Amazon – Rio Marié
Peacock Bass in Brazil
Travelling to the Amazon is very laborious and needs plenty of planning in advance. Helmut Zaderer (https://flyfish-adventures.com/) made the necessary arrangements and put together a group of 8 people. My angling buddy Marco Löcher and I set off for Sao Paulo from Frankfurt and from there we journeyed on to Manaus. We spent the night in a hotel there before departing to our destination on a float plane in the early hours of the next morning. You must allow two days to reach your destination. When we arrived at our target zone our Untamed Amazon ship (www.marieriver.com) awaited us with the guides and skiffs required for the week’s fishing ahead.
The Rio Marie River flows right through an indigenous Indian reserve. It is over 800 kilometres long including more than 180 known tributaries, 60 lakes and three major arms of the Amazon. This river is home to the biggest peacock bass in the entire Amazon region. There is always the chance of catching a world-record peacock here. Their average weight is about 10 pounds, although a lot of them weigh over 15 pounds and some even tip the scales at around 20 pounds. Furthermore, you can also hook plenty of butterfly peacock bass which on average weigh in the 2 to 6 pound range.
The fishing season begins in August and ends in December. This is the dry season in the upper Rio Negro basin which enables you to fish the entire area. Low water levels mean you can easily reach numerous tributaries and lagoons.
Most of the time we had sunny weather with temperatures of up to 37° Celsius. As a group we caught 686 butterfly and 81 peacock bass. The largest were over 80 centimetres long and more than 20 pounds in weight.
Our thanks go to Helmut Zaderer (https://flyfish-adventures.com/) for the perfect organisation – an adventure which will be remembered for a long time to come. More info under (https://www.marieriver.com/).
Tight lines
Stephan Kreupl, October 2023