Amazon Adventure Day 10 - The Wallach Double

Catch of the Day - The Wallach Double

 Fishing Day 5:

Guide: Christian
Native Guides: [Didn't get the names]
Fishing Beat: 4
QOD (Quote of the Day): "It was worse in Kamchatka."  - Dr. Fred

Christian is our guide today. We revisit and reexplore the same beat as as our first fishing day on the Iriri with Ezekiel. Which was a very good day. On that first day we didn't know what to expect. It was all new and simply catching fish, regardless of size and species, felt like a cause for celebration and photo documentation. There's just as much excitement and anticipation today on day 5, but we may be a little jaded and set our expectations a bit higher. We explain our objectives for the day to Christian. We want more fishing while wading than fishing from the boat. And we'd like to focus on catching a wolf fish. 

We didn't meet all of our goals for the day, but as far as exceeding expectations, our double catch cleared the bar. We were drifting down a narrow channel between rocks. Harlan was fly fishing portside from the front of the boat. I was spin casting to the starboard side from the middle of the boat. Peacock Bass hit both of us at the same time. We reeled them both in. - "The Wallach Double":

Jockeying for the close-up. 

Definitely the highlight of the day. You might also notice there is bite out of the tail of Harlan's bass. That courtesy of a piranha attacking the bass as he was landing the fish. 

Of course the Hellers have to try and one-up us. They post a triple from their boat, which I grudgingly submit here as the Token Heller Fish Pic of the Day:

The Heller Triple

Not to put too fine a point on this, but it's worth mentioning that you can only get a triple if you have three anglers in a boat that was intended for two. There were two Wallachs in our boat. There were three Hellers in their boat. I think you can see where I am going with this. If Wendy and Robyn were in the boat with us, we would have had a Home Run Quad. 

More stuff happened this day. Some more fish. Some nice scenery. Wildlife. Another whiff on the wolf fish hunt. But everything else was an afterthought after the Wallach Double. Some more pics & vids from the day:

More Fishing

More Fish - Peacock Bass...

Piranha

Skunked again at another wolf fish lair

The Iriri

Back at the Lodge, drinks, dinner and Dr. Fred fish stories were excellent. 

Harlan had three helpings. 

Amazon Adventure Day 9 - "Arise Fishers of Iriri! A Flyrod Day! A Red Day! A Pacu Day!"

Catch of the Day - Harlan Catches Pacu

 Fishing Day 4:

Guide: Joao (JV)
Native Guides: Foguinho, Pebcue
Fishing Beat: 1
QOD (Quote of the Day): "We'll get a Wolf Fish on the last afternoon of the last day." - MW

Back on the river with Joao as our guide. We're now past the halfway point for our fishing days on the Iriri River. Frankly, the experience thus far has already wildly exceeded my expectations for the trip. I'm having a great time bonding with my brother and cousins. We're embedded deep in the Amazon wilderness, surrounded by wildlife everywhere we look - under the water; on land, and in the air. And we're catching more fish, different fish, and bigger fish, than I dared to expect. Great experiences all around (but not necessarily in that order).

Despite exceeding all expectations, it doesn't mean we don't want more. And now we want to catch a wolf fish. This becomes our challenge to the 3 guides we'll have over the remaining 3 days. Spoiler Alert: It doesn't happen today with JV, despite no lack of trying on his part. But we do have another great day on Iriri. 

On The Boat:

Another Peacock Bass

Another Jakunda

Another Bicuda

On The Shore: 

We put ashore and...  

JV hacks us through a jungle trail to one of the many Iriri River braids...

... and prime Wolf Fish water, where....

... we fail to catch a Wolf Fish. 

After lunch, motivated by some mild stimulants, we cut short our rest time and did a little wet wading. To cool off, we took a a quick dip in the river, despite Teddy's warning:

"Piranha habits are in some ways inexplicable. We saw men frequently bathing unmolested; but there are places where this is never safe, and in any place if a school of the fish appear swimmers are in danger; and a wounded man or beast is in deadly peril if piranhas are in the neighborhood. Ordinarily it appears that an unwounded man is attacked only by accident. Such accidents are rare; but they happen with sufficient frequency to justify much caution in entering water where piranhas abound." - Teddy Roosevelt, "Through the Brazilian Wilderness" 

These pics were taken a few minutes and a few feet apart:

Another large piranha today. 

And another Peacock Pose with another nice Peacock Bass

At the end of the day, we went Pacu hunting again. The Pacu is a challenging fish to catch. It is a vegetarian, eating primarily algae, nuts, berries, and leaves. So lures and flies that imitate fish and insects are generally not effective. Both yesterday and today JV put us on a Pacu boil where we could see them taking food off the surface all around the boat. I abandoned the spin rig for my backup flyrod with a green shoefly. Neither of us could entice a Pacu yesterday. Today Harlan hit paydirt and caught several. 

A pacu boil.

A pacu catch.

A pacu. 

That wraps up our fishing for the day. Time for the Heller Token Catch of the Day:

Larry's Rubber Pacu. By his own admission, a lucky catch. 

No wolfies but another great day on the Iriri. Important to note that in the QOD (see above), I made a bold prediction this day. Perhaps it is not so bold. These things seem just seem to happen that way. When Sigrid and I were on a dive trip in Papua New Guinea, we told our divemaster that we wanted to see Hammerhead Sharks. It was the last dive of the last day when we saw a hammerhead swim casually by us. When we were touring in Ranthambore in India, we wanted to see a wild tiger. It was on almost the last game drive on the way back to the lodge that a tiger crossed our path. I think this is called "foreshadowing". 

Anyway, can't say enough about how much I appreciate this crew...

 From L to R - JV, HW, Foguinho, Pebcue, MW

After a day like this, dinner was particularly tasty. 

Forgot to take a pic of dessert. Which was delicious. 

Amazon Adventure Day 8 - The Kendjam 'Gram

My Catch of the Day - Photo Credit JV

Our third day on the River and the halfway point for Kendjam Lodge fishing experience on the Iriri.  It's Danny's turn to get inked before heading out.

Fishing Day 3

Guide: Joao (JV)
Native Guides: Foguinho, Pebcue
Fishing Beat: 2
QOD (Quotes of the Day): "Tep Kokoi!" and "Tep Ken!" - Native Guides 

Today and tomorrow we'll have Joao as our guide and I'm delighted we have him for two days. To be clear, all the guides are great. They love fishing, know what they are doing,  go about their business in an efficient and professional manner, make sure each angler's gear is properly configured for success, and are always quick to take action - whether its wrestling the boat, netting a fish, replacing flies, leaders, lures or freeing a snagged cast. Can't say enough about how impressed and appreciative I am of their work with us. 

That said, Joao has a unique skill. He's broken the code on composing and taking pictures and videos of anglers with their catch. It seems that most of the best shots on the Kendjam website and social media are his handiwork. Yesterday's image of Larry's catch was a JV composition. My goal of the day is to have a JV photo worthy catch. 

First, I should explain the native guide QODs. When we're fishing from the boat, we're often drifting downstream in briskly moving water, casting to rocks or water near the shore under overhanging bushes and tree branches. Harlan fly fishes from the front of the boat and I'm spin casting from the middle back. Inevitably we cut a cast too close and snag a tree branch or rock. Which precipitates a call of...

"Tep Kokoi!" 

"Tep Kokoi!"  translates to "Monkey Fish!" - The native guides are amused that we are casting into trees - apparently trying to catch a monkey. Similarly "Tep Ken!" translates to "Rock Fish!" as we apparently attempt to hook rocks out of the bottom of the River. You get the idea. 

But we did actually hook into some "Tep Tep" (Fish Fish) this day. Harlan let JV know that we would prefer to do more wet wading than casting from a moving boat and JV obliged.  JV found a spot where a feeder stream fed into the main river. The native guides wrestled the boat around some rapids while Harlan and JV waded upstream. The Kedjam guides are all accomplished fly fisherman and I think they prefer to guide with fly fisherman than us lowly spin casters. Elitists. Anyway, this led to one of my prouder catches. With the Harlan and JV around the bend, and the native guides downstream with the boat, I hooked a nice bicuda. 

 

Don't worry about me, I got this...

Not only did I hook him, but I landed him without a net, as there was no one with a net in sight. I needed to document the catch, so I balanced the phone on a rock, turned on the timer delay, got the shot, and released the fish. 

Meanwhile, around the bend, I was glad to see Harlan getting some guidance, quality net and photo work from JV while landing this Peacock Bass. 

It was a great day fishing for both of us. I got 5 Peacocks, 1 Jakunda, 1 Matrinxa and 3 or more piranhas. Harlan had at least that many. Most importantly, I got my JV Original Peacock Pose Pic and Vid. He posted it as an Instagram story which goes away in 24 hours (Which I really don't understand - What's the point?).  But he also sent me the source pics and, with Jared's help (I don't use the 'Gram much), I posted it it on my Instagram account  and on my Facebook account. 

Another of my favorite bass pics by JV

Some more pics of my catches this day: 

My first Matrinxa

The native guides were impressed with the Matrinxa and Piranha catch

New species for me - a cute Jakunda

Harlan also had a great day...

Harlan's best bicuda, best matrinxa, & best peacock bass.

Cousin Danny was whining about the lack of cousin pics in this blog. Which is primarily due to the fact that they were in another boat and I don't have their pics. However, I try to accommodate and, going forward, will include a Token Heller Fish Pic of the Day in my posts. 

Danny's big bicuda

Back at the lodge - more fish stories, more drinks, more good food, and more good cheer.

Snacks accompanied fish stories at the end of the day.

Dinner - Roughing it in the Jungle

My "Go To" drink at the lodge - The Jovani Gin and Tonic

Oh Yeah. We also played cards. Back to Euchre. Harlan opted out, so I teamed with Jared against Larry and Danny.  We took two out of three. And I remain undefeated. 

Amazon Adventure Day 7 - It's called "fishing" not "catching"

The Green Wall

"The lofty and matted forest rose like a green wall on either hand. The trees were stately and beautiful. The looped and twisted vines hung from them like great ropes. Masses of epiphytes grew both on the dead trees and the living; some had huge leaves like elephants’ ears. Now and then fragrant scents were blown to us from flowers on the banks. There were not many birds, and for the most part the forest was silent; rarely we heard strange calls from the depths of the woods, or saw a cormorant or ibis." - Teddy Roosevelt, "Through the Brazilian Wilderness"

Today it's our turn to have the mystical body adornment applied. Expectations are high for Day 2 on the river. 

I'm liking this look.

The itinerary for our second day on the river is the same as the first. As will be the next four days. 

Fishing Day 2
Guide: Ezekiel
Native Guides: Menhmro, Bepayre
Fishing Beat: 3

QOD (Quote of the Day): "As the saying goes - Lucky in cards, unlucky in fish." - MW 

We head out full of confidence proudly displaying our new ink... 

There is no getting around it. We did not have a good day fishing. I had plenty of strikes but kept losing them due to my Midwest fishing instincts. I did land a piranha, but it was not photo worthy. Harlan had better luck than me, landing some peacock bass and piranha. But certainly disappointing compared to yesterday. 

  

Here Harlan with a Peacock Bass and me with a desiccated baby Pacu. Ezekial brought the Pacu to me while Harlan was fly fishing from shore and I was thrashing the water with my lure from the boat. I guess he wanted to be sure I had a fish in my hand before the day was out. Very considerate of him. 

Given the lack of fishing success, today is a good day to post some scenic Iriri River landscapes. 

 

I can't blame Ezekial or the native guides for my fishing performance today. They put us on fish all day. I just couldn't land them. 

One nice thing about the Kendjam Lodge experience - Regardless of whether you had a successful fishing day on the river or not - At the end of the day, after nine hours on the river, when you trudge up the beach back to the lodge, Jovani has a delicious snack ready and Allie is waiting to greet you with a smile and a cold drink.

Dinner, as usual, was delicious. Moqueca's Fish was everyone's favorite.

After dinner, drinks, and many more fish stories (everyone had a much better day than us), the conversation turned to cards. Larry was again insisting we play Euchre - a game with which I was completely unfamiliar. But, I agreed - thinking that losing at Euchre might improve our fishing odd the next day (see QOD at top of this post). Harlan and I teamed against Larry and Jared. We played two games with a win each. We never got to the rubber game due to a ruling dispute. Larry is just bad at explaining the rules of the game. Or he was changing the rules from one game to the next. Don't know. In any case we left it as a tie and I remain undefeated.