My Rumble in the Jungle

[Cassman]

At last the time had arrived for my third visit to Brazil in pursuit of the all mighty Peacock Bass, this trip had been planned for a year. Peacock Bass, the only similarity to a large or small mouth is that it has fins and scales other wise they are bass on steroids known for their savage and punishing attack on top water lures. On three previous Amazon trips my biggest Peacock to date had been 14lbs nearly half the size of the world record 27lbs 12 1/4ozs and my goal on this trip was to better the 14lbs, that's all I wanted.

Once our group arrived in Manuas at around midnight, after clearing immigration and customs we were met by Don Cutter's Amazon Fishing Adventures personnel who assisted us with our baggage and transferred us to Don's home to get a few hours rest before our flight to the lodge. After a nice breakfast at Don's we arrived at a small airport where we boarded two small 6 passenger airplanes, the flight to remote the jungle lodge is about 1:45 minutes. On arrival we were met by our guides who took us up river to the lodge where we met lodge manager John Silvia, we got our rooms, had an indoctrination, picked out or fishing gear, had lunch and started our first day of fishing.

As for fishing tackle you can either use the lodges at no costs and it consists of either light spinning outfits for regular bass bait casters with St. Croix rods, if you prefer you can bring your own gear. I personally brought two of the new Daiwa Advantage reels that Bryan Yamane of Daiwa Corp. loaned me to field test, one was a spinning reel and the other a bait caster filled with Daiwa's new braided line, the spinning reel had 30lb test which is equal to 6lb test mono and the bait caster had 70lb test is equal to 14lb test and mounted on the lodge St. Croix rods. These reels were awesome, easy and smooth to cast, great retrieve ratio and the braided line smooth as silk. Hot lures on the trip was a feathered lead head jigs (see inset picture) that the guides made up, I caught 95% of my fish on these jigs using the spinning outfit. Other lures that worked well were Lure Jensen wood choppers and regular bass crank and stick baits.

The Amazon Cutter is one of two floating lodges that Don owns the other being the Amazon Explorer, it is two story's high with guest rooms on the bottom floor and dining room and lounge on the second floor. Each room has twin beds, private bath and shower and remote controlled air conditioning. The lodge is located on the

UniniRiver which is a tributary of the Rio Negro which in turn is a tributary of the mighty Amazon River. Don is the only person permitted to fish this area of the river which was not selected by chance. Don studied the area from the satellite, air, land and from the river it self to find the most productive and large population of Peacock Bass in the area. From first hand experience I can attest that his research paid off paid of big time.

Since I was the odd man in the group I fished alone on days one and two resulting in 35 peacock bass on day one including breaking my personal best with a nice 17lb peacock, Yahoooooo! Day two resulted in 38 fish with another 17lb fish tying my new personal best another Yahoooooo! Day three I teamed up with Oliver "Ollie" resulting in 38 peacocks with Ollie scoring on a 19lb fish, way to go Oliver! Day 4 I fished with Bob resulting in 50 peacocks to 13lbs. Day 5 I fished with Ron resulting in 75 peacocks to 12lbs, I might mentioned that I also hooked two cayman (related to the alligator) one about 3 foot long which bit my wood chopper in half and the other a 6 footer that straightened my hook, Yikes! Day 6 I fished with Myron resulting in 76 peacocks to 13lbs. Day 7 I again fished with Ron resulting in 76 peacocks and breaking my personal best with a nice 17.5lb fish deserving another Yahoooooo!

To make the trip interesting the group decided to have a daily $10.00 per person Jack Pot each day, here are the results: Day one was won by yours truly with a 17lb peacock, day two was won by Ron with a nice 18 ¼lb peacock, day three was won by Ollie with a nice 19lb peacock, day four was once again won by Ollie with a 20lb peacock, day five was won by Ken with the biggest fish of the trip a super nice 21lb peacock, day six was won by Ron with a 18lb peacock and on day seven was won by yours truly with a 17 ½ peacock, way to go Cass!

Over all the total peacock bass count for the group was 829 not bad for bunch of saltwater anglers, for 5 of the seven in our group this was their first trip to the Amazon and in my opinion we kicked butt. Besides catching peacocks the group caught piranah, dog fish, cat fish to 60lbs, and one piraracu (a lungfish that grows to over 300lbs) caught by Gary on a large rattle trap lure, the fish measured over 9 feet long, wow, what a catch Gary.

Fishing in the Amazon Jungle is an adventure where every turn of the river produces plenty of surprises, the animal life is incredible in natures zoo. On any given day you will see tropical birds such as parrots, herons, egrets, macaws, king fishers and hawks to name a few. Cayman, pink porpoise, iguanas, snakes, and turtles will also catch your eye.

The morning of our last day we flew back to Mauaus where we spent the night at a local hotel, did some shopping and had dinner at one of those amazing all you can eat Brazilian Churascarias where you pay one price and then commence to stuff your self on a variey of meats (chicken, beef, pork, turkey, sausages), salads and desserts. Of course everyone paid for their over indulgence that night and next morning.