All Epic Trips Have Eventually Come to an End … Farewell Rio Marié, Farewell Temensis Rex!

We had one more day of fishing. Untamed Amazon did again move upriver during dinner. Awesome – one enjoys dinner, sips a decent Argentinian Malbec and in the background of the big panoramic dining room windows the jungle passes by! 

Thus the next day we would have fresh water again. The vessel anchored close to the entrance of a creek. A creek that was only fished in the exploration season of 2014. Next morning we would fish kind of virgin water again!

 

 

  

As we drove upriver in that tributary the thought of being one of very few humans that fished and visited that place was overwhelming. I got goose bumps at every bend of that small creek! Loved it!

Fishing was mixed to good. We found a couple of pots and spots of several Butterflies. Breno checked in again for the 4-7lbs fish and I for the smaller ones and far less. At the end of the day we would have caught more than 40 Butterflies. Had a nice fish barbecue with some bees flying around and went back to the main river and upstream after the lunch to spend our last hours fishing at Rio Marié. As if the fishing god was close to us we both landed a good sized GPB to end that trip. Breno got a good fish of 76cm and around 16lbs and I caught a smaller one to finish the trip of something of around 70cm and 13-14lbs.

Last cast, very last cast, final cast. That was Rio Marié! 

I got the unofficial world record with the biggest GPB ever caught on fly up to date, got another fish of 23lbs and had an awesome time with my friend Breno, the Russian team and the lovely crew. Thank you for all that! Thank you to ALL on site, back home and elsewhere that made this trip such a blast!

If you are in pursuit of GPB with the fly, Rio Marié is the ultimate place to go. You will have the best chances to catch a fish beyond the magic 20lbs mark. The whole setting is marvelous! The fishing is kind of work and does not provide the visual appeal of NZ trout fishing in gin clear water or the crazy stuff you might experience fishing for Golden Dorado. But if you are interested in the best fishing destinations possible: book your slot now! You might experience one of your best fishing days and will fish one of the very last virgin spots on this globe.

Questions of any kind (tackle, background, booking, advice, …)? Contact me.

If you like what you read: share it via social media and tell your fishing buddies!

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.

 

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.