- nothing beats waking up to this sight - beautiful! -
after a first day of practice, our 6 days trip started early in the morning and after a rich breakfast we were already in the boat.
With a raising water level the fish stayed deep in the cover and the bite was low at times. despite these uneasy conditios we surely had a great time. through the week I learned a lot about the amazing peacock fishery. we fought heavy jungle, survived scary thunder storms, almost stepped on stingrays and got grilled by the hot sun. but never stopped we laughing, about ramdom nonsense or the latest catch.
every day was a completely new adventure and fishing, unknown spots were explored and working techniques had to get figuered out. after some time we started recognizing certain key spots and several lures that seemed to work.
...and another one on a brazilian lure, Borboleta Woodstock. Every new cognition brought us closer to the big fish, for which we came down here, or at least we thought so... Anyway, on the third day, early in the morning we were fishing a spot we discovered the evening before. Already a few fishes caught I get a hard bite on my subsurface lure. The fish swam directly out into the river, so powerful that it dragged our whole boat around, I never before fought such a powerful fish and just wanted to net that beast. Unexperienced as I was I forced the fish to much but this monster didn't allow any failure, so it took the chance and got rid off the hooks in its mouth. DAMN! Later on our guide told me that he valued the fish around 18lb - holy crap! The only way to recover from this shock was to continue fishing of course. A few casts later something hit my lure again but this time I won the battle! The fish fought hard and it wasn't easy to keep it out of the trees underwater till it finally landed in the net.
9lb - my biggest peacock till that moment!
Unfortunately I have to add that this fish was eaten by a dolphin that appeared out of nowhere from under the boat, just a few moments after I released it. Not even half an hour later our guide untangled another fat tucunaré out of a sunken tree for me.
Each day was different and held new surprises but one thing stood the same: the stunning sunset just in time for the return to the camp...
a beautiful view on the moon in the evening...
…and a motivating sunrise for breakfest.
The same lovely scenario every day and yet unique. Same with the fish I caught, every catch another beauty but different.
Popoca
Borboleta
Paca
Acu
Following some more fish pictures - no words needed, enjoy!
Peacocks were not the only thing we were fighting with.
I never experienced rain this heavy before!
the camera had its troubles too...
I guess this place isn't called "rainforest" for no reason...
Getting to the spots wasn't always easy, some creeks were so shallow we had to push the boat through.
first swiss to stand at exactly this point? ^^
Paying attention became even more important when out of the boat regarding all the possibilities to step on. Spiny palm barks...
or these pretty rays with a sting "worse than any other pain", how our guide told us.
Despite the fact that we almost got hit by lightning and some thorns in the feet we survived and returned every evening exhausted but happy to our camp.
The delicious food gave us energy for the coming day...
…and these fine cookies provided us enough sugar. Best cookies I've eaten! The lunchbreak we enjoyed on the boat, the small fish at the shore seemed to share our taste. Strengthened from the food, the fishing continued...
9lb on a High Roller - I never would have thought that fishing choppers can be so exhausting. The first time I tried to fool a peacock on the Chopper, ripped through the surface, my arm became sore within an hour and I had to change to something lighter. Nevertheless, from the moment of the first topwater hit of a peacock I tried harder and longer every new day. In the end I caught a few decent fish on these giant ripbaits, lost even more and survived a few heartattack-like shocks caused by fish blowing up but missing the lure. A great fishery but highly addictive!
So close to the double digit - 9.5lb on a High Roller
Respect the fish and release them safely!
This week in the jungle just flew by and way too soon it was already time to say goodbye again… Even though I was sad to leave, I was happy that I did this amazing trip and thankful for all the great experiences we went through during these seven unforgettable days. I appreciate the situation that allows me to do such a trip in my young age and that we both returned healthy. A big thanks also to our guide who did his best to get us on some fish, to the host of our camp who is a really good person and worked hard all week long to make our trip even better, to the whole camp crew that served always great food and maintained our cabin perfectly, to my friend Daniel who organized most of this trip for me and always ensured great entertainment ^^ and to all others that are in some way responsible that my first trip to brazil and the amazon was a complete success! Obrigado! Summarized, peacock fishing is awesome, I'm addicted and hope to get back there as soon as possible!
Thanks for reading&stay tuned for more! If you like what you read also feel free to share it with others. Thank u!
Peace!