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Adventure Travel Magazine

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Kalua&Boat

Amazon Jungle Jackpot
 Schools of peacock bass are accessible to the explorers that reach the hidden rainforest lagoons.

By Larry Larsen

LOK-DSC_4799Ian14#The big peacock bass that snapped up my white, 5/8 ounce jig powered off, leaving a giant boil on the surface of the tiny, twisting lagoon. It turned into a submerged tree and temporarily got hung up. Just as quickly, the fish pulled free and bulled away pulling drag.

 "Move out to deeper water," my partner and operation co-owner Ian Sulocki instructed our guide Jucivan in Portuguese.

 The fish broke water as it turned back toward the brush. It was a nice "teener" but not a super giant that pushed the scales to 20 or more. The fight continued for a short time before I gained full control of the beautiful fish and moved him to his boat-side date with our BogaGrip. Ian placed the control device in its mouth, lifted and proclaimed it to be 14 pounds.

This fifth teener of the week for Ian and I joined the list of 14- and 15 -pounders that were taken from relatively isolated regions off the primary Rio Negro channels in Brazil's Amazon rainforest that week. Our guide, often with the help of my partner and I, pushed, pulled and LOK-DSC_4942LL14# LOK-DSC_4838Kaluasqueezed through tiny brush-laden creeks and sloughs to reach various lagoons that were either  quiet lakes with sandbar topography or swampy areas that had laydown timber around pools of deep water strung along a super slow-moving stream.

Our narrow 18 foot johnboats with the small 25-horsepower outboards were ideal for getting into tight places. They were lightweight and floated with a shallow draft that enabled us to lift them over fallen trees and logs and float the boat over other snags. Often we had to get out of the boat to appropriately maneuver it through and around obstructions that would stop larger fishing boats. On a couple of occasions, we had to remove the outboard and gas tank and leave them on the bank midway into a long, jungle-overgrown creek channel. Our guide was proficient with a machete and Ian and I luckily avoided most accidental falls along the precarious routes through the jungle terrain.

LOK-DSC_4965KaluaBchRewards for the often strenuous efforts by our guide that week were lots of peacock bass for Ian and I. Being strongly focused on giant fish that week limited my numbers some, but Ian definitely enticed plenty of action for my continuous entertainment. I caught about twice as many peacock as I normally do and Ian, tossing smaller plugs into many schools of fish probably doubled my production. He was definitely a "fishing machine" in the backwaters of the Rio Negro.

Ian is a well-experienced, bilingual Brazilian angler and tour operator that I met about 20 years ago on another fishing trip to the Xingu River. The 50-year old is a professional angler and outdoor writer with some great accomplishments over the past 25 years. His largest peacock is a 25-pounder, and he has fished extensively in Central Brazil in the states of Para and Mato Grosso where he has a 28-pound giant Trahira (trieda), 30-pound payara and 220 pound Arapaima (pirarucu) to his credit. He also has caught many giant catfish including a 200 pound plus Piraiba and a 110 pound redtail. Ian is a Brazil representative of the International Game Fish Association (IGFA), and for the past 5 years, has been a co-owner of the Kalua Boat Hotel operation.

The Kalua is an 80-foot yacht that accommodates comfortably up to 14 anglers in 8 air-conditioned staterooms. The all-inclusive operation has an air conditioned dining room and upper lounge and offers excellent food, beverage and hotel services including daily laundry. The Kalua operates in the Mato Grosso and in the Rio Negro watersheds about 24 weeks each year and Ian is aboard hosting the guests around 18 of those weeks. 

LODSC_5009ParkSuitesOur group of 14 caught around 1,000 peacock bass including 84 over 9 pounds during the week-long trip. I also caught a good size surubim catfish, a couple of Acara bicuda, a unique little fish that is seldom hooked in the Amazon, and about 4 or 5 other fish species. We found excellent fishing primarily with jigs, small surface plugs, submerged plugs and weighted flies in the Floresta area of the Rio Negro and on the Preto and Ataui Rivers.  Kerrville, Texas, angler Bobby Balser caught the week's giant which weighed 22 pounds on a jig!

In Manaus, the international gateway to the Amazon, we were housed at the very comfortable Park Suites hotel before our charter flight to Barcelos where we met up with the Kalua yacht. Upon arriving in Manaus from our charter flight at the end of the week, we again were treated to a four-star room at Park Suites. For more information on booking a fun backwater fishing tour with the outfitter that specializes in them, contact FishQuest at fishquest@aol.com or phone (888) 891-3474. Questions on Brazil angling can be addressed to Ian at ian@kaluapesca.com.br.

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