Peacock Bass Fishing on the Amazon River – the Real Story – Day 5

I woke to find my left arm and left hand were both puffy, and my elbow bruised all around my boo-boo.  I figured if the puffiness continued up my body my head would explode in two days.  Hm.  At breakfast, Bibi shared the story of a fisherman who showed up one morning unable to wrap his hands around a coffee mug with one puffy hand and had to use both just to sip his coffee.   I’m grateful Mark made me use 5-pound weights for the last month–mimicking the motion of jerking baits across the water–because I can’t imagine what I’d feel like if I hadn’t done anything. 

Bobby and Curt both offered us lures to try, so Mark met them at their cabin.  From Curt we got a 6-inch green lure with black spots on it, and from Bobby, Mark chose a 7-inch blue and white lure with blue and yellow polka dots on it. 

Before we left I asked Bibi if she had a spare pair of gloves to help my sunburned hands and she asked Prato.  He showed up with a pair which I used for the rest of the trip.  (So, add this to the items I borrowed.)  I also improved my sun strategy by taking a bandana to cover my ears and use for dipping into the water to help cool off.  Such was Mark’s suggestion.

We went up-river today, which meant a one hour winding, twisting ride.   

Mark about to duck under a tree.
Mark about to duck under a tree.

 This is one of the palm trees we saw. 

A friendly palm tree.
A friendly palm tree.

 This is another palm tree we saw.  

Pokey palm tree.
Pokey palm tree.

 Out in the bigger, more open water, we began fishing.  

Bigger waters we fished.
Bigger waters we fished.

 By mid-morning Mark was working his ripper went a fish followed and hit at it but did not bite.  So I threw out a jig and Bam! The fish hit hard and ran a bit, and soon I was face to face with a 12 pounder.  It was our biggest fish so far. 

My 12-pound fish.
My 12-pound fish.

I also reeled in a 6-pounder.  This photo shows the lure I got from Bobby.  

Peacock photo showing the blue and white lure.
Peacock photo showing the magic lure.

 Later, I caught about an 8-pounder but it got off at the boat.  The biggest excitement was a fish Prato estimated was close to 20-pounds that came after the lure Bobby gave me.  The big fish smacked at the lure three times without hitting, and despite my best efforts, the big fish snubbed my lure, and simply offered me a glance right next to the boat before swirling off.  I even followed with a toss of the red and yellow jig but that didn’t do the trick, either.  “Bye-bye big fishy,” Prato said.  Arg.

Mark, meanwhile, was tossing out a variety of lures and caught a few peacocks including this one.

Mark and a nice butterfly peacock.
Mark and a nice butterfly peacock.

Mark also caught enough dogfish to keep Prato busy, and he caught a yellow piranha.  At this point, Mark had caught a black piranha, white piranha and yellow piranha.   Ha, ha, ha.

Between fishing spots, Mark decided to cover up a bit better.

Mark covered up.
Mark covered up.

The rain fell hard at around 2:30 and we got drenched but kept on fishing anyway, even though the fishing pretty well slows down after a good rain.  Our peacock total for the day was only 12.

The biggest thrill of the day was two sightings of pink river dolphins.  I stopped fishing for five whole minutes to try to photograph them and took this not very stunning photo.  But perhaps you can at least tell it’s not a river otter? 

Pink river dolphins.
Pink river dolphins.

 Prato explained that some poachers had been arrested recently for illegally killing several dolphins, so it was a thrill to see that the river dolphins are still hanging on. We also saw a couple of Jesus Christ lizards, but I never got a good shot.  And I never got a good shot of these blue and yellow macaws flying quickly by but took this shot anyway.

Blue and yellow macaws flying by.
Blue and yellow macaws flying by.

When we returned from the day’s fishing, I took a quick bath in the river behind our cabin.  I’d seen the camp staff take baths in the river, so I figured I could, too, in spite of the camp caiman.  Mark nervously watched as I took a dunk in my bathing suit top and the pants and underwear I was wearing all day.  Next time, the bathing suit bottoms are going with me.

A dip about to take a dip in the river.
A dip about to take a dip in the river.

At dinner I told Bobby I owed today’s peacock catches to his lure, a Caribe Pavon prop in “clown” color.   Bobby also shared that he sometimes uses a Rapala Super Spook.  I bet myself a quarter Mark would be online within 2 days of getting home to get us some more lures.

After dinner, I took photos of the tunnels in the sand outside our cabin.  

Tunnels made by mole crickets.
Tunnels made by mole crickets.

This is the mole cricket. 

 

Mole cricket that hung out by our cabin.
Mole cricket that hung out by our cabin.

We also turned our black light on to see what insects we might attract.  As we waited to see what came to the black light, Mark stood shining his flashlight up to the sky.  It turns out the black light attracted lots of flying ants and one leaf hopper.  Mark’s flashlight attracted a dozen bats. 

Mark attracting bats.
Mark attracting bats.

This was one of two nights we actually took our flashlights to dinner.  Yeah us.

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