"A Giant Fish Blew Up on the Big Game Woodchopper"

Excerpted with author’s permission from:

AMAZON PEACOCK BASS FISHING! BOOK 4 ©1999 by Larry Larsen

Chapter 1 FLOATPLANE JUNGLE BASS ON THE CUIUNI

Two tribes of howler monkeys were roaring at each other over the tree-shaking winds that had just swept into our isolated lagoon. My cast had allowed for the strong wind, but a gust pushed it another 10 feet off the drop at the edge of the sandbar island. I popped the big topwater plug twice, further disturbing any “quiet” of the black water environment that the surface-ripping winds hadn’t already destroyed.
A giant fish “blew up” on the Big Game Woodchopper, launching the plug skyward and 30 feet closer to the boat and leaving behind only a huge boil marking its spontaneous appearance. I quickly reeled in the heavy line and lure and returned the wooden “irritant” to the precise spot of temptation. The big peacock bass exploded again on the plug as it moved over 6 feet of water, and it “hung on” this time.
I too hung on, as it tore up the bar along the drop and then headed shallower toward timber. The fish ran well back under two large, overhanging tree branches, but fortunately, there were no long limbs under the extended surface branches. I put a lot of pressure on the fish to keep it away from the noticeable entanglements near shore. Then my guide, Juan, moved the boat away from the potential obstructions for the remainder of the battle.
Luckily, the fish swam in and out of the top of more limbs on the deepwater side of the drop without snagging my line. I didn’t realize how big it was until it started to pull drag and eventually showed itself. A few minutes later, I brought a weary 20-1/2 pounder up to the gunwale. Juan reached over and grabbed the huge fish. It was photo time. I rushed a few shots and placed the film star back into the tiny black water lagoon, just before the storm arrived.
I barely had time to don my rainsuit as the winds swept driving rain in our face. Juan motioned toward the shoreline cover, and with my nod, headed our aluminum boat into a somewhat-protected canopy of trees. We sat in the driving rain for 20 minutes, which gave me ample time to reflect on the success of the morning.
I had had quite a day on the lagoons off the Cuiuni River (also spelled Cuini or Cuiuini) in north-central Brazil. Of the 12 peacock bass that I had hooked and released, an 11 and 12 pounder were among the small specimens. I also took a 16 pounder, a 16 ½ pounder and one of 18 ½ pounds. A trolled topwater plug fooled the latter fish. I was working it from the moving boat about 80 yards back over only three feet of water in a long, 200-yard wide lagoon. Some may have thought me crazy to be trolling a topwater in crystal clear water over a narrow flat that shallow!

Fry “Balls” & Piranha Bursts
The 16-1/2 pounder smashed my topwater as I popped it through a “ball” of peacock bass fry on the surface. It was like three other big peacocks I had taken earlier in the week from other balls of young. Peacock bass parents will slam anything coming near their fry post-spawn as they are in a full-protection mode. It’s an interesting phenomenon to watch and to take advantage of. Newborn fry of one inch long or so and even older fingerlings up to 6 or 8 inches in length will form a “ball” and move about the surface of the lagoon with one or both parents swimming alongside or just beneath.
There may be 2,000 tiny fry in a 2-foot diameter ball moving on the surface. When winds are light, they can be readily seen. When the surface ripple is substantial, then it is very difficult to see, even by native guides with trained eyes. When danger approaches, the tiny fish will swim inside the mouth of the parent until it is safe to venture back out. If the angler can see the “ball” of fingerlings moving along the surface and toss a lure within 5 or 6 feet of it, the protective peacock parent will explode on the foreign source of anguish. An accurate caster may catch and release three or 4 of these “protective” fish a day during optimal times.
Another interesting phenomena are “piranha bursts”. On several occasions on the Cuiuni, a school of 8 or 10 piranha would burst into the air, leaping above the surface three feet or so, frantically trying to escape a big peacock that is right on their tail. The feeding activity might continue as the school disperses in mid-air a couple of more times until another giant swirl from the predator ends the chase.
At active times, peacocks are just easier to catch. On this trip, I often cast to commotion in one form or another and caught big peacocks. So did several others in our group, and in fact, anglers Ted Schmidt, John Mihalic, Tonia Teke and Debbie Kemp all caught and released 20 pounders.
One interesting, non-twenty pounder blew up on my “trout” colored Big Game Woodchopper knocking it 5 feet up in the air and 15 feet closer to my boat. I yelled at my partner for that day, Ron Teke, of Silverthorne, CO, to “cast quick” to the fish, knowing my lure was probably out of its range. His topwater plug quickly landed near the settling ripples, and the fish immediately exploded on it. By then I had reeled in my loose line and lure and tossed back again to the one triggering spot. The 17-pounder again exploded on my lure, and we were hooked up solid then.
The key to such productivity in the rainforest is usually being very observant about what is going on in the aquatic environment and changing lures and presentations in typically prime areas. If I toss a topwater bait into an obvious fish-holding area several times without a strike or a follow, I’ll switch off and throw a submerged bait such as a large 6-inch minnow bait or a one-ounce Pet spoon. Frequently, I’ll entice a strike that way.
Thoroughly fishing an area is always wise when fish signs are apparent. During daylight hours, larger peacock bass are almost always in the deeper waters of a lagoon or slow-moving waterway. Smaller fish are tighter to the bank in shallower water around or in protective cover. I fish for the bigger ones.

Conquering The Cuiuni Lagoons
That week while fishing the lagoons off the Cuiuni River west of the Rio Negro, with River Plate Outfitters, I personally caught over 60 peacock bass, with 25 of them weighing over 12 pounds each. Perhaps even more impressive to this frequent Amazon visitor is that 18 of those fish were larger than 15 pounds, and three peacock bass exceeded 20 pounds. It was one of my very best trips for peacock ever!
Getting there was not an easy task. It involved an overnight flight to Manaus, Brazil; then our group of 8 anglers boarded a large amphibious plane, took off from a small paved runway and landed on a twisting string of waterway deep in the Amazon Rain Forest. Guides in our fishing craft met us at the floatplane and took us to our floating camp, four large cabanas set up on floating barges tied up to a nearby sandbar. After watching our floatplane sail off over the jungle canopy, we set up our rods and tackle and were fishing the remote waters that afternoon.
The very comfortable, air-conditioned cabanas were towed by a large riverboat about 20 miles upstream almost daily to relocate the “home base” to mostly-unfished waters. All are pulled up on a serene sandbar each evening and staked out to prevent their drifting away. The floating cabins with private showers, toilets and beds are equipped with a 12-volt battery to power lights, fans and shower pumps. A generator powers the battery chargers, the cooking barge and the dining tent barge.
Each afternoon, our group of anglers would sit back in lounge chairs on the sandbar and swap stories about the giant fish taken or lost that day. Lying in the comfortable bed at night, listening to the sounds of nocturnal creatures such as frogs in the jungle and the fish feeding on small minnows along the shoreline beside your cabin barge is an interesting experience. Such sounds lull you to sleep. A generator far off in the forest offered a rhythmic hum.
At least once each night, a riverboat with tropical fish gatherers went chugging by with spotlight waving at the edges of the jungle as it made its way downstream. They were relocating their boat and small fishnets to search locations nearer Barcelos, the renowned “tropical fish capital of the world”.

Post-Rain Maneuvers and Tactics
From our first afternoon on, the week was cast and blast. We would cast a big plug and the peacock would blast it. The fish that week were very active, despite a few intermittent rains. Often I noticed a few fish playing around off the deep drops along sandy beach points and would cast to them for a hookup. For maximum productivity, I typically cast into waters about three feet deep where the bottom disappeared from sight.
Not all of my big fish were landed however. I distinctly remember a 17-pound plus fish and one just over 20 or so that pulled off. Then, there was another monster every bit as large as the 20’s I caught that week that spit out my plug just 10 feet from the boat.
Sun seems to be everything to the peacock bass. It is what incubates the eggs on the bed, initiates the plankton food chain for the fingerlings and then increases the metabolism for the fish so that they can feed and grow. That is why a day without sunshine in the rainforest is often a poor fishing day. Peacocks sleep all night in the shallows away from large nocturnal predators that roam the deep. The sun wakes them up each morning, and if dark overcast skies meet the break of day, the peacock are slow to get started. They need the sun to fully get going, much as some humans need a shot of caffeine to become wide awake and/or be able to function intelligently.
We know that peacocks are not active at night, and, in my experience, they are usually less active under heavy cloud cover or during heavy rains, even later on in the afternoon. In hard rains, even the aggressive, “territorial” type strikes are hard to come by. One reason might be that the peacock may not hear a large topwater plug ripping through the surface waters. Small fish are usually more aggressive than big ones in a heavy rainstorm. An exception may be a brief, “refreshing” type shower that occurs during a hot afternoon and has minimal impact on the feeding activity of all sizes of peacock.
During that week on the Cuiuni, I believe that the fish were holding at the edges of the sandbars after rains and on overcast days. When the air temperatures were “cool”, the fishing was correspondingly slow. After a rain, the fish appeared to want to move into the shallows to take advantage of the sun’s heat in order to get their metabolism going again. As a result, they were positioned near the edges of the breaks off sandbars and points and in a fairly aggressive posture there. We were fishing at the beginning of the rainy season and the sky moisture came down on us almost every day on the Cuiuni.

Striking Reasons In Shallow Waters
There are several types of striking action that an angler may come across on the Cuiuni and in fact, on most peacock bass waters. The reflex action of a territorial strike is one where the fish just wants to destroy something in its “space” which may be a 50-yard square area in a small, deepwater lagoon. The territory also may be a “mobile” space that is everything within 40 or 50 feet of the fish, as it is moving about.
The peacock will also strike out of hunger in the interest of feeding or out of opportunity. When the latter arises, they will take advantage of a wayward baitfish or an artificial lure resembling one. This is a foraging behavior. Finally, a third type of striking reason is due to their protective post-spawn nature discussed earlier.
Submerged lures are often better for feeding-type strikes or for enticing a less than super aggressive fish, while topwater plugs may generate any of the aforementioned types of strikes. Both work on “balls of fry” if you can get the lure on the front edge of the fry or within a few feet of it. If the cast lands 10 feet away, it generally won’t produce, and even if it lands on the fry ball, it may or may not be struck.
Hooks on all lures need to be extremely sharp and if they are too heavy, they do not hold a point well. It is best to replace a dull, heavy hook with one that is very sharp. In fact, I’ve found that many lures you may buy at the tackle store will not have sufficient hooks to hold the largest peacocks you may catch. A few may have hooks that are too heavy to keep sharp. Carrying extra replacement hooks in your tackle box is a good idea.
The 18 ½-foot long aluminum flat bottom boats with wide casting decks are comfortable to fish from, and handle the small waters well. The 15-hp outboards and trolling motors employed offer adequate power to get around the numerous lagoons and false river channels that lace the Cuiuni. In five full days of fishing, we fished 25 lagoons and passed up another 25 that were too shallow, too small or were being fished by our fishing companions.
About 40 percent of the lagoons were too shallow, and even in the deep lagoons, about 25 percent were too shallow to hold big fish. The water was about three feet below the base of the trees in most cases, but there are many fallen trees and submerged laydowns, particularly in the deepwater lakes off the Cuiuni. The many oxbows are basically lagoons at low water with no flow trough and during the high water, rainy season, they become parts of the river with current flow.
When waters are low and relatively clear at the end of the dry season, rain will increase the water level and bring in more murky waters. Both are not favorable for catching peacock bass. When the forest floods as water levels increase substantially, the fishing is over. Most fish then move back into the jungle to feed, and the angler just can’t reach them.

The Mark of A Great Guide
Great guides in the rainforest usually make for a great trip. River Plate’s Cuiuni River guides, like all great ones, notice subtle signs of feeding activity and “balls” of fry swimming along on the surface. They also make suggestions to the angler about casting to points, sandbars and cuts and when to repeat casts to such obvious fish-holding spots. They are wise to the tactic of casting several times to a big fish that has given its location away or to a second big fish “partner” of one that was just caught and released. Both concepts are the smart thing to do when after big peacock bass.
The excellent guides also watch any hooked fish and move the boat away from battle dangers such as large laydowns, brush piles, rocks, etc. They are very observant about potential problem obstructions and try to alleviate any interaction with such on casts or from hooked fish by handling the boat appropriately. They will raise the trolling motor when a lively peacock is near the boat and is seemingly “hot”. They are very aware of what the fish is doing during the battle and always ready with the net or Boga Grip when the peacock is off the gunwale.
The guides are observant about a knot or abrasion in your line, a bent hook or other lure problem and will even “tune” your topwater plug if it is not running right due to a slightly bent propeller. They’ll add a little more cup to the blade with a pair of pliers to make the right (most productive) sound. They are very adept at suggesting lures and lure changes. Like many anglers, I carry four rods with different lures on each at all times while in the boat. That sometimes requires a lot of guide attention.
My Rio Cuiuni guide, Juan, who has worked with visiting peacock bass anglers for over six years, was very ”in tune” with my thought process about which lure to toss at a specific piece of cover and when to change to another for a different spot or for another shot at the same spot. He seemed to also know why big fish were in the places we found them and what might be the best lure to entice a strike from them, or at least, ... his thought process was identical to mine. He was knowledgeable, about fishing and fishing lingo, which is refreshing and different from most of the guides I fish with in the jungle.

Prime Timing, Options and Information
There was plenty of wildlife to enjoy during our fishing days on the Cuiuni River such as monkeys in the trees, a capybara along one beach, a few iguana and two snakes. Overhead, green parrots raced everywhere; toucans, pato ducks and macaws, 9 in one large group, colored the skies. A few dolphins mostly in the river channels and a 9-foot caiman were waterscape enhancements.
The prime fishing season on the Rio Cuiuni is January through March, but the water level can play havoc with the fishing and access to it. During high water, peacocks swim far back into the forest, while extremely low water levels prevent even the small boats from covering a lot of water from its cabin barge camp base. An 8-day itinerary will put you on fishing water 5 ½ days. If the waters of the Cuiuni are not conducive to great fishing, the River Plate Outfitters operation simply moves to better waters. Agent Rod & Gun Resources offers three of the fly-in cabin barge operations on various rivers throughout the Amazon and they are generally booked from mid-August through March, according to owner and avid peacock bass angler J. W. Smith.
Last year’s big fish on a Rod & Gun trip was a 26 ½ pound peacock caught on the Rio Urubaxi, which is another Rio Negro tributary that lies just north of the Cuiuni. Other rivers that Rod & Gun/River Plate Outfitters fish are the Araca, the Macucau, the Jufari, the Jatapu, the Caures, the Unini, the Jau, the Amapa, the Marmelos and the Madeirinha. That’s quite a list, but with three operations going at the same time, they need several options to offer the very best fishing under existing water conditions.
To find out more about the Amazon Peacock Bass Safari, contact J. W. Smith of Rod & Gun Resources, 206 Ranch House Rd., Kerrville, TX 78028; Phone (800) 211-4753; Fax (830) 792-6807; email: venture@rodgunresources.com or visit their website at http://www.peacock-bassfishing.com/.


You can order and purchase this book or any other in Larry Larsen’s Peacock Bass series at www.peacockbassassociation.com.

The Most Amazing Week of My Life!

I just got back from what was probably the most amazing week of my life. My 13 year old son and I spent the week of Thanksgiving fishing for peacock bass on the Unini River in the Amazon. We booked the trip through the good folks at Rod & Gun Resources and everything went off without a hitch.

We flew out of Miami for a late night arrival in Manaus, Brazil. Customs was smooth and we were greeted by a friendly driver who assembled our group for a short ride to a beautiful hotel (probably the nicest in Manaus). After a wonderful breakfast buffet, we were off to the airport and the float plane to the camp. The flight was great and the river landing was a real thrill, and a great deal smoother than any airport landing I’ve ever had.

Once at the camp, our luggage was quickly set up in our floating cabins. We had a quick snack, changed clothes and we were on the river fishing. It was that quick!

And that is where my preconceived notions of the Amazon came to an end. When you talk about the Amazon, everyone gets images of instant danger around every bend. Bugs, snakes, piranha and more are all out to get you and you are at the bottom of the food chain.

Once you get there and start to relax and appreciate the environment, you see that’s just not the case. We were camped on the most beautiful sand beaches you’ve ever walked on. Perfect white sand that you’d expect in Tahiti. It was so clean, it squeaked when you walked on it. The weather was very pleasant, the bugs were minimal and it was all in all, very comfortable and relaxing. One would think there are hoards of mosquitos but we probably only saw one or two the entire week. When we were fishing, we would get a couple of what I nicknamed “Wazzat Flies”. These were big, loud bee’s of some sort that would just hang around, looking at us as if to say “Wassat?” They never once landed on anyone or bit anyone. They were just curious. I even saw two collide in midair as they were trying to figure me out. They were more amusing than irritating.

And the fishing.

It’s like nothing on earth. I do believe we’re both spoiled for life. We live on a lake in Texas and we’ve fished for years as well as chasing reds on the coast, but nothing compares to this. Our guide would take us down the glassy waters and turn off the main river onto a tributary. He didn’t talk much, so we’d turn around and look at where he’d point. He’d been on these rivers for over 6 years and knew every bend and lagoon. His knowledge was truly amazing. He had a GPS built into his head and never got lost.

We fished a variety of lures from big woodchoppers to small sub surface baits. The small baits brought in higher numbers and varieties of fish, but the big woodchoppers were the real excitement. You would be in a pristine, prehistoric lagoon (I kept thinking “Gilligans Island”), ripping that loud woodchopper across the surface of the perfect glass water and suddenly the water would explode. I likened it to a big man doing a cannonball from the trees. The big peacock would explode on the topwater and leap into the air. Sometimes they’d hit so hard, the rod would get ripped from your hands (and the guide would actually JUMP IN to get it!)

There is nothing like it. Once you figure out what kinds of structure they like, you were certain to hook up MANY times a day. We found our best fishing at the mouth of inlets where there was a lot of foliage growing out of the point (we nicknamed it Peacock Weeds). The fish hang around waiting for dinner to swim by. We also haunted the backs of lagoons, along banks and in submerged woods. Even in low water, there are stands of exotic trees growing through four or five feet of water. You might be casting on one side of a lagoon and hear a huge splash in the trees as a big peacock chased its prey around the tree trunks.

Many times, our guide would suddenly turn towards a small opening in the jungle. Some of these creeks were no wider than the boat and we’d machete our way into the bush, power over logs and squeeze between trees. Suddenly, you’d emerge from the darkened jungle undergrowth into a beautiful and timeless lagoon. There was never any sign of human habitation, so it’s not hard to imagine you’re the first person to ever enter the place. Some lagoons were an acre or two, some where huge and connected to many more through small waterways. We explored dozens of these over the week, each time pulling up impressive numbers of fish.

And even if you decided to just relax and watch the surroundings, you’d never know what was around each bend. We saw monkeys in trees, bizarre birds, hundreds of macaws and parrots, caiman, a huge variety of strange fish and even a jaguar playfully splashing around on a river bank. A five-pound toad hopped through our camp one night, brightly colored butterflies were everywhere. There was always something to see and capture your imagination. Even the numbers of plants that could be growing in a single tree, some of which would have long, hanging roots dropping 100 feet into the water, kept you looking all around and constantly surprised.

The “Garden of Eden” images are true, but it was really quite benign and relaxing. My son quickly turned into a Huck Finn of the Amazon… barefooted, relaxed and happy with everything that came our way.

Of course, it was all made so comfortable with the amazing system put into place by Rod and Gun Resources and the folks at River Plate Anglers. The floating cabins are quite comfortable. Good beds, private bathroom and shower and even AC (even we never used it). Every morning we’d wake up to a full breakfast buffet with exotic local juices, hot Brazilian coffee all served in a separate floating “dining room”. After breakfast, we’d back up whatever we wanted for lunch and get on the boat.

After a full day of fishing, we’d head back to camp around 5:00 and there would be a table set up on the beach with drinks and a different snack each day. We’d all talk about our fishing and at 7:00, dinner was served. And it was a great dinner. Every night was a different buffet of courses and every day was fresh fish, caught an hour earlier. There was a full open bar, soft drinks, ice cold beer and bottles of wine.

After dinner, we’d usually retire back out onto the beach to a canopy of bright stars. There was never a late night though. After such a full day of fishing and a big dinner, it seems everyone was ready for bed by 9:00.

I never thought Maxx and I would be fishing the whole time. I thought, who could fish 8 or 9 hours a day for a full week without a break… But I was wrong. He was rousting me out of bed by 6:30 every morning to get breakfast out of the way and get on the boat. We never took a day off, the fishing was just too amazing to miss, even for a minute.

We even had lunch on the boat, usually tucked under the jungle canopy, then right back on the rods.

All in all, it was the trip of a lifetime. I’ve been to some of the great cities of the world but nothing compares to the Amazon. Especially when you can see it from such a comfortable and brilliantly thought out standpoint.

We’re already planning on going back again for NEXT Thanksgiving. I told Maxx we should do this every year till I’m too old to even walk. He agreed.

Chris Greta