Peacock bass fishing TESTIMONIALS

December, 2009

“I think this last trip was my 6th or 7th… First day out we are trolling along the shoreline toward a point in the river and I cast one of Glady's home tied jigs. I felt a tug on the line and then the fish took off like a locomotive. It finally stopped just a few feet from a huge log and then lucky for me, it headed for open water. That one was 20 pounds. We boated 50 some fish the first day and over 80 the next day, but none over 20. Third day out Glady took us to a secluded lagoon where we caught some fish and then pull into shore for lunch and a brief siesta. While we were eating out lunch, there was a huge fish exploded on top of the water chasing bait fish. We immediately took off and started casting woodchoppers in that direction. About the second cast, a big explosion on my woodchopper and the fish took off. When Glady first saw the fish break water, he got very excited and saying 22, 23. Then the fish got closer to the boat, he was started saying 25, 26. When Glady got it in the net, he took off his cap and protective mask and was smiling and saying "monster peacock, monster peacock, take picture. Glady was very excited as this was the largest tucanare ever to come into his boat. After we took pictures and released the fish, we started trolling again and the very next cast, my partner caught the 20 paca. A huge paca. Nobody knows what the largest paca that has been caught on the River Plate camps, but the largest I have seen in my trips was 15.

Click on images to Slideshow

The rest of the trip we caught some impressive numbers, but nothing like the day of the 26. As far as I was concerned, the entire trip was about the third day with the monster tucunare.

I fished with Glady on the Urabaxi 3 years ago and he is an exceptional guide. All the guides I have experienced are very good, but I think Glady is the top dog especially now he has a 26 to his credit. Even the camp manager said Glady knows more secret lagoonas than any guide in your outfit.

The food and accomodations at the camp were excellent as usual. The ladies were excellent cooks and the camp saw to our every need. They tend to spoil us as we just usually eat, sleep and fish. What more can a fisherman ask for??”

Capt Ron Smith
Salt Springs, Florida
December 5th - 12th, 2009

December, 2009

Just got back from our trip to the Amazon.

Thanks so much for taking the time to send me your Reducer pattern. It was one of the "go to" flies.

Almost all the big fish were caught on that fly. The other go to fly was the airhead. That fly worked great too.

I loved the way the reducer fished. I substituted some bucktail with some synthetics and it made it hold up a little beter. Great fly Rob!

Thanks again,

Wayne Syn

October 2009

DATE of trip: 10/17/2009 – 10/24/2009

My trip with River Plate Outfitters this past week has to go down as a very unique and very different type trip. I have fished in the Amazon since 1999 and easily have more than 50 trips into the Amazon and to this date have never traveled to as many rivers in one week as we did this past trip…

… The fishing ended up yielding us over 2100 peacock bass for the week up to 15 pounds…. In looking back on this trip I found it exciting to fish all these different rivers to see areas totally different and when you get down to it this is one reason I tend to go on more River Plate trips as they can adapt better than others throughout the season in producing fish…

…Most of the other camps did well also with peacock bass up to 22 pounds …

…The River Plate camps were in excellent shape, the service was very good and the food was better than I can ever remember with some extra creative meals this past week. We even had some freshly caught wild hog the one evening. A family of giant river otters was there to great us on the Homero almost everyday along with more local croc's than I can ever remember seeing in one place before…

Both the 5.5" and the 6.25" Rip Rollers were the best top water bait for the bigger peacock bass. The jigs were hot as well in Chartreuse/White, Red/Yellow and Red/White. For those of you fly fishing the Chartreuse/White was perfect and had one client tell me it was the best fly fishing he had ever had for peacock bass. We also caught airuana, piranha, catfish, jacuanda, Oscar's and a few other varieties that I can't even say the name's of. A lot of fish!

As you can see we had some great action throughout the week and will get some.

Tight lines,
Alan Zaremba

February, 2009

My group and I just returned to civilization and are now in Manaus, Brazil. We spent the past 7 days fishing on the Upper Itapera River (tributary to the Rio Branco). We had an epic trip with excellent fishing for trophy Peacock Bass on the fly. We fished with River Plate Outfitters and their remote mobile camps. This was one of the most exciting and interesting adventures that I have ever experienced. Great fishing aside, we saw a myriad of jungle wildlife and other fascinating natural wonders. And the best part of the experience was spending the week with the staff of River Plate Outfitters... natives to the region with such a friendly interest in sharing everything about the wonders of their cultural and natural world.

Look for my complete post-trip report in a few days... I am now resting my hands and arms after a week of battling the Peacock Bass of the Amazon. Fish On!

-Keith Kaneko

January, 2009

I have been fishing the Amazon River basin in Brazil for peacock bass with my father since December 30. I can tell you we had a fantastic trip! The adventure was organized by Gonzalo Fulquet of River Plate Outfitters (RiverPlateOutfitters.com).

They have been leading trips into the tributaries of the Amazon River since 1992. I've covered much of the peacock bass waters of Venezuela, but a trip to Brazil was one I have been wanting to do for years. Now that I have been, I can tell you I will return many times. This says much because the truth is, we had difficult fishing. Not by any means because of a lack of fish, but rather because of unusually high water conditions - 20 FEET HIGH to be exact!!!!! (Monsoon Currier strikes again!)

We spent our adventure fishing tributaries to the Rio Negro (the main branch of the Amazon River). It began with a float plane ride from Manaus for 1 hour 30 minutes headed northwest. We all know of the incredible jungle/rainforest of the Amazon, but I'll say this, Discovery Channel doesn't nearly show how incredible it truly is. Trust me, seeing it with my own eyes below our plane blew my mind! After a water landing at the mouth of the Rio Branco we boarded our mothership, the Black Water Explorer (BWE), which would be our travelling base camp for the next 6 days. We ate, slept and relaxed while the BWE travelled to new spots. Our rooms even had air conditioning! For the fishing we used aluminum boats that we towed along behind the BWE. It is a brilliant way to access these remote waters.

Each morning we left the BWE before sunrise with a packed lunch and explored and fished some spectacular places until dusk. Our guides were outstanding. They spoke enough English to communicate, could cast a fly and never got us lost in what I consider the trickiest terrain I have ever fished! Best of all, we never fished the same place twice in 6 days. I said our fishing was difficult, but that's not to say we didn't catch fish. We actually caught some great fish. Our group consisted of Dad and I and 6 others whom we never met before this trip. They were spin and plug fishermen and we had a blast fishing and hanging out with them. Everyone caught fish with the biggest a 15lb peacock landed by Daryl Gorup. Dad cast flies solid for two days before our guide Saba taught him the art of tossing jigs on a spin rod. Dad was reluctant at first that is until he learned he could sit back in the boat chair and cover water effortlessly. Dad managed several nice peacocks and varieties of sardinata. Unless I'm severely injured or baitfishing for monster catfish, I never put down the fly rod. It often lowers my catch rate, but on this trip I kept pace with the rest of the gang. On my 3rd cast, I lucked into a 11lb peacock! He was gorgeous, but like many first day fish, we didn't take enough photos and naturally it was my largest peacock of the trip. Throughout the remainder of the week I managed others, but none broke the 4lb mark.

To my delight, I caught two new species to add to my life list, the aruana and pacu. Both species fell for the pattern Fat Albert like we use for cutthroats on the Snake. I must of averaged about 750 casts a day with my 8, 9 and 10-weights and have 8 blisters on my casting hand and my stripping arm is absolutely toast! It should be mentioned that fly fishing the Amazon puts tremendous strain not only on the angler, but also the equipment. On past jungle trips I have broken as many as 5 rods and even snapped fly lines! A special thanks to Ross (whom I am proudly a part of these days) for providing me both reels and rods that handled and endured the strains of the jungle beautifully. In addition, Rio has been my fly line and tippet choice for many years. On this trip Rio's lines specifically designed for hot weather and casting huge flies made it possible to cast 750 times a day and place the flies in the hard to hit spots required for Amazonian fly fishing.
There's a long list of non-fishing highlights as well. A personal favorite was the abundance of macaws (the big colorful parrots too common in pet shops). All my past trips to the rainforest and I never saw one in the wild. On this trip we saw every color possible and once saw a flock of nearly 20!

On the last day we decided to baitfish for catfish in the depths of the murky waters of the Rio Branco. This is an event everyone in our group agreed we should of done sooner. The BWE had heavy spin rods for Dad and I to borrow loaded with 80lb braid. To make a longs story short - we were broken off by giants of the depths 8 times! It was unreal! Several of the guys including Dad landed 100lb + freshwater stingrays. In addition we caught numerous small catfish - varieties of species - and Kevin Deckert landed a gorgeous redtailed catfish of 22lbs. It was one of the most beautiful fish I have ever seen!

All the best,
Jeff

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