Another day in Paradise and relocation to Paradise II.

Third day fishing... Can not remember well anymore. It’s the same with counting fish caught, after the first hand (five) I usually louse count. Think we went upriver towards more structure and had a good day, as all of the days at Iriri River were good. Above the main camp (as of 2015 exploration season) the river shows more structure. In the lower part that is fished, long slow runs dominate and interesting rapids are much further apart.

Some thoughts about tossing poppers all day: Personally, that is kind of boring after a while especially if action is low. To maximize your hook up rate make your fly fish the most time by casting it quickly and efficiently as close to the structure as possible. One meter away is not close, 10cm are good. Avoid false casting, one or two hauls/false casts and then let the line shoot. No need to strip all the way back to the boat, watch if a fish follows and if not recast quickly when there is still enough line on the water to load your rod quickly. Casting nicely is good for the person watching you, but you want to catch fish. Over gun your rod by one number heavier line, which will transport even sailfish popper kind of efficient.

 

 

 

To cover more water and to give the fished water a rest, the fourth day meant to move downstream in an out-camp. Normally moving is related to work and effort, in that case it is related to fishing as we fished the way downstream to the out-camp. As mentioned, further downriver the river shows less structure, but that offers for a change and still provides good fishing. Depending on the water level it might be related to more drift fishing and less wading. It is pretty obvious that the wading stile is comparable to saltwater flats: wet wading in very warm water but combined with big Granit rocks, thus decent wading boots and neoprene socks are the way to go. Actually wading is a good change after a hot drift in the sun. The sting rays can usually be spotted easily, still care should be taken to avoid them.

 

Iriri River is the garden of the Kayapó, it is even more, it is their main road and supply of food. So we shared their resource of food. We ate their fish and we shared their turtle eggs. Right. As it was turtle egg season, they went to sandy beaches to test the hardness of the sand with their feet and started to dig at some kind of soft patches, digging more than a dozen turtle eggs per nest. The eggs pretty much consisted only of egg yellow. They liked to beat them up with (lots of) sugar, add some rather hard manioc and eat it. The taste was good, only the very junky manioc was irritating. Another day we asked for turtle scrambled eggs. Their texture and taste was bewildering as it was more similar to polenta than to scrambled eggs. Not bad but just unfamiliar.  

On our late last kilometers downriver towards the out-camp, the sun already very low, we discovered a Tapir crossing the river. We followed it and came very close providing us up close contact and shots of that characteristic South American animal. Our boat, so Breno and my boat (we were changing guides and boats every day back and force) was very lucky as we saw around four Tapir during that week. Later on the last Tapir would cross our way as we went back to Kendjam, thus the "other boat" had their first Tapir sighting at the very last call as well. 

The out-camp is beautifully situated on an island tucked in the trees, smaller single sleeping tents but no compromise on comfort such as camp shower, outhouse and eating tent.

 

That night Guiermo with some support from the Kayapó tried to hand-line some catfish. The whole camp was sitting on the beach and watching with big loughs. Piranha after piranha came to the beach some were feed right to the Cayman that patrolled around attracted by the action. Some of these Caymans came very close to the beach waiting for their share. After close to a dozen fish finally a small redtail catfish came to the beach. Making funny noises that small catfish went back to the water after a big hello from the spectators.

A new morning in paradise dawned. Beautiful early morning light over the steaming river. The night before I removed the fly of my tent and was using only the inner layer of the tent allowing for a well-tempered sleep under the trees and the southern sky with its thousand stars.

Based on the island of the out-camp we fished the fifth day from there downriver. Long glides with low structure are typical for the lower section below the out-camp. Still there could be some action found from Peacocks or Matrinxas with fruit flies or popper flies fished from the drifting boat close to the banks, structure and trees.

After lunch, that as usual consisted of a couple of freshly caught Bass, Pacu and Matrinxa, with rice and some vegetables (carrots aka “yellow wood”) and water (you might probably imagine that I was sick of fish after that week and was looking forward to some decent beef!), one of the Kayapó guides, his name was Kokoti showed us a special natural source of good taste. A walk of around 10 minutes following a path through the jungle lead us to a giant tree that produced a very special fruit: Brazilian nuts or more commonly known sometimes as Para nuts. A large solitary tree under which we found big hard balls around 12cm in diameter that could only be opened by a machete or other powerful means. The big fruits/nuts contained around 15-20 seeds/nuts that again where within a hard shell hiding a big peace of junky nut protein. To keep the natural process of seeding going, there is one mammal that opens these super hard big balls and allows the single seeds to do their job. Absolutely fascinating. These nuts are one of the few trading goods of the Kayapó.

During the lunch break, Kokoti was carving a club out of a piece of very heavy wood (Brazilwood) that would turn read within days. These clubs in various forms are used to hunt pigs. A very strenuous hunt as the Kayapó pretty much search for the pigs and then hunt them down and club them. 

These clubs later on get a handle cover made of woven strings adding some kind of "decorative touch" to them.

Brazilwood gave Brazil it’s name. When Portuguese ships discovered these trees on the coast of South America they called the trees “pau brasil” as they produced red dye, ‘pau’ means wood and ‘brazil’ red/ember-like. These trees are on dangerously low levels as their wood was highly regarded due to their dye wood in the past and today because no other wood is better suited for violin bows.

Back at the camp on "our island" the huge spinner fall under the camp lamp repeated again, the ground beneath the lamp was covered with thousands of dead mayflies, so much that even the Cayman took a mouthful of them. And the catfish session was continued. This evening with higher success as Ramiro caught a decent sized redtail catfish of around 30-40lbs with its hand-line and bait. 

Fishing? Let’s start the exploration!

 

First day fishing. We split in two groups/boats with two fishing, one guide and two locals each and went upstream. Bicudas, Wolffish (Trairão), Peacock Bass, Matrinxa came to the fly. Most of them caught by midsized poppers with light, green, yellow, white coloration. Wire shock tippet all the time as most of them cut even thick nylon immediately. And the Piranha even cuts wire with ease. Fishing here always leads to surprise - you never know for sure from which species your fly is inhaled by and aggressive take, by an ultra-fast Bicuda, a vegetarian oriented Pacu that decides to add some meat to its food, by a big sudden hole in the water caused by a Wolffish or by a big jump of a Peacock - everything could and does happen. Exactly that variety is the fun thing, the various species provide constant change and distraction.

Fishing provided good action during the day. At noon we gathered at a spot on the river bank under trees providing shadow. A fire was set up to cook the assortment of fish for lunch. Side was rice … except for breakfast rice would be part of the regular dyed the next days. Hammocks hang in the trees and we could have a rest from the strenuous fish fighting or from wandering around at the river.

During the whole week the jungle was surprisingly friendly to us. As the season was the dry season or as the Kayapó call it the "good weather" we had warm to hot days but cool nights. Close to no midges bothered us at night and during the day, still long clothes and repellant against sun and insects at night and in the morning is strictly mandatory.

We did not see any bullet ants or any snakes and the sting rays are easy to see and to avoid. Bees or wasps were not an issue. Still every step or grip should be done consciousness to avoid unpleasant experiences. And medical needs should be considered with adequate supply as help is at least one day away.

 

How as camp life? Quiet comfortable all over! We had our rather spacious sleeping tends, a dining tent, a toilet and a solar shower that worked surprisingly well, especially for those that were trained to shower with five liters of water – including a hair. Breakfast was around seven, take off to fish at eight, back in the camp around half past six, thus enough time to catch some fish in the hours between. 

Alan the apprentice cook tried to give its best, but Ramiro put it to the point “At this camp it is not permitted to look at the dinner plates with a flashlight” – he got big laughs for that remark.

The beds in the tents were kind of noisy as every movement was translated to some kind of squealing sound caused by the air-mattress on the safari style bed. Not sure if I did sleep a second in the first night at all. Either these sounds or the sounds from one of the guests in the next tent made me wake more than once and the strong impressions of the day might have kept me awake most of the time.

Second day fishing showed the same procedure, except that we fished downstream from the camp. The river there showed far less appealing structure, more long gliding sections with low flow rate and barren structure. Fishing was much slower, it might have been related to a significant drop in air pressure. At noon we set camp with highly excited monkeys in the distance shouting with unbelievable high level of noise. It must have been a big dispute about something or an intruder such as a big Jaguar. We took dips in the large pool before the lunch site. Warm water, close to 30°C.

Our lunch fish barbecue must have attracted a Cayman from the other side of the big pool, it swam all the way over to stare at us. It got its share with the fishbone thrown to him and the left overs eaten by the Piranha. 

Fishing tactics are pretty simple: Peacock like structure and back eddies and their friend the snake (!), Bicudas can be everywhere but seem to have a preference for slower moving open sections of water. Wolffish can be found in slow side channels close to a good flow, frequently well hidden beneath stones and Matrinxa can be lured by poppers (sometimes taken dead drift or in action) or streamers or even more satisfying by fruit imitations close to or better under bushes and trees in the shadow. The last stile is similare to drift fishing for trout at Yellowstone River.

Leader is rather simple: 2,5 meters of level 40 or 60lbs (whatever is on hand and casts well) combined with 10 to 30cm 20 or 30lbs wire as shock tippet. I used that setup even on the 6th weight rod for Matrinxa, but then with a 20lbs leader and 20lbs wire attached to it as takes by toothy fish are always likely. Nothing fancy, if the popper tends to twist the line, just add a swivel between the nylon and the wire. Flies are tied to the wire via the classic perfection loop. Rods are 6th weight for Pacu and Matrinxa and 8 for Wolffish, Peacock and the scarce Pajara. A very heavy sinker on a 9 might be the best option for the Pajara. Except for the last one a 7 would provide a good compromise in case somebody wants to keep complexity down. Take spare rods, not because the fish will break it, but more because of the danger of high sticking or just destroying it in another way. Lines should be floating for the surface action and intermediate tip for streamer and fast sinking for Pajara. Take one or two spare lines.

Flies in white, yellow, orange, light green in types such as popper, clousers, streamers and some fruit, algae imitating flies or buck imitating flies, nothing needs to be too fancy but should be well constructed, Nevertheless one Piranha will chew a fly to its end. Flies that look nice and just take one fish before dissasembling are not good. And as usual - only the fish caught barbless really counts!

Peacock attack the fly (mostly popper) with a big splash, Bicudas come out of nowhere and frequently miss the fly, Wolffish have to be lured with short strips and stops close to their nose, that frequently results in aggressive bursts. Lots of action and surprise can happen! That is the fun part about it. Nevertheless from my perspective tossing poppers all week long might become a little boring. Thus the search and sight fishing for Wolffish becomes appealing after a while, or the dead drift of a weed imitating fly for sighted Pacu similar to nymph fishing for trout in medium depth runs.

Did you read the first part about this adventure?