You are just sitting in front of your TV on a Saturday morning and you are watching these guys throwing great big plugs which look like a small motor boat going across the water, and just like in the movies a swell appears behind the bait just like JAWS and you say to yourself “here she comes” then the explosion and he yells “fish on!”. Man oh man, what I wouldn’t do to go on a trip like that. Well, I did!

     I know it had to be at least ten years ago when my buddy Tony and I started talking about a trip to the Amazon to catch the famous Peacock Bass on these baits that were so big it took a large rod to throw them. Back then my largest rod was a “Flippin Stik”. Talking became a reality. I started doing my homework and at the Fred Hall Show I found an outfitter that provided trips to the Amazon. Watching the video shows in the booth with these fish exploding on top water plugs and hearing about the fish stories, I was ready to go right then. Sign me up! When you get excited sometimes you have to tell yourself to slow down, I did. NOT! I started putting together the guys that I felt would enjoy this trip. Putting together a trip like this is not an easy task. Booking flights, transportation, over night stays, and the list goes on. Try this one on for size, an airline that you have tickets decided that they were no longer going to fly into the United States. Now we have to fight for that refund and then make another purchase of airline tickets. What about the trip canceling because of high waters, so we had to reapply for our VISA’s as the original VISA was no longer valid due to the 90 days use it or lose it. Choosing a new time frame that would accommodate eight different lives, work schedules, vacations the word I kept hearing was “be flexible” and you have to be! It was easy for me because of my friendship with the local tackle stores that have gone on this trip prior to our group, contacting and receiving the good skinny of what to expect was very helpful to make this trip a success.

     I contacted Jonah from Hi’s Tackle Box, John Bidwell from Fisherman’s Warehouse and Phil from Phil’s Prop Shop. Each one of these guys gave me an overview of the preparation of everything that we would need. After taking in all that information I learned that you are going to need special lures, rods, reels, fishing line, clothing, hats, sandals, medical supplies, bug spray and sunscreen. You are going to be gone for approximately ten days. Three and a half days of total traveling and six and a half days of fishing. Yes, I am about to throw you a submarine curve ball, you are only allowed 44 pounds, “WHAT? 44 pounds”! You have to be kidding me! My rod tube weighs ten. My five rods, five reels and all those Amazon lures, I’ll be running around naked like all the natives! I have the fishing tackle but I didn’t have enough room for the clothes. Oh well, start downsizing. And that went on for weeks! Oh, and to add to the list you have to get special shots for the Amazon and Malaria pills! Then you are going to need a passport and a VISA to get into Brazil! A lot of this can be taken care of through your outfitter. Steve with Adventure Travel Alliance drove up from Southern California to where we had a meeting and he went over all the “do’s and don’ts”. Jonah from Hi’s Tackle Box also came out for another meeting to inform us. Hats off to both of them! Class acts! This is information that came straight from their mouth to my teams ears. A lot of these guys are getting information on their own and with my information just adds more stuff to the pile that is why it is very important to have people like these outfitters come out and help.

     Making a trip like this enjoyable, organization is critical. Copies of all conversations, email, faxes, anything that has to do with your trip, keep it in a safe place. For this trip a paper trail was a must because of the problems we are still experiencing! Take all your information on transportation to and from the airports, flights to and from the locations, motel reservations and keep all the information at your fingertips. When you are going to a third world country not being organized can get you into a lot of trouble.

     Lay out all your equipment and one by one log everything onto an inventory list. There are two reasons for this, one is that it makes it a lot easier to have a check off list so nothing is left behind and number two, if anything is missing or stolen through the airline system, and we all know how good that system is for us travelers, the first question they will ask you is, do you have an inventory list or can you jot down what is missing? I took photos and the inventory list with me. I also made a copy of my passport and VISA. Remember where you are at. All I can say is be prepared.

     The actual fun started when I began modifying the lures getting them ready to do battle with a fish that I had heard will put a whooping on you. I started this with my Striped Bass gear so I was ahead of the game. You cannot go to the Amazon with ordinary bass tackle. The split rings on your plugs and the hooks are not strong enough. Recommendation; hyper-wire split rings with Daiichi 4X and 7X hooks. The key in planning for this trip of a life time is to plan it in advance. Give yourself some time to accumulate the gear that you will need for this trip. Let me tell you, you do not want to buy all the gear at once or you won’t have a wife when the bill comes in! Purchase a little at a time and set yourself up for success so it won’t come as such a shock! Talking to most of the guys with all the equipment and the clothing you are right around the $2,000 to $4,000 category but this does not include the air fare, so again it is best to plan it in advance! When you are driving down the freeway and you see that burger joint don’t pull over, that is a lure! Go down and purchase a lure for the price of that “six dollar burger” than go home and build yourself a sandwich! Think about it, two slices of bread, mayonnaise spread over it and a slice of ham, some lettuce and a soft drink, you just spent less than a buck! Remember your goal; Amazon Peacock Bass fishing keep the reality real!
 

Talking about the trip, we have everything ready to go; we board a plane from San Francisco and a little over six hours we land in Florida. After the two to three hour lay-over, you are on your way to Brazil! A little more than 4 hours, your plane touches down in Manaus, Brazil. You grab all your gear and get ready to walk out. Oh, you have to clear Customs and let me tell you, being a six foot one white man, they will check you and they will go through everything. I heard of people smuggling things out of Brazil, but into it? I looked them dead in the eye and said to them, NO! problem! “Yes sir, thank you sir”, and I am not an idiot, just comply as it is your best defense! We arrived at nearly 11 o’clock at night. The smaller plane was going to take off early the next morning into the jungle so we had to get a room. Here is where the fun started. We were greeted, picked up and taken to the hotel. We were not going to need the room for very long so we they put us up in a room that is “rented by the hour”. The hotel was called “Playboy” and I think you get where I am going with this. The beds were round; visualize two guys trying to get some sleep. Not easy!

     The next morning it was back to the airport into the private plane sector. This is where the 44 pounds came into play, they weigh our bags. We were then escorted out on the tarmac where we could see another small plane burn to the ground. You can imagine the thought that went through our minds, Oh boy. Then we looked to our right and saw our plane, a small eight seat float plane. Like sardines in the can, the plane took off. The next stop was fishing paradise. We landed two hours later on the water of the Xeriuini River right in front of the base camp then we were greeted by the staff and the crew that had enjoyed their time there and they were leaving on the plane that dropped us off. Hearing from this crew of what a great time and how the fishing was for them just made us more anxious for our fishing of a lifetime to start. As we pumped all the information that we could out of this group they said their good-buys and with smiles on our faces we said time for you guys to leave. It is our camp now! Our host Wellington explained to me that we had the run of the river. No other group was scheduled this week. He asked me if I wanted to stay in this camp or move to the upper camp. I asked him where the best fishing was. He said to get a rod with a rip bait on it and come with me. In less than thirty seconds I was ready to go. We both jumped into a small boat with one of the guides, we drove up the bank about one hundred yards and he started throwing a spook. He said when you see the swirl, throw yours behind my bait. Just then I saw a fish move his spook so I quickly tossed in behind his bait. Let me tell you something, I’ve caught fifteen pound black bass, I’ve caught over thirty pound striped bass, a Black Marlin that weighed over four hundred pounds and I have been told how hard these fish can hit but you cannot prepare yourself. This fish hit my plug so hard before I could say anything; he had stripped off six feet of line and was coming out of the water. I couldn’t even get a word out of my mouth. Unbelievable! This five pound Peacock busted the surface three or four times which put me in awe. In the next three minutes I had an eight pound “Three Bar” Peacock Bass, two about five pounds and the fifth broke my 30 pound test like it was nothing. I know my eyes were wide and my jaw was on the floor. All I could do was to say, “I think our group would like to stay in this area as it looks like it will be good fishing”!

     The accommodations were primitive, huts made out of wood and leaves for the roof. Gilligan’s Island at a glance! But air conditioners were installed in the rooms which made sleeping bearable. You are in the Amazon! Some of my roommates were geckos, frogs, tarantulas and even a bat not counting your partner. The food for our meals was good, not five star but you could live on it. Piranha soup was one of the highlights, excellent! Don’t get me wrong, everything was eatable, fruits, cheese, meat, and hot meals for dinner, chicken, cow and of course fish with some special dishes, turtle and a large tropical rodent that they called a Paca, not bad, tastes like chicken! I rate it a 7. But for the Amazon it was probably a 10.

The fishing morning started about 6:30 and ended at about 5:30. You are fishing a river system so understanding eddies, peninsulas, sand bars, wood structures, anywhere the water changed direction most likely had a fish. As the water receded, lakes appeared. Some of us pulled our boats up waterfalls, hacked our way through the jungle with a machete and some had to take the boat motor off and carry the boat over land to get into some of the hidden lakes. My partner Eric Bergin and I pull our boat with our guide Camute up a waterfall, through a small creek where we watched piranha, rays and schools of tropical fish by the hundreds swim under the boat and around our feet. We broke out into a lush lake surrounded by jungle where green parrots and macaws flew over our heads. In the distance we could hear territorial battles going on between Haller monkeys. They sound like a jet motor with all their commotion. We had arrived! This is the Amazon Jungle!! You are alone, no phones, no planes, no cars and no communication to the outside world. It is an eye opener. Excitement! But yet a little nervousness goes through your body. All of this is thrown right out the door when you throw that big wood chopper and a ten pound Peacock explodes all over it pulling line and running not out to deep water but right back to the bank in the thickest junk that fish could find. All I could do is lock down the drag of my Abu Garcia Record 50’s and hold on. As the Peacock pulled the boat our guide was paddling backward as fast as he could to keep the bass out of the brush. Unbelievable! Eric and I caught over 130 fish in this lake, every cast doubles and that was not just him and I, I mean two fish on one bait! The stories I could tell you, how we would catch one and watch four to ten of them chasing the one with the lure. Absolutely amazing! When one threw the bait another one grabbed it. After the first day I was beat up, traveling and now fishing for nine hours, long day. Tackle took its’ toll. Screws pulled out of wood choppers, props bent, hooks mangled, lures broke, paint chipped off and we had to re-spool because of the Cudas, Piranhas, and Trieda. All three of these species have big sharp teeth. Sixty-five pound test Spider Wire Stealth was what I spooled up for a lot of the guys and myself. Abu Garcia Record 50 Reel on a Fenwick 7 foot 6, fifteen to thirty pound Salt Stik made throwing the large baits effortless. Several of the guys could not throw these big baits on their smaller rods, too hard on their bodies. I brought along extra hooks, split rings, and cannibalized components off of one plug for another.

     The largest fish for our group was Eric’s 16 plus pound “Three Bar”. My largest was a 15.5 pound “Three Bar” however I caught a Butterfly Peacock just under 13 pounds making this an unofficial World Record! Hard to certify anything hundreds of miles in the jungle, oh well, bragging rights! Each day was an adventure, Crocodiles chasing your plugs, our guide pulling right up to a Tapir trying to escape the boat to get out of the water. The fishing was remarkable. My buddy Tony Ragone and I fished the last day together. We stood shoulder to shoulder and in more than thirty casts we both had fish on at the same time, every cast! It got to the point where we were laughing so hard, what a trip! Would I go back, YES! When, as soon as I can afford it but I have to save up my burger money. What can I tell you that I have not already? A quote from Weldon Birch, one of the guys in my group, was, “our California Black Bass are lazy compared to these Peacocks”! That sums it up.

     I would like to thank the tackle store owners with the information that helped us with our trip; Jonah, John and Phil also Steve at Adventure Travel Alliance plus my eight man team which, putting together the right people made it a great adventure. Tony, Mark, Armand, Weldon. Eric, Rick and Jeff plus Wellington’s crew that took care of our needs in the jungle and most of all , my guide Camute but mainly our wives for allowing us to be gone right before Christmas!


Randy Pringle, The Fishing Instructor
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