62 CM Peacock Bass

62 CM Peacock Bass caught on the Iriri River

Cichla melanie (a specific species of the Peacock Bass)

I recently had the chance to fish the Iriri River which is in the northern Amazon area of Brazil in the remote lands of the Kayapo indigenous tribe. It’s inhabited by the Kayapo’s, a small tribe of around 700 natives who live in this enormous area of the Mekragnoti Indegenous Territory, almost 5 million hectares of pure Amazon rainforest. The area is inside the jungle area in the border of the Mato Grosso and Para states and runs into the Xingu River.

Like many jungle fishing trips, this isn’t an easy place to get to. First, you have to get to Manaus, Brazil. Then there is a charter flight from Manaus to the river area which takes 3-4 hours depending on conditions and where you then will land on a small dirt landing strip. From there, it’s a 2-3 hour ride on small boats to get to the fishery. We had low water conditions, so it took a bit longer.

Although there are direct flights between Manaus and a few cities, I chose to fly via Panama City. Others on the trip came from Bogota, Rio and Buenos areas.

When you get there, you are treated to an unforgettable experience, not just because of the fishing but because of the Amazon. The ability to see its vastness, its abundance of species, and the importance of keeping it the way it is. In a changing world, it would be nice to see the Amazon change less but it is under tremendous pressure from logging and mining. The Kayapo’s are warriors who have been fighting to keep their area of the Amazon pristine.

It's easy to become calm in the Amazon. Nature surrounds you. Trees, the water, animals, butterflies and so many different types of birds. I came upon a group of yellow butterflies on the shore just after seeing a small Caiman in the water. I made a short video of them as they went into a chaotic ballet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtoOfB68pgc

The Kayapo tribe have opened this vast fishery to a few fishermen each year. Only 8 anglers’ fish the large river at a time and its tributaries over a relatively short season so there is no pressure on the fish. It is almost 100 km of fishery. Like many jungle fishing expeditions, it is not an easy place to get to but well worth the effort if you like the jungle environment.

There is a lot of wading and river crossing involved as well as scrambling over rocks/underbrush, so it is not a trip for someone who is not physically fit. I am glad I did the trip now as I am not sure I could do it in 7 or 8 years.

I was there during the low tide period, with relatively clear water, which made for some great sight casting opportunities. Seeing a Peacock Bass hit a fly and then jump is an experience.

I didn’t keep track of the number of Peacock caught during the week, but it ran close to 20. I was more specie’s hunting, so I didn’t solely focus on the Peacocks. I wanted to target multiple species on the Iriri and I was happy to catch 7 new species.

I caught most of mine using a basic brown deceiver/clouser fly on an 8-weight set up so it was easier on the fish. It was an extremely effective fly. Nothing fancy. You will lose a LOT of flies when you fish for them as they will tear your tippet/flies up. Bring more than you think you will need.For most of the Peacock’s that I caught, I didn’t need that much color on the fly while the other fisherman (if I remember correctly) almost always had a bit of red on their flies. You can see that the large one I caught above was on a red patterned fly. 62 cm tied for the largest fish of the week in size and put up quite a fight. My arm was literally in pain at the end of the week with how many, between the Peacocks, and the other fish I caught. Great trip.

There are almost 15 species of Peacock Bass, each inhabiting different geographical areas as recognized by FishBase, a well-regarded extensive online accessible database. Mine was a Cichla melanie or Xingu peacock bass which is restricted to the lower Xingu.

Despite the common “Bass” name and slight similarity, they are not related closely to the North American Largemouth. They are an important food source for the Kayapo tribe. In fact, we had one for shore lunch one day.

I highly recommend the trip and when I do it again, I’ll take two to three additional days off to really go into the jungle to look for and photograph some of the unique species. We did manage to see a Black Jaguar (a huge delight and highlight to all who saw it), a swimming Tapir, numerous Caimans, Anacondas and some pretty big spiders. Fortunately, although warned repeatedly about them – I didn’t come across any scorpions. Bees were everywhere. You’ll find yourself constantly looking up at the flying birds and down to make sure you don’t step on a hive.

The closing picture below is just because I really appreciated the beauty of the rocks, worn by time and water and the trees which rise up or have just bloomed.