Peacock Tango
The Sportfishing Journal
Amazon Fringe Exploratory ~ September 2005
Like the numerous times before, Jo Jo swung the boat wide around the long narrow sand bar and quietly slipped in to the calm water on the backside of the bar some one hundred yards from the boca (entrance) to the “resacas” or oxbow lake just off of the river. The sun was perhaps thirty minutes above the jungle canopy and already splitting the western sky into a variegation of color. The Master’s sunset on canvas would change dramatically over the next thirty minutes.
Just as we rounded the bar I saw the Voyager in the distance waiting and resting against the rivers edge for our return. This, the last day of the six day exploratory adventure aboard the Amazon Voyager, was much to rapidly drawing to a close and the opportunity for a “Peacock Tango” with a member of C. Temenis over 20 pounds was dwindling quickly .
I remember well, the day last spring when Don and I had talked by phone about an exploratory trip he was scheduling for the first week in September…an adventure that would take us aboard the Amazon Voyager on a trip up a remote tributary and deep into the Amazon fringe as a part of a Peacock bass fisheries research project sponsored in part by his AFA operation. On the trip we would very likely visit the villages of the “caboclos” native indigenous people living along the tributary deep in the interior. He didn’t need to ask twice if I was interested in joining him for this exploration. I assured him that “I was in” and we agreed to talk more when he returned to the states from Brazil.
Two weeks later after our second conversation the exploratory adventure was confirmed but with an additional mission to accomplish in conjunction with the AFA sponsored Public Policies Fisheries Resource Project. I would now be “on assignment” to film the exploratory adventure and elements of the research project for Fox Sports Nets’ Sportsman’s Heritage television show as well as Brock Rays’ Better Built World of Outdoors television show. There is an added dimension with an exploratory… you never know whether the fishery will be productive and in the case of the research… would there be adequate catch rates for tagging by the Fisheries Engineers. For me, would there be sufficient action for two television shows? We would find out in September.
You too may enjoy the Amazon Exploration of September 2005. Watch your television schedules this fall for Sportsman’s Heritage airing on Fox Sports Net AZ and Brock Rays’ Better Built World of Outdoors which airs on the Men’s Channel.
Was there adequate action for filming? Well, just to give you a glimpse, the following is in part, a recap of that last thirty minutes of daylight.
Approaching the “boca”, guide JoJo Brazil turned to me and very casually, certainly with no excitement in his voice, said that this was a very good place for the “acu” (pronounced assu)… the Grande Tucunare. His statement caught me by surprise and I chuckled at the thought that this time there was no need to ask the redundant “gringo” question of, “is this a big fish lagoon”.
I retrieved my rod with the orange and black wood chopper and stepped up on the casting deck. Jo Jo already had the trolling motor control in hand and was ever so quietly and slowly easing the boat into position for a cast to the point on the lagoon. By far, the majority of the fish caught this week had come from these very places and this one was almost a replication of all the others. I say almost because there was a subtle difference…a hint of the anglers’ “knower” was kicking in. You know what I mean. You’ve had that feeling at one time or another, we all have. My granddad used to say, “This place smells like fish”. As a boy, I could never smell any difference from one place to the next, but years later I finally understood that whether it was “smelling the fish” or having that “gut feeling”, it was all the same…a fifth sense kicking in when the anglers “knower” alerts the subconscious which in turn usually results in an adrenalin rush.
Even though the sun was low I could see the faint outline of the white sand just under the surface on the point and perhaps 30 foot out from the point the color of the water went from amber to black. My first cast would find the edge or that transition point from light to dark… shallow to deep. I made two rips with the chopper before my cadence kicked in and then on about the fourth or fifth rip the wood chopper just kind of raised with the surface of the lagoon almost like it ran over a small mound. I knew what was happening and Jo Jo knew as well. In fact, Ranger Dave Masterson behind the camera saw it through the lenses. The orange flash may have missed the bait but more than likely he was just sizing it up. Maintain cadence I thought…concentrate on the location and prepare to cast again to that same spot. Then behind me, from the opposite point, I hear this explosion and as I turn to look for the action I catch, out of the corner of my eye, a second almost imperceptible lift of my wood chopper. Reeling in the chopper I am struck by the shear number of baitfish exploding onto the bank on the opposite point and the huge v-wake of the torpedo chasing the baitfish. Action enough to make me want to turn and cast at the other point. But, Jo Jo has seen my wood chopper rise two times also and he is gently tugging at my sleeve and motioning to the first point.
With the excitement behind me my focus of the exact spot where the wood chopper had its first hint of an irregular movement is temporarily lost. I knew the cast went past the spot but I was not sure as to left or right. It mattered not because the chopper had no sooner touched the surface when the eruption from below occurred. This time, no slight bump or nudge was in order. This time, Mr. Bad Attitude went into extreme attack mode with all of the power he could muster and attacked the wood chopper with a vengeance obviously set on destruction. It struck me to the core…that sentence that I have frequently written when attempting to describe these awesome fish…”the fiercest freshwater game fish in the world”…the attack that the Peacock bass makes on a lure quite often appears to be planned. There, I’ve said it…a fish planning rather than simply reacting. If the fish takes to the air and it almost certainly will… sometimes several times…and if you make contact with its fiery red eye, then I am convinced that this is when the “Peacock Tango” really kicks in. You see, it’s another sense…it
’s another dimension, found down deep in the angling purist. The cliché, man against fish becomes a misnomer… now it is fish against man.
Ranger was following the action with the camera and in the background I could hear him almost chanting, “I got it all, I got it all, the explosion.” And Jo Jo… I felt him gently tugging at my pant leg and offering “guidance”. After all, isn’t that a part of what guides are supposed to provide…guidance? With several bull runs and some outstanding aerial displays behind us now this Mr. Bad Attitude would come to net. On the Boga Grip the fish weighed 18 pounds. It had been an exciting few minutes to say the least but the light was leaving us fast. We took advantage of this great “teener” and went about filming the closing for both television shows with a hand shake between Jo Jo and I and a release of the fish.
That commotion on the other point was starting up all over again and there was just enough light left for maybe a dozen more casts. Jo Jo handed me the rod as I jumped to the casting deck once more. Within just a few casts on the other point the second eruption of that last thirty minutes occurred. The size and outcome…well, you’ll just have to catch it along with some of the other great action from this exploratory adventure this fall on Sportsman’s Heritage or Brock Rays Better Built World of Outdoors. Here’s a hint though…that last fish…it was a bigger “acu” than the 18 and for the second time in less than thirty minutes we filmed the closings for the two shows. You won’t want to miss any of this action so check the schedule frequently for when these shows will air.
As an added bonus, there will be some wonderful footage of a village we visited along the way and an interview with Mr. Doney Vitor, a Fisheries Engineer and researcher from The Amazon University. Doney, along with Raniere Garces and Aprigio Moraes, also Fisheries Engineer’s, answer some very interesting questions about the Peacock bass. They were with us on the Voyager for the entire week as well as friends and seasoned Peacock anglers, Mr. Bill Smith from McKinney, Texas, and Mr. Frank Flynn, from the far northwestern state of Washington.
An angling adventure into the Amazon Rain Forest of Brazil in search of the explosive Peacock bass “the fiercest freshwater game fish in the world” is a fishin’ expedition you will never forget and an experience unlike any other.
The Peacock Tango
