Brazil 2024 Trip Report - Part 2

Nancy and I fished together on arrival day (Sunday afternoon.) I was hoping this peacock Bass experience would be what I was hoping for in order for Nancy to truly appreciate what the Amazon has to offer. Luckily there was no such thing as first cast first fish bad luck! It didn’t take long to realize that there were lots of willing peacocks (of various species) to eat our flies. They were obviously not all big, but the consistent action and clarity which allowed us to see the fish eat the fly pretty much every time made it an outstanding introduction to the Xeriuini river and what was to come for the week.

The photos show how the fishing went through the week. We were sight fishing LARGE peacocks on nests and watching them charge and crush the fly. At times it took multiple casts with a twitchy twitchy presentation directly in front of their nose(mouth). Either way watching them inhale the fly was definitely a highlight.We also sight cast to cruising butterflies (the most numerous species of peacock) along drop-offs and sandy beaches. Some of these butterfly peacocks got up into the 7-9 pound range and put up an outstanding account of themselves. Jumping and thrashing on the surface, screaming runs to try to get into the shoreline bush, and more. Watching 1/2 a dozen chase down a popper (into 6 inches of water) being popped along a clear sandy drop-off with the intent to kill! All these images are vividly implanted in my memory! Cruising along to move locations only to have to race ahead of the giant river otters so they would not “interfere” with the next fishing spot.

For me the highlight fish was watching Nancy get out of the boat and walk along a shallow sand section (just like flats fishing.) She got within range of a large butterfly cruising the edge, made a beautiful cast about 4-5 feet in-front of the fish with a popper. And the fish pushed a bow wake to the fly and annihilated the popper!

So yes the popper worked... but it was “less” effective than a subsurface fly. Less effective means you might “only” get 3-4 along a section to take a crack at the fly vs 8-10 subsurface, but the excitement and anticipation level is always maxed out with the popper.

Throughout the week, we were averaging 45-50 Peacocks per day. The guides count Peacocks but don’t count other species like cuda, wolf fish, jacunda, or payara!! The slowest day for Nancy was 18 peacocks to the boat for two people. BUT two of the fish were between 10 and 14 pounds.

Listening to the sound of the popper “glug glug glug” then a loud gulping woosh and your fly disappears never gets old!!

Other highlights for me were fishing with John (an extremely well-traveled angler) and Adrian (who Nancy I met and fished with in Australia on our honeymoon 30 years ago!) Their enthusiasm was contagious and the banter and stories were endless!

We did do some blind casting in the larger lagoons to look for trophy-size fished.This type of fishing is not really my jam, however when you see a school of 5-10” long fish “spray” out of the water with two giant V wakes behind chasing or a 4-5 pound butterfly leaping and skipping across the water with a massive bulge of water hot on its tail it does motivate you to make a few more casts!!

The largest fish of the trip for me was an 8kg (17.64lbs) just surpassing my previous PB of 17lbs from years before.