Thursday, October 13, 2016

091316


Oh man oh man! I haven't been able to connect to the internet on my computer since the 5th!
So much to tell, stories to recount and the dramatic moments of the life aquatic to share with the world. Unfortunatley though, I'm tired and getting ready to head back out to the jungle in the mornign for round 2 of the Jungle Book.
A quick recap of the last week though.
Arrived at Rio Marie last Thursday via float plane ride from Manaus...all the difference in the world from the boat rides last year. We landed 150 ish KM upstream from the highest part of the river we were able to fish last year.
The scale and scope of the jungle is simply amazing and we had great weather for the flight during which you could get a small sense of the enormity of the landscape. 4 hours of flying over the jungle and nary a house, village, or boat was seen. I have never seen anyplace like this and honestly, it's difficult to comprehend it's vastness even when you are right in the middle of it. What seems like miles is actually hundreds and hundreds of miles.
Anyway, the water had come up a couple days prior to our arrival and the fishing had been crap. But, the river dropped the first couple of days for us and we were all able to have a couple good days early on. Then it rained for the better part of two days and the river came up again and the fishing got tough. But, everyone still squeaked out some quality days and 4 out of 5 of us landed fish 20-22 pounds. The guys that didn't, did get more 12-17 pounders than everyone else. So, in the end it was a damn productive trip for everyone.
Was it hard work? Yes. Were there lots of casts? Yes. Was it mostly blind casting? Yes. Did we throw sinking lines? Yes. Were the bugs bad? No. Was the food good? Yes. Were the guides good? Yes. Would I do it again? Yes.
Interesting tidbits? I took a bunch of rods. The new T&T Exocett 910 is an amazing 10 wt rod...blew me away. The Sage X 890 ended up being my go to floating line rod and it absolutley rocks, landed a handful of fish in the 12-22 pound range on that rod with poppers and pole dancers. I enjoyed fishing both of those rods much more than I expected and they both exceeded my expectations in terms of performance. When you are making hundreds and hundreds of long distance casts in a day, the ease of load and lightness in hand becomes more apparent everyday. Also, I do not know how to speak Portugese or Spanish.
Made it back to Manaus this afternoon and getting geared up to head to the south Amazon tomorrow for 5 more days. This place is called Ecolodge de Barria and has a very wide range of species. So, Rio Marie is just Peacocks, but large ones - this next place has many many different types of fish, including Peacocks that generally are under 15 pounds. Sounds like an adventure and I am looking forward to it.
Assuming I can get wifi there, I will keep you all posted!

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