. Everything is included in your base price — lures, rods, reels and a Boca-grip to weigh each fish. The guide is equipped with a Leatherman, a machete and a Sony digital camera that records your catch. He can perform miracles with any one of the three.
Back to the lodge to unpack and enjoy a wonderful shower before supper. The bar is open, hors d’oeuvres are being served and day’s lies are being swapped. No one can believe the power of these fish. Lines were snapped, hooks straightened and smaller lures demolished.
The jungle is alive with exciting critters. Bring your binoculars and a field guide. Pink dolphin breathe nosily, occasional howler monkey troops can be seen making a big fuss in tall trees, a tapir slips into the river with young, 12-foot-long crocodiles called caiman bask on sandy beaches and a host of endemic bird species — yellow-billed terns, black Amazon skimmers, yellow-headed buzzards, and huge storks, the jabiru — stalk majestically across the sandbars, a constant thrill to even the most jaded bird-watcher.
Wake up call at 5:30 and breakfast in the lodge, then back to the chase. You fish hard, and explosion after explosion throws the lure as though a stick of dynamite had been lit under the fish. You’ll miss a half dozen hits before you learn to keep that lure moving after the strike.
The reaction is shock. You stare at the spot where the strike occurred, frozen by the shear violence of the moment.
The light breeze and the quiet whisper of the water are counterpoint to your racing heart. You’ve never experienced anything quite like it.
I’ve caught bonefish, tarpon, sailfish and marlin, but pound for pound, tucunare will pull the scales off any fish twice their size.
For six more days, you’ll fight bigger bass than you’ve ever caught. On one of these days, you’ll hook into a monster. The explosion will rock you back on your heels. The reel will smoke, and again your heart will do flip-flops.
If you have the drag set tight enough, your fish will broach, and then the acrobatics start. Ease off on that drag a bit boy, he’ll leap and twist, but if you hold that rod tip high and keep that line taut, he’ll begin to tire.
Now when he first gets a sight of the boat, he’ll do a number on top of the water that will set your pulse into high gear again. Finally the guide slips a net under him, and you hear, “big fish!!” You just landed your first 20-pounder.
Most of the world’s records for peacocks have been made at the Rio Negro Lodge. Last year, 53,0000 peacocks were caught and released there. Each guide keeps a careful record of your catch. Only ½ of 1 percent are over 20 pounds, but in 2003, I boated eight peacocks in the 20- to 23-pound class on a one-day fly-in to the Araca River.
Float planes are available at an up-charge of $500 for a full-day’s fishing in waters that few if any have ever fished. A 12-foot flatboat and a guide are flown in, and are waiting for you when you arrive.
There are three venues for you to try. The Rio Negro Lodge is the ultimate in comfort and great fishing. The Amazon Queen II is just recently commissioned, and is one of the best-equipped and comfortable headquarters on the river.
Thirteen air-conditioned double bunk cabins come complete with private bathrooms. A fleet of Trackers is towed behind her, and at night she will motor upstream at 12 knots to let you fish a different area each day.
The Rio Araca Lodge is a 12-room facility atop a beautiful bluff. It is a bit more remote and rustic, but all rooms have private bathrooms, air conditioning and fabulous food service.
I’ve fished and hunted all over this old globe, and the only operations comparable were camps run by the British in East Africa in the 1950s. As Peter Chapstick, an old African hand and professional hunter said, “It’s one of the last great adventures man can buy with money.”
Friday evening all three facilities send their fishermen to the Rio Negro Lodge for a grand buffet, and a floor show that you couldn’t better in Paris or Las Vegas. It’s a two-hour extravaganza of a chorus line of lovely young natives, dancing to a Brazilian band that will set your feet to tapping.
You sleep that night, and depart for Manaus in the morning. There you are treated to a city tour and a night in the fabulous Tropical Hotel, a 2,000-room palace with food service that is four-star. Morning comes too soon, and you depart for Miami with enough memories to assure your return.
For brochures and details of cost and transportation, call Amazon Tours at (972) 304-1656 and ask for Brenda Tassio, or call Expeditions by Ron at (800) 874-1989 and ask for Barbara Young.
