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EARLY DECEMBER AMAZON TRIP REPORT
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The Peacock Bass is a great sport fish and will
eat a fly. It’s an aggressive, tough, beautiful
fish and attains a weight of over 20# - ten-plus
pounders are fairly common. The arowana is a
“baby tarpon type fish” that is a surface and
shallow water cruiser and is fun to sight-fish
from a poled skiff.
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The Royal Amazon Lodge, just four years old, is
owned by a highly respected Brazilian doctor who
also operates a hospital in the town of Boa
Vista in the northern state of Roraima. The
lodge is located on a unique clear-water river
(the Agua Boa) that is a smaller branch of the
Branco River and flows through an area that is
one of the largest remaining tracks of uncut and
uninhabited rainforest. It’s accessible via a
90 minute charter flight north from the Amazon
gateway city of Manaus, landing on the lodge’s
private air strip. The lodge hosts a maximum of
12 guests a week – six individual air
conditioned cottages which were basic, but
spacious, clean and comfortable. The staff and
guides were “eager to please” and were a plus.
The guides spoke “fishing English” – the native
language is Portuguese. In addition to the main
lodge, they also operate upriver an air
conditioned houseboat that can fish six. This
is the finest operation in the realm of peacock
bass fishing and its clear waters make it the
best place in Amazonia to use a fly rod – in
fact, the only fly fishing lodge in the Amazon!
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The river is located in a nature preserve and
can only be fished by guests of this particular
lodge. The river is protected by law from any
native netting activities. This is an extremely
important element in any “third world fishery”
where subsistence or commercial netting is
usually the number one enemy of quality sport
fishing.
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The season starts in November and extends
through March. The early part of the season can
be susceptible to heavy rains which can raise
the water levels and flood the surrounding rain
forest, making the fish harder to access as many
of them literally “feed in the forest.” The
later part of the season usually finds the
lowest water levels with the fish more
concentrated in channels making sight-fishing a
larger part of the experience. However, in
these low water conditions, the fish can become
more spooky and harder to fool. As is the case
in most “world class” fisheries, there are no
“sure-fire” best answers – upsides and downsides
to each time of year are the rule.
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The fishing is a combination of sight casting
and blind casting. The amount of sight casting
vs. blind casting will depend on the species
you’re pursuing, your timing (water levels), and
how many numbers you’re willing to give up. Our
fishing for arowana’s was all sight casting,
either to cruising fish or fish swirling on the
surface chasing food. The peacocks were a
combination of efforts, depending on where we
were and the water depth and level. Low water
levels allow for more sight casting, even
wading. If you’re willing to keep casting,
regardless of method, you’re going to catch more
and bigger fish simply because your fly is in
the water for greater periods of time.
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The group that was at the lodge the week before
Thanksgiving (two weeks before we were there)
had a banner week with over 3000 fish taken.
The week before we arrived, there were some
heavy rains, raising the water levels somewhat.
The lodge was full the week we were there (as it
usually is) and I think all of our group would
agree that, even though we probably took
somewhere around half of the 3000 fish of the
previous group, we found the fishing productive
and downright electrifying at times. We did
manage to release over 50 Peacocks that topped
ten pounds with a pair of 18 pounders being the
largest. Note that Scott and I only contributed
one of those ten pounders (although many 7 to 9
pounders) – either bad luck or we’re lousy
Amazon anglers or a combination of both. We did
have some great moments including one 45 minute
period when we released over 30 fish to 7
pounds. Also, Scott had an exciting “short 90
minute session” on arrival day where he sight
cast to fish in clear water over white/tan sand
and took two 7-pounders and had two larger fish
run into the forest and break him off.
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The Amazon wildlife is a definite attraction.
The Amazon version of a crocodile (called a
caiman – we saw them up to 18 feet long), was
the main performer creating many exciting
moments. In one instance, an angler was
fighting a peacock and a ten footer grabbed the
fish and headed for the forest. While trying to
stop the caiman, the fly line broke and the
caiman swam into the forest. A short time
later, he reappeared towing 20 feet of fly
line. The Amazon has a unique array of bird and
animal life, in addition to being the fishiest
place I’ve ever witnessed in all my
globe-hopping.
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Water, water everywhere! The Amazon rain forest
is an immense place (larger than the country of
India) and is full of water – over 10% of the
world’s freshwater is located here. The Amazon
River itself is over four miles wide in many
places and averages 75 meters deep during normal
flows. The river we stayed on, while generally
over 40 meters wide with a substantial flow, is
not significant enough in size to be noted by
name on most maps of the Amazon. We also fished
several secluded lagoons which, in some cases,
required a walk in the forest to reach. The
lodge keeps boats on these lagoons for their
guides to use when accessing on foot.
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Bugs. We were amazed to find there are no
mosquitoes in the Agua Boa system due to certain
acids in the water. However, there were other
biting bugs, the worst of which were the tiny no
see ums which were active very early and late in
the day. After making a few thoughtless
preparatory mistakes my first few days and
getting several no see um bites, I used more
caution the remainder of the week and stayed
“bite free” the last two- thirds of the trip.
My insect weapon of choice was Avon Skin-So-Soft
bath oil which smells a lot better than deet and
was very effective. I applied four times daily.
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Couples trip? If your significant other likes
being on the water and fishing at least some of
the time, the answer is “yes,” this is a good
couples experience. However, besides taking
guided walks in the rainforest and relaxing
around the pool or in your cottage, there isn’t
much to do for a non-fly fisher.
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Price is $4,400 per week from Manaus. It
includes your seven night stay and the charter
flight from Manaus. Wine, beer, and the
pre-dinner cocktail hour are also included. Not
included are tips, fishing equipment, round-trip
air to Manaus, and any hotel stays enroute.
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Logistics – you must arrive in Miami on Friday
evening in time to catch a 9:00pm Lloyd Aereo
Bolivia (LAB) non-stop flight to Manaus (apprx
$1100 coach fare – first class available).
Surprisingly, this is just a 5 hour flight! It
took us longer to fly from San Francisco to
Miami than Miami to Manaus. Upon arrival, you
are met at the terminal and transported to the
private air terminal where you catch your
charter. On the return, you arrive back in
Manaus in the late morning on Saturday and are
met and transferred to a comfortable hotel.
From there, you can tour Manaus or just relax –
we did have a wonderful Brazilian dining
experience that evening that I would highly
recommend. On Sunday, the scheduled LAB flight
to Miami leaves Manaus at noon and arrives in
Miami at 4:00pm – if it’s on time, a sometime
occurrence.
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Availability: For anyone considering a trip
this season, the lodge is full from now through
the end of January, almost all repeat clients
from last year. February and March do have a
few open dates still remaining. We are planning
on hosting a Leland shop trip for the ‘06/07
season, possibly two weeks.
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Options: A week in the Amazon can be combined
with a Patagonian rainbow/brown trout trip.
Other possibilities can be a visit to Tierra del
Fuego for the giant sea-run browns or the easy
add-on for a Patagonia trip, the Chilean fjords,
an experience we’re very familiar with. Also,
dorado fishing in northern Argentina or a visit
to Los Roques for bonefish can be arranged while
in South America.
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Summary – one of the fly fishers with the group
was Wray Lertora, Director of Operations for
Sage Fly Rods. Obviously, Wray is a very well
traveled fly fisher with lots of experiences
with which to compare new fly fishing
adventures. Wray pretty much summed up the
overall feelings of our group with this
comment: “Given the quality of the operation
for a remote, tropical lodge coupled with the
unique wildlife and the size and aggressiveness
of the fish, this was as good a fishing trip as
I’ve ever been on.”
TRIP REPORT
Fly Fishing Adventures
888-347-4896
flyfish@napanet.net
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