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 - The largest Giant Peacock Bass ever caught on fly!

Our fourth day of our great adventure was guided by Agustin. Agustin spend the first part of the season at Kendjam, guiding there the first regular season with the new lodge (see my Kendjam Blog about Breno and my visit during exploration Season 2015 to this highly regarded Untamed destination). This morning in the bot, more ironically joking than serious I said: “I am going to catch a 28lbs fish today!”

  
Fishing was again cast by cast to the shore and towards structure. Some fish to the boat. But not so many. We fished a lake with some freshwater Dolphin action. This made me put on my 70-200 2,8 Canon lens and taking some hundred shots of breathing Dolphins. To take a proper shot of them is kind of a challenge, as they are very quick. So only a low percentage of the shots would be sharp and relevant.

I was kind of distracted and took it very easy, several times switching between the fishing rod and the camera to take shots of the freshwater dolphins. As usual we changed the location several times to fish the various types of structure from lakes to lagoons to creek mouths. Eventually we fished a big lagoon with sunken trees providing the perfect habitat for the really big GPB. To that point it was a rather slow day, not many fish to the boat. I had changed my fly some time ago to a rather small white Deceiver with some grey/ blue sprinkled in that I must have tied several years ago for a saltwater trip. With this kind of fishing it is crucial that you are always focused on your fishing as you don’t want to spoil your low number of chances on a really good fish. Thus, either fish concentrated or make a break. I tried to keep my concentration as high as I could…

Fishing the mentioned self-tied fly on a 300 something grain sink-tip line on my 9 weight rod, letting it sink for several seconds to get it close to the ground, I started a slow retrieve with some shorter quicker pulls mixed in to trigger a possible following fish…


Not at the bank but kind of close I got a solid hook up and an obviously decent fish was hooked. That was not one of those Butterfly Bass that explodes but a solid powerful mass of fish. With those bigger GPBs the immediate judgment of its weight is hard as their behavior can be highly different. Some burst and dart away over 15 meters, as a good fish on Breno’s fly did (+16,5lbs) or show limited strength and can be dominated quickly as my 23lbs GPB from the day before. The fish on my line was possibly stronger as it showed a lot of energy right in the tight space between sunken trees, the close shore and the boat moving boat in the upcoming wind gusts. To add thrill I got a knot in my line (it might have been a freshwater line, but the tendency of lines to tangle was not much less with specific warm water lines, this specific line was a Vision as it was the only available at a German mail-order shop a year ago), Agustin was able to solve that while I was holding and fighting the fish with the remaining line. The fish knew its territory and managed to wrap the line at least half around one of those trunks of a sunken tree which are the home of these fish. This obstacle was solved by me and the fish showed its full beauty for the first time on the surface.

 
























WOW! That was huge! The local guide tried to net it but as usual the fish got angry facing the net and darted away. It was kind of nerve wrecking – this was not one of those 7lbs NZ SI trout that you would prefer to land, but if you would miss it, you might catch another one in the next pool – this was a decent or even a very large GPB! A fish that thousands of fly fisher (and bait fisher) pursue to catch for years. So all of us – especially Breno, to make me quit moaning about casting the whole day - really wanted to land it! The next attempt to net it did again not succeed, I was afraid that the barbless fly would come loose and just pop out. If that would happen the whole jungle would hear some very angry Bavarian swearing (normally I do not swear because of a lost fish, mostly I laugh heartedly about myself, but in that case I would make an exception). Again the netting attempt did not work but the fourth attempt succeeded! Fish on board and just there we saw its size and weight. The IGFA scale and measure showed the measurements: just shy of 13kg, thus around 28,5lbs and +90cm (on some pictures of the measurement it looks more like +92cm)!

Holy shit – just about now we realized that this fish was not an “ordinary +20lbs GPB” but the most likely biggest Giant Peacock Bass ever caught on fly up to date!

No more words needed.

The crew was excited, Breno was excited and lucky that I could not further complain about this “boring casting casting…” and I felled a total new feeling I never had with fishing: kind of sports like satisfaction. Thankful, speechless, …

One annotation to documenting and landing that fish: Everybody aware of the IGFA rules knows by my report that this was not an IGFA-conform World Record but most likely just the largest ever caught GPB on fly. With IGFA I would have needed to use a 20lbs class tippet (which is kind of crazy with these fish, as it might lengthen the fight unnecessarily and or might end in a breakoff) and nobody would have been allowed to touch any of my tackle during fight and the fish would have been measured out of the net on the measures. We did not do any extreme posing pictures, so the fish size is not over exaggerated, the pictures rather understate its size especially compared to my tall size.

I am not a fisherman that needs or seeks attention as long as I am satisfied myself and had a good time out on the water. Thus I asked the team to not tell anything about it to the other guests. Celebrating the joy silently was the way. Only the locals spread the word and I got several thumbs up (real ones, not the virtual ones)... Stay tuned for the next days of this awesome trip!

If you are interested in a trip to Rio Marié for Giant Peacock Bass contact me or Untamed Angling

Let’s start fishing!

Lodge aka Untamed Amazon schedule is: 7am breakfast (with your likes of eggs, fruits and toast), 8am to around 5:30pm fishing, 7pm appetizers, 8pm dinner – in between fishing till the line would break – that for six days in a row!

As we were altogether five boats with two fishermen each and five guides but six days to fish, the first two days all of us were assigned to one guide. After that the guides would be rotated daily. Thus everybody would have at least one day with each of the guides. 

For the first two days we were assigned to a young guide that did one of its first seasons. We fished up Turi River a large tributary of Rio Marié, as the main river was still rather high on water level that was a good option. High water level means that the wetland (medium sized trees and bushes) would still be partially flooded thus the Peacock Bass would be in these areas and close to impossible to catch. Thus lower or low water is what you want. The group in the week before us had pretty high water and a tough week, we experienced slowly dropping water. Possibly the best season in terms of water level would be October to November – heavy rain might change that, as it does to many fishing plans (see above about Tsimane and the day off due to flooding).  

 

 

 

  

We caught several colorful Butterfly Bass that did fight like hell. Hooking such a Butterfly of around four lbs makes you wonder if you just hooked a 15lbs Dorado before you realize that it is just a small Butterfly Bass. Breno caught a very nice Paca (non spawning color of the GPB) of around 9lbs (4kg) with a beautiful bronze color. He and I caught a couple of Butterflies to keep us motivated but nothing of special relevance took our fly besides the Paca. 

To cover the water thoroughly and to improve chances to catch one of the big ones, the guide might cast teaser lures (without a hook) that make big noise to attract the fish. He only does that when the clients want it. We used it sporadically to check for fish and to wake some up. Sometimes it seemed to work sometimes not. I got the impression that it attracts fish that are active anyway but on days with low activity it did not add anything.

Second day we were on the boat with Everton again. Breno landed a 7kg or 15,5lbs Assu GPB that showed a crazy run of around twenty meters and provided a good fight. I caught a mixed bag of Butterflies again. Honestly this kind of fishing started to bore me. I do not like to blind fish with a streamer the whole day. The visual aspect of SI NZ trout fishing is so much more pleasing to me. For GBP it is fishing in dark tea colored water, casting towards structure, ever and ever again. Hundreds of casts a day. The climate is hot and humid, not a problem if you drink plenty of water and if you are fit and used to do silly stuff such as pumping your heart up to the max going up a steep track with your mountain bike. Still, tossing a streamer the whole day is not the most preferred activity for my taste. Once in a while there is some action by the other species such as the mentioned strong fighting Butterfly Bass. Don’t get me wrong, I am writing and commenting the style of fishing from my humble and highly personal perspective!

 

As I am far away from being a GBP-addicted fisher, these first two days overall had very little appeal to me from the fishing aspect. I was really not overly happy about that stile of fishing. Blind casting the whole day to more or less likely structure. But if you are in GBP-fishing and know about the quality of such a fish beyond the magic 20lbs mark the motivation is likely very high. Besides that, the place, the Untamed Amazon, casting to fish with the fly that most likely never had seen a fly before, in the middle of remote Amazon, at a place that might be one of the very last far away from any street or man-made structure on this tortured planed – all this adds to a whole thing that is far beyond fishing! And the sum of all that makes Rio Marié venue such unique place and destination! 

Only a very stubborn will not love that place. It is far beyond fly fishing. During the day the next cast and the hundreds to come dominate your mind. It is kind of ZEN, thus it is best to focus on the single parts of the cast, the next point to land the fly, let the fly sink to the according depth and strip it back highly concentrated in the most appropriate manner you are able to. Doing every single step in the best possible way – that is ZEN. Sometimes slow sometimes fast and change your retrieve in between for one or two strips as GPB might likely follow your fly but have to be triggered to inhale it. 

 

 

 

At night time, the crew, the mates, the dinner, the cigar and the one or other glass of Whisky ad so much to the whole experience. It is not just the fishing. It is definitely the whole package, being there, experiencing the atmosphere, being at a place that very few humans have been before. Just Wow!

Second day at around 3:30-4:00pm we were fishing around and hour upstream by the skiff from Untamed Amazon (thus around 40km) as a storm with heavy rain hit the area. We got in our rain jackets and started our way downriver. One hour with some 50km/h and the cold rain hitting our faces like thousand needles, made us freeze to the bones. Advice: Do not go to any jungle destination with a good three layer hard-shell – you might not need it, but if you need it you will be thankful! And take one warm jacket, it might not get really cold, but even humid 15°C might feel like winter close to the equator! The thunderstorm was kind of behind us. I hate thunderstorms when I am in the open wild. No way to control them. We reached the lodge totally wet but safe.

One word about our Russian friends, they were not of that cliché kind prejudice might have expected them to be. They were all avid fly fisher and they did not drink all night long. Except for the first two evenings they went to bed very early and did not vaporize boxes of vodka every night. Their tactic was more to start drinking before lunch and combine that with intensive fishing and early rest at night.

Stay tuned! More to come ...

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.