It was good to be back
in serious fishing business with friend Breno! The week was supposed to be
good!
Diner was at Soho
Lounge a no frills Sushi place with delicious Sushi just some 500 meters away
from the hotel. We walked. No Taxi. For European standards, that is a nonsense
annotation but for Brazil that is not common for kind of tourists.
Just weeks before the
Trip, Breno told me that we would be accompanied during our week at Rio Marié by
a group of seven Russians and the personal (!) Norwegian (!) photographer of
one of them. I was looking forward to ask them about global politics (just
kidding). Seven Russians?! WTF was our first thought? Let’s see what the week would
bring. It could be funny with a lot of alcohol, hoping that the boat’s supply
would never end. Because addicted without their toys are hard to take. I had
that once on the Seychelles. But I stop here with any prejudice.
Next morning we had
the luck to be in the second smaller and later plane, so we could have slept longer,
but I did not manage to adjust my iPhone to the appropriate time zone, thus I
set the alarm clock to 5:30. So we had more than plenty of time to have
breakfast and to prepare our gear. Breno, I must admit, was kind of irritated
why this German did set the alarm clock so early, but took it professional with
humor of a good friend.
What about Rio Marié,
what makes it so special? In the first post about my ULTIMATE JUNGLE BLAST I
mentioned the exceptional high quality of Giant Peacock Bass fishing of this
venue. Giant Peacock Bass live in several parts of South American Amazon and
are one of the most regarded fish to catch in that area. Catching a “tenner”,
thus a fish of 13lbs or more is an achievement, catching a fish beyond 20lbs
might be the GPB of your lifetime, catching a +20lbs GPB on fly is over the top
and having the real chance to catch more than one +20lbs GPB within one week is
kind of beyond the charts. And exactly that is Rio Marié by Untamed. It is
beyond the charts!
I have to confess that
I am not into GPB fishing at all and can only hardly imagine what it means to
catch such a +20lbs “Temensis Rex” (their correct name is Cichla Temensis). It
might be as exceptional as catching a 30lbs Huchen (aka Taimen) in Bavaria on
the fly. But I am just guessing. For me the special appeal of Rio Marié
definitely was to add a good week fishing with Breno in an extraordinary setting
and to add another week of fishing one of the best spots for one species on
this planet after the first week at Tsimane. It is kind of spoiling yourself
but considering setup cost and travel time from Europe it just makes sense to
fish two or even three destinations of Untamed in one back to back trip.
Source of Rio Marié is
in Colombia, flowing to the east it oxbows its way through the northwest Amazon
jungle of Brazil, joining Rio Negro, a huge tributary of Amazon, after more
than 500 miles. The whole system of Rio Marié and its tributaries are inside
the Indigenous Territory of Medio Rio Negro. In the past this area was only “used”
by native indigenous tribes for sustainable fishing. In 2014 the Brazilian
government and the local native communities granted ten years of exclusive fly
fishing access to Untamed Angling. Altogether this adds up to some 500miles of
fly fishing including several tributaries, creeks, lagoons and old oxbows of
the river. Combined with the careful and caring development, characteristic for
Untamed Angling, this provides the best possible fundament for an exceptional
fishing experience.
As GPB are not
uncommon you might ask what is so special about Rio Marié to produce such a
high percentage and number of fish beyond that magical mark of +20lbs? There is
not one answer to that question. Several facts might have an influence. The
area is very remote and pretty much untouched by any fishing pressure by locals
let alone fly fishing tourists. Thus there is no harvesting and fish can grow
as long as they survive their predators. GPB in that area – might be kind of
trout in NZ – follow survival of the fittest and a steep pyramid develops: low total
numbers of GPB but the ones that are there develop a very high average weight.
GPB occur in two distinct
color stadiums: the Paca (bronze with white spots) and the Acu form more greenish,
yellow with the thick black stripes. The Acu form is actually the spawning and
post spawning color of the fish. GPBs built a nest on the river ground that is
kind of a 1,5 meter diameter bowl. In that bowl they “breed” and protect their descendants.
For spawning they can gain considerable weight. Fishing takes place in that
post spawning time and some of the takes might be related to parents protecting
their kids.
In loose order during the next weeks (as of late January 2017) I will post the story about my week at Rio Marié and the very special fish I caught...
To get a sneak preview check out issue #61 of This is Fly. Link and share my blog if you like what you read.
