just looking for a fight. - untamedangling.com · just looking for a fight. t ous ed, old,...

here are very few fishswimming in freshwaterthat are quite as ferociousas the peacock bass. Thesepugnacious bruisers swagger around the lagoons of

the South America’s Amazon basinjust looking for a fight.

TResplendent in a ludicrous

“Fauvist” color scheme of red,green, turquoise and gold, bris-tling with outsize fins and re-plete with a baleful, underslungjaw and mean, beady little redeye, they’re as outlandish asany fish you’ll ever see. There at

least 15 species of peacocks andthey come in a variety of sizes,but all of them fight like tigers.Tangling with a "borboletta"peacock of three or four poundsis a rude shock for most new-comers. But be warned, a realtrophy of fifteen pounds or

more will hit a well-presentedfly like a freight train, and do itsbest to pull your arms clean outof their sockets. These fish re-ally do represent one of thegreatest fly-fishing thrills avail-able anywhere in freshwater.

108 - 2016 World Record Game Fishes 2016 World Record Game Fishes - 109

Once regarded as theprovince of the spin-fisherman, anincreasing number of intrepid flyanglers are targeting peacocks,and those in the know will tell youthat some of the biggest swim inthe remote waters of the RioMarie. The Marie is a serpentineriver meandering through a lostcorner of the far north-westernAmazon basin, on the border be-tween Brazil and Columbia, anddutifully earns its local nickname –Rio de Gigantes – the River of Gi-ants.

The operation on the RioMarie is run by Untamed Angling,the same outfit that runs the fab-ulous dorado-packed Tsimane op-eration in Bolivia. Untamed reallyknows how to organize a jungleoperation and they have struckgold with Marie. There are otherfantastic fly-only peacock opera-tions, including the magical sight-fishing opportunities available atthe Rio Agua Boa, but if you wantto catch an IGFA record peacockbass on fly, then Rio Marie is theplace to consider. They know therules!

The operation is in its infancy,but already, it has racked up more20 lb peacocks on fly in its first sea-son than many operations canboast in twenty years and more.All following IGFA rules for fly fish-ing and, if you know record hunt-ing, that’s a hard find in theAmazon jungle.

To give an idea of how specialRio Marie is, consider this: LarryLarsen, the dean of peacock an-glers, has chalked up 32 fish of 20pounds and over during twenty-five long years of peacock fishing,using mainly baitcasting gear. TheRio Marie produced over 40 fishweighing over twenty pounds ONFLY during its first short ex-ploratory season and, during theinaugural full season, fish to a stu-pendous 26.5 pounds have beenreleased. When you consider thatthe All-Tackle peacock bass recordis currently 29 pounds, you havesome idea of just how remarkablethe Rio Marie fishery is.

if you want to catch an IGFA record peacockbass on fly, then Rio Marie is the place to

consider. They know the rules!

“


Now Here’s the Best PartIf you can throw them, the biggest peacocks in the

Rio Marie will eat huge top water flies. And when I sayhuge, I mean huge. As in 10 inches long, on 5/0 beastlyhooks.

My fly of choice is Charlie Bisharat’s Pole Dancer.This ingenious piece of aero-dynamic mischief andhydro-dynamic popping bliss has caught me lots of fish– pike, dorado, striped bass, tigerfish, taimen and, yes,big peacock bass. Believe me, it is an absolute killer. PoleDancers are available from any Umpqua retailer. How-ever, buyer be warned, they are not cheap but they areutterly lethal.

The Pole Dancer comes alive in the water. It zig-zags like the famous zara spook top water plug, twistingand turning with a seductive writhing motion that fullyjustifies its name. The big 5/0 version – complete withan internal rattle - makes a real racket, boiling up afoam-flecked commotion that no self-respecting apexpredator can ignore.

However, throwing them isn’t for everyone. Theseflies are BIG and wind-resistant but, with practice, youcan cast them as far as any other fly out there. Havinga rugby-player’s build certainly helps, but good tech-nique and the right set-up is the real key. I’ll admit, I waslucky in this regard. I stumbled upon the perfect outfitfor throwing huge top water flies by sheer accident.

A fast, steely-action 12 weight rod is crucial and itmust be incredibly light to cast all day. Some of the new12 weight rods made by manufacturers like Hardy, Sage,Thomas & Thomas and G•Loomis, you would swear areeight or nine weights. For peacock bass, I also use a reel

with a cantilevered handle to keep the furiouslyspinning handle away from the body when play-ing many fish in a day, and the spool can be battedvery quickly to get all loose line onto the reel sothat the strong steady drag can be brought to bearon the fish.

The line I use for casting poppers was a happy“accident”– a short-head floater with clear inter-mediate tip. The clear tip pulls the fly INTO thewater’s surface, but the big buoyant head of a 5/0Pole Dancer can’t be sunk. Instead, it spurts a halfgallon of water into the air every time you stripthe fly back towards you. Varying the length oftime you allow the sink-tip to bed in below thesurface can radically vary your presentation. Alonger sink means a bigger “BLOOP”, which drawsfish out from hiding, while a shorter wait putsmore spray up in the air. Throw in all the seduc-tive, gyrating mischief that Charlie Bishrat’s ingen-ious design provides and you are equipped fortrouble.


Untamed Angling If you are interested in fishing this

fabulous river, contact Rodrigo Sallesat www.untamedangling.com or viaThe Fly Shop at www.theflyshop.comThe operation is absolutely remark-able, with a team of universally excel-lent and likeable guides and staff, andfood and accommodation that defiesbelief considering the remote and ex-treme environment.

Be re-assured: You don’t NEED touse huge top water flies to do well atMarie, and you will catch plenty of bigfish with smaller, subsurface flies, butif you can master throwing big topwater flies, you will have an experi-ence you will NEVER forget.

I’ll be honest, for the first few days at RioMarie, I respectfully did what I was told. Ex-cellent head guide Gerson Kavamoto toldme if I really wanted that 20 pounder, Ishould leave the top water stuff in my boxand fish with streamers. Keen to keep myguide on my side, I dealt with the monotony.The streamers got the job done. Gerson’slight, easy-to-cast design, complete with arattle and a savagely sharp “Semi-circle”hook has been proven over a season and ahalf on the Marie. This pattern really worksand has a string of trophies to its name.

One late afternoon with Gerson, wemanaged to pull out a stupendous beast ofa peacock weighing in at 23 pounds on thestreamer and I was elated both because Ihad caught the fish of a lifetime, and also be-cause now “the job was done” and I felt thatI could start experimenting with top waterflies.

The next few days were a revelation.The morning after I’d caught my trophy withGerson, I fished with Rodrigo Salles – a bril-liant and experienced fly-fisherman. WhileRodrigo fished with a large, well-proven de-ceiver fly, I brought the big Pole Dancer outto play. The first cast had us all seduced. Asthe big fly started to make canoe sized wakesand BLOOPs across the surface, it was almostinstantly crushed by a stunningly beautiful“Paca” peacock of around twelve pounds.

For the next hour or so, the fishing wasastonishing. Rodrigo is an excellent fisher –he casts beautifully and accurately— andhe’s caught a million peacock bass. However,his subsurface streamer couldn’t competewith the big Pole Dancer. I caught five mag-nificent peacocks all weighing between tenand fifteen pounds, while Rodrigo caughtjust one before a savage rainforest stormcame whistling out of the west to put an endto our fun.

The river started to come up fast, andas most seasoned peacock anglers will tellyou, rising water almost always spells theend of the action. Fortunately, the rainstopped almost as soon as it had begun. Twodays later, the river started to fall and clearand the big Pole Dancer came out to dosome Brazilian samba once again. This time,the big top water fly really delivered. Fishingwith my hugely likeable young guide Allanonon his very first day in the job, we managedfish of 15.5, 17.5, 19.5 and 21 pounds. Thisis fishing that, as a reasonably experiencedpeacock angler, I could barely dare to dreamof.


The Pole Dancer comes alivein the water. It zigzags likethe famous zara spook top

water plug, twisting andturning with a seductive

writhing motion that fullyjustifies its name.

“

Every take was a savage, heart-stoppingdetonation that was earth-shatteringly vio-lent. To me at least, these huge eruptionswere worth a dozen takes subsurface, andthey were as exciting as anything I’ve ever ex-perienced with a fly rod in my hand.

Rio Marie is a remarkable fishery and Iknow few other fisheries that are capable ofso completely dominating the big fish lists. Iam confident that this river will producemany IGFA tippet-class records for peacockbass in the next few years. An All-tackle WorldRecord ON FLY is a distinct possibility sincethey encourage fishing by IGFA fly fishingrules. Also, working to keep the river “flyonly” helps conserve the fishery, and Un-tamed Angling are to be congratulated onworking with IBAMA (The Brazilian Instituteof Environment and Renewable Natural Re-sources) and the local indigenous communi-ties to protect and conserve this preciousresource. They are limiting the fishing pres-sure to a small number of anglers every week,and have come to strictly employ only singlebarbless hooks, so that the fish are able to bereturned unharmed to the water. It is one ofthe most exciting fly-fisheries on the planet,and I urge you to go there – with a PoleDancer or two.

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just looking for a fight. - untamedangling.com · just looking for a fight. t ous ed, old,...

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