Peacock bass fishing TESTIMONIALS

Reproduced with permission of The Angling Report, the newsletter for anglers who travel, www.anglingreport.com

ANGLING REPORT ARTICLE

Geographic Focus of Article: Central America | Brazil | Amazon by Barbara Crown
Issue: March, 2006 | Article ID: 1819

Another region experiencing tough weather conditions this year is the Amazon, where the peacock bass fishing season was a near-complete wash-out. Seems that from November through January a number of cold fronts pushed their way up north of Manaus dumping enough rain to saturate the ground and raise the water to record levels. Subsequent showers have kept those levels high.

Phillip Marstellar of Amazon Tours says he has not seen such conditions in 14 years of working in the Amazon, and he says the native people report it’s been 50 years since rain was this bad in the area. He has cancelled his 2006 season and rescheduled clients for next year. A number of other agents we spoke with who book trips on Rio Negro and other tributaries have also cancelled their season. J.W. Smith of Rod & Gun Resources, for example, who books for Luis Brown’s River Plate Outfitters, says he has either rescheduled all his clients this season, or sent them to other destinations.

The only lodge that appears to be operating somewhat normally is Royal Amazon Lodge on the Agua Boa River. As this was written in mid-February, the Agua Boa was dropping steadily, and Dan Vermillion of Sweetwater Travel expected to have
clients fishing there this month, although he too found it necessary to cancel clients scheduled there in January and February.

The reason the Agua Boa was doing better than the other streams has to do with the way it drains into the Rio Branco, which acts as a suction until the Agua Boa returns to its base level.
The silver lining to all this is that next season, barring excessive rains, the fishing should be even better than normal next year.
We’re told that high water levels allow the peacocks to escape bottle-nosed dolphins that enter the rivers looking for food. It also allows the fishery to rest from angling pressure.

What we would like to find out is whether any Angling Report subscribers got invited to the Amazon this winter despite the terrible condition. We hear some operators indeed refused to reschedule clients, assuring them they’d catch plenty of fish. If that happened to you, and you didn’t catch fish, be sure and let us know. Operators who pull this kind of trick need to be exposed.
Tough Weather Conditions in The Amazon

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