Saturday in the
morning our adventure was supposed to start! Via two small planes our group
took off from the tiny national airport of Santa Cruz for the two hours flight north
northwest towards Tsimane area and Secure river system. After a while the
landscape becomes greener and more natural as the pastoral land is left behind.
One can only wonder how many Coca plantations for cocaine production pass
beneath the plane. In Bolivia Coca is legally grown for traditional chewing of
the leaves, but production for cocaine is illegal. Flying over that area in a
fixed wing plane is ok as long as some areas are avoided, a helicopter would
cause panic and possibly flying bullets from the illegal plantations below.
Our flight went safe
and the bumpy grass landing strip at Asunta was visible as light green patch in
the jungle canopy. Touch down and we were back on the ground safely. Don’t be
fooled, that is not controlled double and triple checked air traffic such as we
might be used to in our “western states”, that is basic air traffic with
accidents unfortunately happening and very sad stories. But in the same way the
passenger want’s a save touch down, the pilot is motivated to fly save.
We and our gear got out of the plane and the group before us went in to end their trip and fly back to Santa Cruz. Carrying the bags to the large wooden
motor boats and ten minutes transfer upstream to the new Asunta camp. I got
goose bumps motoring upriver – it felt so good to be back! The first time I was
at Tsimane I regularly had to remember to close my mouth.
The new camp is
located in a safer location high above the river, compared to the old (first) camp
that was magnificently located close to a rapid overlooking the river,
unfortunately it was washed away in heavy floods three years ago (no humans
injured as it was during off season). New Asunta camp consists of a large main
house for meals and hanging out with the fishing mates and four comfortable
safari stile tent-huts with bathroom for two anglers each all linked with a
huge construction of boardwalk. Plus a couple of huts and constructions for
staff, kitchen and supply. For the clients everything is well organized and as
comfortable as reasonable for such a location, you might even call it kind of
luxurious.
I was happy to see
Fernando Beltran as camp manager of Asunta camp. Four years ago when I first visited
Tsimane he was working at the camp, in the meantime he became camp manager. An
enthusiastic, jungle loving and care taking manager and guide every operation
could only wish to have! His interest and passion for the Tsimane connects the
whole venue well to the Tsimane’s activities and their passion to hunt and to
explore. Tsimane guides enjoy being on the river to observe and to hunt as
those funny white men enjoy this fly fishing thing. And once in a while they
take their bow and arrow and hunt for Sabalo which are so abundant in the
system that at times you might think to walk over the river on this mass of
fish. A good number of Dorados follow the annual upriver spawning run of Sabalo.
Besides these migratory Dorado there are resident Dorado in the system. A other
fish to target is the highly regarded and challenging Pacu (Pirapitinga, a
relative of the Piranha, a fish that eats fruits and fish alike), the Surubi (a
big catfish, very hard to catch on the fly) and Yatorana (the best fighter
pound by pound).
That first evening Hernan, Chris and I fished the "home pool" without much success. Hernan and Chris got some pulls but nothing lasting. Dorado were just not into feeding mode. We saw a couple roling which is a very bad sign, most likely they will not take and are aware of the fishermen. Was that a sign for the week to come?
First full day fishing,
Chris and I went upriver towards upper Secure. A section I could not fish in
2012 due to rain and high river level. Thus every corner was new. We
went up a considerable stretch of river without fishing to leave that untouched
for our mates before we eventually started to fish. Secure becomes
smaller and smaller the further up you go, we took the right river arm three
times and finally were fishing a mere creek. Marvelous! Dorado in a tiny creek like that – wow! We took turns and caught our share of fish each. Typical
Dorado flies with muddler head, weighted eyes in black combined with some color
did the job. Nothing fancy - as often it is more about presentation than the precise color of the fly.
Upper Secure can
provide very good opportunities for the highly regarded Pacu. We saw a couple
but did not get real shots on them. Pacu - this challenging to catch and hard
fighting fish is still on my list.
As I am very bad on
counting number of fish or even remembering single “average” fish, I have no
idea how many we caught. But size was medium and numbers were rather low, nothing
overwhelming in terms of fish, though we saw a couple of good ones. Nice to
start again with the Dorados! There was only one bad thing to mention: I broke
a rod handling a fish while landing, it might have been typical high sticking
aka stupid angler behavior. What is striking though, I only broke three rods up
to now in 25 years of fly fishing, all on their very first day of fishing. Thus
the engineer in me tells me, that some material issues might not be totally
unlikely. On trips like that with big aggressive fish, always, I say always,
take plenty of rods with you. As mentioned, for Tsimane I would propose two 8#
and two 9#, with WF-F 9, WF-I (tip) 9 and possibly a sink tip line of 300
grains and two or three reels that provide enough power to reel in a 30lbs
Dorado. T&T Solar or Exocett, Sage Salt or TCX are good options. Add some (cheap)
backup.
Counting and
remembering fish - the astonishing ability that seems to be mandatory for most fishing
guides. I am very bad on that. As long as I have the impression that something
is happening and I catch fish once in a while and kind of regularly, everything
is good. And most of the time fishing everything is good. I might remember the
outstanding fish such as a Trophy trout in NZ SI or the very big Dorado I
caught 2012 or some other special fish (of that trip). But some guides even
remember fish that we caught years ago, recalling the fly and precise
spot where it happened. Unbelievable.
Some annotations to
clarify on the following posts and pictures. I love to take pictures and try to
make them well, but I am an amateur that loves fishing (PS back home now, doing
the post production, I came to the conclusion that I should repeat the trip: the yield of ok-pictures is horrifying low). Thus I usually do not take pictures of
every fish I land but only of some. Sometimes that comes with lost chances, as
you might expect you would continue to catch and once of a sudden it is off. In
terms of picture style a special angle on a fish or a good composition are nice
to look at and I like them, but pics that intentionally over exaggerate the
size of a fish are more a sign of low self-confidence. Such as holding the fish with long arms right in the 10mm
ultra wide lens with the fisherman’s head (aka brain) dwarfed behind a 15lbs
Dorado to make the fish looking like 30lbs. E.g. a really huge Dorado can be
judged by the size of the eyes in relation to the remaining head, if the eyes
look very small, the fish most likely is huge. Or by the fisherman’s hand (considering its
size as well) holding the fish’s tail. If the tight hand is not closed around
the tail, it is most likely a big fish. If the size of the fish is still
obvious from the picture it might be ok. It is a thin line between documenting a
good moment or telling myth about huge fish that were kind of average.
During that trip I met a professional photographer who very clearly expressed: "I hate exaggerated hero shots."
During that trip I met a professional photographer who very clearly expressed: "I hate exaggerated hero shots."
As a fly fisher you - at least that is valid for me - once
in a while might love to have a picture of yourself holding that special fish
or just catching a moment with you in the scene. In those situations friends, fishing mates or guides with a good eye and a steady hand are the friends to treat well. As most of us can not afford to bring their own private Norwegian photographer on such a trip. To all the
guides, especially to Breno and Chris my fishing mates and friends who took pictures that have a level
horizon, provide some area to crop (in case they were off angled), with no changes to the camera setup, pictures that are kind of
sharp and are plenty to select the ones without funny faces: Thank you so much!
To all the others: you would have the chance to make everybody happy (yourself, your
company and the client) if that killer shot of your client would be taken by you!
Enough about those ethics and oppionions for
today.
If you like what you read, like the honest and sometimes ironic narrations and get the "nothing is serious" between the lines, or appreciate the first hand insights for the traveling fisherman or just some of the pictures - you might consider to share it among your friends.
