Deep in the Amazon Jungle — Rio Marié — Exploring Upstream in Search of Giant Peacock Bass

(Before you read that episode make sure you have a look at episode 5 as this is the point of reference for the following comments)

In case you consider booking your slot at Rio Marié, do not expect to catch record fish, do not take it for granted. Still, Rio Marié is without any doubt the very best place with the highest chance on this planet to catch a +20lbs Giant Peacock Bass. Word. 

So if you are a decent and seasoned fisherman (that means casting 18-20 meters more or less a whole day and knowing what to do), you might have a relatively high chance to catch a +20lbs GPB – but no guarantee! Do not complain about “not enough big fish”. Fishing is special and might be kind of boring at times, but if you are in GPB-fly fishing and want to catch a big one or if you want to fish in one of the last virgin spots, Rio Marié is the very best place to go! 

It was that night that Untamed Amazon would be relocated and moved further upstream after we finished fishing around 5 pm that day. All boats were daisy chained behind the big boat and we started the engines to continue our way upriver. We had appetizers and eventually dinner on a moving ship right in the middle of the jungle. That feeling alone was just awesome! In the meantime it got dark and eventually pitch black outside and we were going up a river that became tighter and smaller mile by mile. 

Orleans the Boat Principal aka Captain and its copilots or so called deck hands navigated the vessel upstream. Remember it was pitch black night. They once in a while pointed out the shore with a very bright beam of a big spotlight to check their location. I followed our route with my iPhone and Google Maps and was totally fascinated, taking several long exposure shots with my tripod from our balcony right at the bow of the ship of that scenery: a moving ship with the light beam wandering around. Later Breno and I went to the bridge of the ship. In the beginning an assistant and later on Orleans himself maneuvered the big vessel upstream through the darkness. It took several minutes before Breno and I could see anything on the pitch black bridge looking outside. 

Only the spotlight beam gave an impression where we were on the river in respect to the banks, numerous twists and bends of the river. Aware of a very narrow section of the river followed by and immediate bend that I figured out from the map I was curious how we would continue and navigate that bottleneck at night. We did not dare to ask the captain as the atmosphere on the bridge was highly concentrated and only very few words exchanged. But it soon turned out that we would anchor just a few hundred meters downstream of that challenging section on a perfectly suited beach. The touch down on this beach was handled by Orleans with exceptional care and caution. Untamed Amazon touched the beach as if you would gently touch the face of your beloved one. 

Imagine, it is most likely the very last you want to experience an out of control vessel of that size on a pitch black river in the upper Amazon. Horrible thought.

Impressions like these on the bridge are a lasting part of such a trip and a detail that is normally not available to a client.

I mentioned before that the fishing was only one (though important) aspect of this venue. A big part was provided by the various mentioned factors: comfortable ship, motivated, skilled and friendly crew, awesome location, good food and excellent service. To do the kitchen some justice and to provide some samples of meals Leandro and his team created: Thank you for that great part!

Knowing that it is hard to keep up the good mood on such a vessel among the crew, it will be a challenge to foster the spirit and good attitude. This needs to be done and supported by a good team, fair leaders, good food and sufficient rest for the team. Not easy but needed. 

On the fifth day we would fish upstream Rio Marié again and Untamed Amazon would follow us, thus again another spot for the night. Imagine that, isn’t that awesome! We would reach a section of the river that probably was only fished during the scouting phase in 2014 by western fly fisher and before that most likely only a couple of times since the beginning of time by humans at all. Virgin water!

 

We fished it – with some success. One of the better fish of the day was a GPB of around 77cm (14-16lbs? cannot remember). On that day Breno started to get an appointment for the remaining days with large Butterflies – he constantly caught these in the 4-6lbs and even touching the 7lbs range. I checked in for the remaining smaller ones. 

Again this afternoon a storm front build up. The thunder and lightning was coming closer and closer. We fished one of those smaller bays of the main river with some bites but not much success. Breno and I briefly communicated and agreed “let’s fish for another 15 minutes and then get back to Untamed Amazon before the storm would hit us” – it was just after 4pm. But both of us had eased our fish-thirst so we were willing to call it a day rather early. Exactly that we did just minutes after as the storm approached and hit us within minutes. Lightning very close by, we in the middle of the open river, heavy hard rain, we were totally soaked reaching Untamed Amazon close by and we were relieved not being fried by a lightning strike. It does not help to know that your chances to survive a lightning strike are something of around 70% - I just do not want to experience that.

Shower (semi warm, as there was no real hot water on Untamed Amazon) and a warming coffee did the job, only a piece of cake was missing.

 Stay tuned for the last day of that awesome trip!

 

Rio Marié – Rio de Gigantes – let the second week begin!

Transfer from Belo Horizonte after INHOTIM Art Museum (see pictures and brief information in the post before) was straight via Brasilia and last leg to Manaus. Reception and transfer to the hotel - as usual with Untamed - went as it should be: reliable and quick. Check in and shower at the hotel. 

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.

 

The Pacu that was mistaken for a Yatorana and ended up to be a … surprise by a mysterious pool

After a quick check of the camp we continued our way upriver and started to spot and catch fish. As always I am very bad on keeping the count or remember any average fish and catch experiences. And we learned that average up here was something of around +15lbs of Dorado.

Both of us had contacts and caught some fish. After a while fishing and tramping upriver we reached a big, deep, long, very slow gliding and totally murky pool. A Pacu-looking spot and thus Chris caught a decent Pacu (Pirapitinga) and landed it after a good fight. I took some pictures of his catch, before I said: “now it is my turn on a Pacu.” I started with a likewise cast and slow retrieve to catch a Pacu as well.

After a quick check of the camp we continued our way upriver and started to spot and catch fish. As always I am very bad on keeping the count or remember any average fish and catch experiences. And we learned that average up here was something of around +15lbs of Dorado.

Both of us had contacts and caught some fish. After a while fishing and tramping upriver we reached a big, deep, long, very slow gliding and totally murky pool. A Pacu-looking spot and thus Chris caught a decent Pacu (Pirapitinga) and landed it after a good fight. I took some pictures of his catch, before I said: “now it is my turn on a Pacu.” I started with a likewise cast and slow retrieve to catch a Pacu as well. 

Just after a couple of cast I got a solid take. Hard and constantly pulling so that none of us was in doubt it would be a Pacu, it took quite some time till the fish came near the surface and we could get a glimpse of its tail: tat was not a Pacu!

It looked like a huge Yatorana as we could see some reddish taint of its tail in that very murky water. It’s fight could have been one of a Yatorana as it never jumped. Not bad either, as Yatorana are said to be pound by pound the strongest fish in that environment. Some more minutes and repeated strong thrusts towards the pools depth made us doubt the Yatorana hypothesis. It was just too long and too hard for a Yatorana. Finally the fish showed up near the surface and it was obvious that I hooked a very big Dorado! Now as we saw the size of that “cow” I was anxious to land it and hold it in my hands. Trying to keep the fish off balance and pulling with the low rod from left and right against its direction. Afraid that the barbless hook (only barbless fish count) would fall out. Finally this golden slap became more tired and after several attempts Luciano managed to hold the leader and securely grab the fish’s tail and “land it” (as the fish was in the water all the time, landing is not the precisely right term here).

 

 

Taking pictures was kind of difficult, as handling a camera with default settings and no need to change anything and clear advice to do exactly that, does not necessarily lead to that. So we had to do the photo session twice to get some acceptable shots. Weighing the fish in a weighing bag resulted in close to 29lbs, a length of 92cm and a girth of 69cm. A real cow! One of the largest fish of that season at Tsimane. Wow! A moment to remember.

Reviving the fish took some time as the fight was long and the procedure after that very gentle and care taking but not without stress. After a while the monster swam away with strong strokes of its huge tail.

I was just lucky! And thankful for the support by Chris and Luciano. And thank you Daniel Beilinson for that trip! 

That was the mysterious pool… who knows what else is in there...

We continued to fish upstream. The creek became eventually clearer, but it was kind of smoky the rest of the afternoon. Fishing well beyond the camp site and catching fish by fish. Fishing up here was special. As the fish were laying on the etch of current or at the glide out of pools as if they would be trout in South Island New Zealand. Nor ordinary Brown Trout but Trout on golden steroids. 

Casting for them was even close to casting for a trout in Fiordland. Light flies just left or right to the head of the fish, kind of dead drift, the fish would eventually turn around and take the fly, just as a trout, but the take and the fight are way different. Brute force and power! Marvelous it was and far to short…

Eventually we turned around. Sad to end this day that provided such a marvelous afternoon.   

Sometimes only one single fish, makes a huge difference. It might be the one special trout or even a trophy in NZ SI or that one Permit or that one big Dorado or the long awaited Pacu. Fishing is just like that. Small details make a huge difference, either in fishing, presentation, fly, strike, fight, landing or company. We ended the day at the camp with a camp fire. 

Camp fires after good days of fishing are the true icing on the cake. Sitting with friends, chatting about something, either fishing or politics or the pain of this world, eventually drifting away and entering the land of dreams …