Planning
As with all our long distance fishing trips the planning begins at least a year in advance. In order to get the most out of a trip you want to be fishing the most productive times of the year. When it comes to Peacock Bass in the Amazon there are only a handful of weeks to choose from, and the sooner you can book the better your chances are of getting a good week. As this would be our first trip to Brazil we relied completely on our guide’s advice and booked for the last week in February. This did seem a bit late in the season, but we were assured this would be an excellent time for both numbers of fish and topwater action.
At this point it is important to note that we had already booked this trip in 2019 for the 2021 season. But along came Covid and eventually pushed this trip back by two years! It was the longest I have ever had to wait to go on a trip, so needless to say that when the time eventually arrived I could barely contain the excitement!
Our guide is a very experienced angler from
Poland, Grzegorz Borowski (or Gregg for short), who has been doing guided trips around the world for about ten years. A rather colourful character with an incredible passion for fishing. He has done countless trips to South America for just about every species of fish you can think of, and it was a real treat getting to fish with Gregg. You can click here to check out Gregg’s Facebook page.
An extremely important part of any trip is the preparation. Rods, reels, line, just to mention a few. It’s never an easy task as a person always wants to be well prepared, but you are extremely limited by weight restrictions on the domestic flights. The last flight from Manaus to Barcelos would be on a small plane which would only allow each angler 18 kg of luggage. This is not much weight when it comes to your fishing gear, so we had to be very careful and precise when it came to packing our gear. In the end I opted for a 3 rod approach with two spare rods and reels packed in just in case there was an accident.
Lure selection for this trip would be extremely crucial. As it was going to be an Amazon Peacock Bass trip the one staple is always the chopper bait. A very successful angler that I follow had recommended Kermett Lures for the chopper bait as they are extremely tough and durable and he makes quite a nice variety of chopper baits. They are all hand crafted and need to be ordered well in advance. Mr. Kermett Adams was a real pleasure to work with and he made sure our order was ready on time. He also makes other baits including big Peacock spinner baits which we also got a few of. On a previous trip to Colombia the spinnerbaits had worked really well for the bigger Peacocks, so this was a no-brainer to get.
Of course, after receiving the lures form Kermett things never worked out as planned thanks to Covid, and these lure would be stored safely for the next two and a half years.
As our trip eventually started drawing nearer I made further preparations. I read as many articles as I could, and I watched a lot of videos of people who had done trips to the same areas as we would be visiting. I paid extra special attention to the lures they were using and also how they fished these lures. Apart from the chopper and spook (walk the dog type) baits, it became very clear that bucktail jigs were another essential you had to pack in. There were two colour patterns that also stood out head and shoulders above the rest, namely red-white and red-yellow. With three months to go before the trip I figured I had plenty of time to get my jigs… This would turn out to be a very big mistake on my part. Every site I could find that possibly sold these jigs in these two colour patterns did not have them. I was in trouble and it looked like I was out of luck.
After watching another video and looking into a different operator that provides fishing trips into the Amazon as well, I found a very comprehensive guide on how to tie the jigs I was after. This company only sells their jigs to their own customers on their trips, but they are kind enough to make public the instructions on how to tie these jigs of theirs. Now I have never tied a jig in my life, so this was not really an option for me, but I did have a contact for a fishing guide who ties his own flies. I figured tying a jig couldn’t be too much different from tying a fly, so I contacted the gentleman. He was extremely helpful and super-efficient, and within a couple of weeks I had the jigs I was looking for! Thanks Ellis! If fly fishing is your thing then check out Ellis on Instagram, I highly recommend his services!
Armed with choppers, spooks, spinnerbaits, and jigs, I still needed to add a couple of minnows. I had read and seen that the Yo-Zuri Crystal Minnow in bone and orange-red were extremely successful, so I went on a mission to get some. Once again this would prove to be quite the challenge as they were not easy baits to find. Eventually I found a couple on eBay and I now felt ready for the jungle. To this mix I also packed in some soft swimbaits which I had had great success with in Colombia, and then also my favorite crankbaits that I always take with me on any trip.
Now all I needed was an organized system to keep all my lures and terminal tackle in and I was sorted. I opted for a suitcase styled tackle storage system in the form of the Meiho VS-3080 by Versus in olive green. It is a dual compartment tackle box with the top compartment more shallow, perfect for lures. It has 22 removable and very adjustable dividers and a clear lid for you to see exactly what is going on inside. The bottom compartment is deeper and has a dedicated space for your spinner baits and is where you can store your extra line and more bulky tackle and smaller boxes. This ended up being an excellent choice and worked extremely well, the only problem being that it was quite a bit larger than I had anticipated. After packing in the tackle box, there was only just enough room in my luggage for a few items of clothing and a toiletry bag. The rest of my clothing had to get packed into my hand luggage.
With all my gear packed I was ready to hit the road. Since I hadn’t been back to South Africa in almost 5 years, I had decided to take this opportunity to get home and spend some time with my family. The first leg of my journey took me back to Pretoria. I would first fly to Johannesburg via Singapore on Singapore Airlines. I have always enjoyed traveling with Singapore Airlines for a couple of reasons. First is their service and economy class product. I have found both these aspects to be better than any other airline I have traveled on so far. The other reason is the convenience for me when traveling back to South Africa. It’s four hours from Taipei to Singapore, and then only ten hours from Singapore to Johannesburg with a four hour layover in Singapore.
I spent about ten days is South Africa traveling around and visiting different parts of my family before it was finally time to head to Brazil. I met Pete and Rob at Johannesburg International Airport where we boarded a TAAG flight bound for Luanda, Angola. TAAG is Angola’s national air carrier and it was glaringly obvious that we were now traveling with an African airline. Look, I love my country and the continent of Africa, but there are certain flaws they just cannot seem get sorted out. The aircraft was in fine working order, but on board the inflight entertainment units seemed to only be there for show. Here and there you could see a unit working, but most didn’t. A lot actually had a rather obvious gaping hole in the console where the controller was meant to be. The onboard service wasn’t too bad, but there was nothing friendly about it.
Once we got to Luanda we met
up with the other half of our party, Gerhard, Stefan and Gavin. After a few beers we boarded our next flight and we were on our way to Sao Paulo, Brazil! It was a rather uneventful 8 hour flight and we touched down at 2am. Our next flight to Manaus was not until 08:30, so filled with excitement we found a coffee shop and sat around waiting for our next flight.
When we booked our flights we had decided to depart a day earlier than what was necessary in case there were any unforeseen delays or issues with our luggage. We would get to Manaus two days before our flight to Barcelos. Luckily we did not have any major problems, but we were bumped off of our 08:30 flight to Manaus and put onto a later 12:30 flight. In the bigger scheme of things this was not a real problem, it only meant we’d get into Manaus at 17:30 instead of 12:30, and our arranged braai (that’s South African for barbeque) for lunch at our AirBNB became a dinner braai.
Manaus
For our two night stay in Manaus I had booked an AirBNB for us that was only five minutes away from the airport. It was a very comfortable two bedroom place with 6 separate beds, so perfect for six gents. Our guide, Gregg, also needed to join us and so our host most generously arranged an extra mattress for him. Our host, Antonio, was just amazing! He went above and beyond to make sure that we had an incredible stay at his place. He insisted on collecting us from the airport and arranged a second car for us as we were too many to fit all of us with gear into his car. Ice cold beers were waiting for us when we arrived and the swimming pool was like the icing on the cake. Antonio’s back yard is connected to the rain forest and that was when we knew we were finally in the Amazon! That night we were treated to an amazing Brazilian braai and the our host Antonio just kept the meat coming. You know it is good when a bunch of South Africans say no more meat please!
The next day we had a full day in Manaus and the mission was to visit the famous fish market. Unfortunately we had a bit of a late start and the fish market ended up being rather disappointing as most of the fish were sold out already. Nonetheless it was still a very
interesting day out. Of course we had to stop by the local tackle store and pick up a few last minute lures and check out what other gear they have. We had lunch at a local diner which was pretty awesome before heading back to our AirBNB for some rum and a lazy afternoon around the pool. That evening we went to a local steakhouse for dinner and once again I could not find any reason to complain about the food. The service was also amazing and it was an excellent way to round off our stay in Manaus.
The following morning
Antonio cooked up another five star breakfast and shortly thereafter we were back at the airport. This was when we met up with the seventh member of our group, Max. He had joined us from Taiwan and he himself had had quite the epic journey just getting to Manaus. It was this flight from Manaus to Barcelos that was the cause of much anxiety as this was the flight which had the 18kg luggage restriction. Back at Antonio’s place we all had to sort out our gear and make sure it came in at 18 kg or under. 
There were a few tense moments as we were checking in for our flight since Max had come with a lot of gear, but in the end it all worked out. We boarded our private charter plane and an hour later we touched down in Barcelos!
Rio Negro
As I mentioned earlier, we had booked this trip for this time of year specifically because we had been assured it would be a good time for large numbers of fish being caught and good topwater action. This would be due to the low water conditions which are necessary to keep the fish in the rivers and lakes, and concentrated enough to drive a lot of feeding competition. We were supposed to fish the Araca river system and camp on different beaches as we made our way up and down the river, but as luck would have it the rains had come early again. All the rain meant the rivers had pushed up into the forest and the fish had dispersed into the trees. This obviously meant we would not be camping as all the beaches were underwater now, so we stayed on a houseboat on the river for this trip.
The houseboat itself was rather small with four rooms for the guests, a small open area aft where the crew would prepare our meals from and a small galley right off the stern of the boat. The boat had a half covered flybridge were we ate our meals and could relax with a few drinks after a hard day’s fishing. Back down on the main deck there two shower/toilets right up front and then the wheelhouse right on the bow. A secondary supplies boat was attached to the houseboat which also housed the generator and was used as accommodation for the crew.
Towed behind the houseboat were the 5 fishing tenders we’d be fishing from for the week.
Upon our arrival in Barcelos we were met by our hosts for the week. It was the locally owned and operated outfit, Ney Pesca. It was a short five minute ride down to the river where we loaded all our gear onto the fishing tenders and headed a short way up the river to our houseboat. We quickly off loaded the gear, put everything in our rather modest double bunk rooms, then headed up to the 
flybridge. We met our bartender, Rafael, and he would be on hand all week serving us delicious caipirinhas ( a popular Brazilian cocktail ), or whatever beverage we wanted, which for this trip would just be rum. There were also plenty of beers on hand to keep us hydrated throughout the trip.
The entire first day we spent cruising up the river as we headed as far up the Rio Negro as we could go. It was slow going, but a good time to get all our gear ready and prepare ourselves for all the action that awaited us. We were all quite nervous about the fishing conditions as we knew the water levels were up and that the fish would be holding inside the flooded forest areas. This does not make for great fishing and probably meant that we would have to work very hard for our fish. But as anyone who knows a fisherman would tell you, we are the eternal optimists and we were all hatching our various plans to overcome this obstacle and make sure that we get our fish!
The day passed by pretty quickly and we continued travelling upriver well into the night. At some point during the night we reached our first resting spot, and by 5 am everyone was up and sitting around the breakfast table.
This would be our first fishing day in the Amazon and needless to say the excitement levels were extremely high. As we were a group of pretty good friends, we had decided to rotate fishing partners each day which turned out to be a really great move as we all got to fish with each other at some point during the trip. On the first day I partnered up with Max and we were all off before the sun was able to peek out over the forest.
We made quite a big run before stopping at our first spot. It looked really good and I chucked a spook first thing. Second cast and I got hit, but didn’t manage to hook up. Next cast and I was on! A very tricky first fish as I hooked up in between sunken branches and trees, but I managed to get in out and onto the boat.
It was not a big fish, but it was a very feisty and welcome first fish. We took a few photos and let it go. I was on the board and couldn’t be any happier! Not far from us were Pete and Rob, and shortly after I landed my fish Pete was also into his first of the trip. We were pleasantly surprised as we’d expected tough fishing conditions, but this almost seemed too good to be true.
We fished the area a little longer and BAM! Fish On! A
short scrappy fight ensued and I made short work of a beautiful butterfly peacock bass! The butterfly peacock bass are great fun to catch as they fight much harder that the three bar and speckled peacock bass, but unfortunately they don’t get nearly as big.
The morning session proved to be rather productive and I had some good results with the jigs I had brought along. No monsters yet, but I was getting into the fish. Shortly before we took our lunch break, I took out the chopper again. I had made a good number of casts between some tree when suddenly I had a huge strike! It was a really hard hit and I was on! This is exactly what we had come half way around the world for, that insane topwater strike! It looked like a bomb had hit my lure and there was water everywhere! This was a good fight with a few tense moments as the fish tried to run me into some sunken trees. 
Eventually I got the fish to the boat and out came a decent, rather dark, three bar or Azule as they are locally known. It was not a huge fish, but it put on a great fight and was my biggest fish for the day. For some reason we did not measure it, but it must have been around the 60cm mark.
We met up with two of the other boats and stopped on an island for lunch. We had a packed lunch which consisted of rice, some tomato and onion and a piece of meat. This was pretty much the standard for the whole trip. Our guides hung up a few hammocks and we rested there for about an hour. It was a nice break, but we all agreed that there was no need for a longer break as the fish were calling.
By this stage Max and I had done pretty well having landed a good number of fish, but it was not going as well on the other boats. Pete and Rob had only managed a couple and if I remember correctly only one fish had been caught between Gerhard and Stefan. Either Max and I were extremely lucky or we were doing something completely different to the others. I had caught most of my fish on the bucktail jig, and that is what I believe had been making the difference for me.
The afternoon’s fishing was slower than the morning’s, but we still managed to get a couple before we started making our way back to the houseboat. We stopped at the spot where we had started in the morning and I managed one more butterfly before Gregg and Gavin showed up.
Gavin had also had a bit of a tough day, although he had managed to catch one of the only arowana for the whole trip. A stunning by-catch when targeting peacock bass and a fish that all of us were hoping to also hook into. Gregg had done pretty well for the day and had caught most of his fish on a shallow diving stick-bait called the Perversa. It was a good way to end the day catching up with Gregg and Gavin over a couple of beers on the river.
By the end of the day Max had landed six or seven fish and I had landed nine, including a piranha each. After catching up with the rest of the gents on the houseboat that evening, it was clear that Max and I had had a very different experience to all the others as the other boats had struggled a lot to get any fish. At this point it became painfully clear that a tough few days lay ahead of us as the fish were definitely not as active as we were hoping they’d be. Max and I had gotten extremely lucky on the first day. But with that said everyone was still in very high spirits. Afterall, we were busy living the dream with this once in a lifetime opportunity to fish the Amazon!
Over the course of the trip we’d change boat partners everyday and keep working our way up the Rio Negro and fish the different rivers that flowed into it. The results were varied from day to day,
but everyone had to work very hard for the fish they caught. Very few fish came out, and we all got a chance to feel the pain and disappointment of not catching a single fish for an entire day. But that is fishing, and you can never be guaranteed of your results. 
Weather played an extremely big role in this, and unfortunately for us the weather leading up to our trip was not favorable, and it had pushed the water levels too high. 
As we fished the edges of the forest looking for those individual fish still patrolling the river, we could hear the bigger fish hunting and hitting their prey between the trees and in areas completely inaccessible to us. It was frustrating, to say the least.
And then to compound our frustrations the tender boats we were using were not very well maintained and we were constantly having engine troubles. The guides would at times spend 20-30 minutes just trying to get the engine started. Sometimes the engine would not start at all and we’d just drift for ages fishing areas we knew would not be holding fish, but what else can you do. This was another very frustrating aspect of this trip, and as the week went on the problems only got worse. It was also impossible to have any repairs done as we were day’s away from any mechanical assistance.
Even with all the challenges we were faced with, a couple of really nice fish were still landed over the course of our trip. Gerhard landed the biggest fish of the trip with a fish measuring just shy of 80cm, a fish any angler would have been happy to catch. Pete and Gavin also 
managed a few special fish, and my biggest ended up being just under 60cm (measured). I did lose a really big fish at one point which was extremely heartbreaking, but Max managed to get the fight on film 
and I was able to see it as it jumped clear out of the water before throwing back my jig. That fish still haunts my dreams, and I am yet to land a trophy peacock after two trips South America! I guess that means I’ll just have to go back again soon.
As with every trip I have even done the last day arrived way too fast. In the blink of an eye we had fished for a whole week through rain and sunshine, experienced the scintillating joy of landing a beautiful fish, and the extreme heartache of losing what could have been a magnificent personal best. Unfortunately all good things must come to an end, and so by the last day we had made our way back down The Rio Negro and entered the Araca River which we were originally supposed to fish.
We were met by the aery sight of a burnt down forest in flood. It was a grim reminder of the devastation and destruction that can be caused by a wildfire. 
We later learnt the forest had burnt down in this area in about 2014. However, nature is a resilient force and all around were new trees and grass lands growing again. What it did in fact do for us as anglers was to offer us the opportunity to fish amongst these trees and essentially in a flooded forest. The type of areas the fish had been holding in all week!
It took a while, but eventually I managed to get a nice butterfly peacock bass, and then shortly thereafter another. Then finally I had a big hit on the Jumpin Minnow I’d been fishing all morning. It was tough keeping the fish out of the structure, but then at one point the fight changed. The fish just stopped fighting as hard and I got it to the boat quickly, that’s 
when we saw what had happened: a second peacock had tried to steal the lure but ended up getting hooked as well. I had hooked and landed two nice Paca (the speckled peacock) on one lure. A great way to end a tough, but truly amazing trip.
The Return Journey
We continued to fish the rest of the day until around 17:30. We had a couple more strikes, but unfortunately no more hookups. We headed back to the sandbar where the boat was anchored in the middle of the river. 
A pretty awesome sight awaited us upon arrival back at the houseboat. The crew had prepared an area on the beach where we would have a braai (barbeque) for dinner that evening. The table and chairs had 
been brought down onto the beach along with our bar and drinks. We had an amazing dinner and the drinks were flowing quite freely. But as was the case for this trip, the end of the evening came too quickly and so we boarded the boat for the final leg of our journey down the river back to Barcelos.
We had an 8am flight booked from Barcelos to Manaus. We made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare, but of plane was a bit delayed. Eventually it arrived, but as we were walking to the plane a bit of nervousness started to set in. You see, on the flight to Barcelos we had a rather comfortable 18 seater, but for this flight back to Manaus we had an eight seater! We were 8 guys, and all our gear on this tiny plane. The cabin was filled to the top with rod tubes coming past your ears and luggage under your feet! But our captain did not seem worried, and in the end it was a rather uneventful hour long flight back to Manaus.
Since our flight from Manaus to Sao Paulo was only at 02:30 the next morning, I had arranged with Antonio to spend the day at his place again. This turned out to be a huge win as he treated us to yet another five star braai for lunch and one of the best pasta meals I’ve ever had for dinner. 
He even took a few of us down to the famous riverside beach in Manaus which looks just like any mainstream ocean side beach, only without the waves and with pitch black water. We were able to have a very relaxing day next to the pool and get some good rest before the big trek back to civilization.
Final Thoughts
Any international fishing trip requires a huge amount of preparation. As we only do these trips once a year or maybe only every second year, we try to book the best time possible for the best water conditions and fishing action. You spend a lot of money on these trips, and (especially) in the case of South America one travels far and often for days just to get to the fishing spot, so you want to be able to make the most of it and get the results you are looking for. This is now my second visit to South America in search of Giant Peacock Bass, and on both occasions “unseasonal rains” have pushed the water levels up and made the fishing tough. It seems to me now that the beginning of the year is no longer such a good time to fish South America if you are in search of an action packed adventure.
Added to the frustration of the tough fishing conditions, unreliable fishing boats only serve to compound one’s frustration. In the future it will probably be best to insist on proper maintenance of all boats before heading out. Boats need to start first time and there should be no doubt that you’ll be able get to where you are going. This unfortunately left a huge stain on this trip for me and I will in all likelihood not recommend the company we used unless they get their act sorted out with their fishing boats.
Though there were some overshadowing negative factors, this was still a dream trip for me. One that was made even more special by the people I was able to share this trip with. Rob was the only new person on this trip, but by the end I felt as if he had been on every other trip with us before. It is a real pleasure fishing with true friends, and this was probably the thing I was looking forward to the most; getting to fish with this awesome bunch of guys and sharing such an epic adventure with them. A few big fish were caught, a few were lost, a few were missed, but this big adventure will never escape our memories!
Cheers Gents!
Until the next one!
