Check why Pirarucu in Mamirauá Reserve is THE place for catching numbers of Arapaima on the fly! Incredible fish, wild footage!
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(Text Florian Kaiser; Pics Florian Kaiser und Breno Ballesteros Rezende)
Florian Kaiser and Breno Ballesteros spend a unique week jungle angling Rio Marié in the Amazon Basin of Brazil with Untamed Angling during the 2016/ 2017 season. We will be featuring Florian’s travelogue of his angling ventures in a seven-part travel journal. This is the last part seven – make sure you have a look on the six parts before!
We had one more day to fish the next day. To reach fresh water and new grounds to explore, Untamed Amazon did move upriver again during dinner. That is an awesome experience – you enjoy dinner, sip a decent well-tempered Argentinian Malbec and in the background of the big panoramic windows of the dining room the virgin jungle passes by! That is just surreal. If you experience that you have to be happy.
Thus the next day we would have fresh water to explore. The vessel anchored close to the entrance of a smaller creek. A creek that was only fished before during the exploration season in 2014. Next morning we would fish kind of truly virgin water again!
Next morning was we went that tributary upriver 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 larger sized 4-7lbs fish and I for the smaller ones. 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. It might sound snobbish, but a fish below 15lbs is just nothing to special at Rio Marié so you might to easily forget the precise figures.
Last cast, very last cast, final cast. That was Rio Marié!
Summary: I got the unofficial world record with the biggest GPB ever caught on fly up to date (28,5lbs), got another fish of 23lbs and had an awesome time with my friend Breno, the Russian team and the lovely crew. The experience was just marvelous and will last very long. 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 barbless fly, Rio Marié is the ultimate place to go. You will have the very best chance 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. You must bring determination and perseverance and fitness. But if you are interested in the best fishing GPB-destination possible combined with perfect logistics and lodging: 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.
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If you are interested in a trip to Rio Marié for Giant Peacock Bass contact me or Untamed Angling
Florian, fly fishing since twenty five years in the northern and southern hemisphere in fresh- and saltwater for many species. Enjoying outdoor sports, mountain biking, photography and good wine. Fly fishing is only one of his hobbies, but the one he kind of loves most. Florian is European Ambassador of Thomas & Thomas, Pro Staff of World Fly Angler (leading distributor of fly tackle and top line brands in Europe) and of Marlo Reels from Hamburg/ Germany.
(Text Florian Kaiser; Pics Florian Kaiser und Breno Ballesteros Rezende)
Florian Kaiser and Breno Ballesteros spend a unique week jungle angling Rio Marié in the Amazon Basin of Brazil with Untamed Angling during the 2016/ 2017 season. We will be featuring Florian’s travelogue of his angling ventures in a seven-part travel journal. This is part six.
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 upriver. Orleans the Boat Principal or 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. 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.
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, I added some examples. 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 warm 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!
If you are interested in a trip to Rio Marié for Giant Peacock Bass contact me or Untamed Angling
Florian, fly fishing since twenty five years in the northern and southern hemisphere in fresh- and saltwater for many species. Enjoying outdoor sports, mountain biking, photography and good wine. Fly fishing is only one of his hobbies, but the one he kind of loves most. Florian is European Ambassador of Thomas & Thomas, Pro Staff of World Fly Angler (leading distributor of fly tackle and top line brands in Europe) and of Marlo Reels from Hamburg/ Germany.
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At Untamed Angling we dream about these waters, and pursue the most remote and difficult-to-operate angling destinations in the world, undeterred by the distances, difficulties, obstacles, and the naysayers. We are wholly driven by legends, myths, and the spirit of adventure.
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