Brazil Peacock Bass Fishing - 2015
“It’s great to be back in Bozeman after a long journey to Brazil in search of peacock bass earlier this month. The cooler weather and snow in the backyard were a welcome sight to me after a week in the relentless heat of the Amazon rain forest. Nevertheless, the trip to Rio Marie in northwestern Brazil was an awesome experience and a welcome break from the routine.
I first heard about Peacock’s back in my early years while floundering my way around the local tackle store in Dallas when my focus was on learning how to properly rig a plastic worm and “Jig-n-Pig.” Fisherman would come in the store - while I was mulling over the colors of Producto worms - and tell their tales of ferocious, colorful, bass that lived in the deepest parts of the Amazon jungle. It’s a species that had captured my interest for most of angling life, but the distance and expense of such an adventure was well beyond my means or dreams.
Rio Marie Fly Fishing In Brazil
Rio Marie is a tributary to the Rio Negro, which joins the Amazon River just downstream of Manaus, Brazil. Great food and some interesting sights, including a replica of the Vienna Opera house and the world-famous fish market - both are nice and short city tour options.
The real purpose of this trip was to go peacock bass fishing on the new Untamed Angling destination - Rio Marie
Our group flew from Manaus to Sao Gabriel - something like 500 miles west of Manaus on the banks of the Rio Negro - in a twin-prop fixed wheel plane. After a quick transfer from the airport to the river, we headed down the river in a small armada of skiffs for an hour or two to the confluence of the Rio Marie and the Rio Negro. We finally reached the mother ship about 4 hours later and it’s safe to say that we were all exhausted.
The operation is run by Untamed Angling, the same group that has developed and opened the Tsimane destination for golden dorado in Bolivia. Their forte seems to be running seriously logistically challenged lodges that are WAY off the grid. If nothing else, they have succeeded in making the grid seem much larger than ever before.
Operation Overview
The mothership operation essentially looks like someone parked a block of urban loft condos on a barge in the middle of the jungle. Although the boat seemed out of place in the jungle, the rooms are well-appointed with air-conditioning, toilets, showers, and comfortable beds. Daily laundry service, gourmet meals, and the top-notch customer service team all came together to surpass this first-time guests’ expectations.
We spent the days fishing out of some tricked out skiffs which are essentially 20’ G3 aluminum boats with custom-built decks, trolling motors, poling platform, and 90hp Yamaha outboards. After a few minutes casting from the decks of these boats, it was obvious that someone who knew what they were doing played a big role in the final design of the skiffs. Two anglers can comfortably fish at the same time.
All the glitz and comfort aside, it was the fish and the fishing that drew me to this particular Brazil peacock bass fishing destination.
The Rio Marie “story” and Untamed Angling grabbed my attention enough to pull the trigger last year and start on plans for an Amazon adventure. Their story is simple: recently opened, remote waters that reportedly have the largest concentration of Brazil peacock bass over 20 pounds in the world. They had me at 20 pounds and recently opened.
Thriling Fishing For Peacock Bass
The fishing is hard work. It’s not particularly technical or even interesting at time, but it is exhausting. Cast after cast with heavily dressed 4/0 flies on 9 and 10 weight rods in 95+ heat. There was some sight casting to fish in the shallows and along white sand bars, but for the most part it is all about covering a lot of water. Whether fishing poppers or subsurface, peacock bass flies are typically fished fast with erratic strips.
Anglers fishing the Rio Marie primarily target two Brazil peacock bass species – the Temensis and butterflies. There are other species like piranha and catfish too, but the peacock bass are what draws anglers here.
Butterflies are smaller and prevalent in river backwaters and near creek mouths. They pull hard, are found in schools, and generally vary in size between 2 and 5 pounds
The Temensis is the largest peacock bass species and are encountered in two color phases. In the paca color phase, they have a distinct series of light-colored “hashmark” lines that run along the length of the fish. The colors and dark vertical lines are more subdued in this color phase. Paca are aggressive and most often at creek mouths along the river in areas with steady current and lots of structure and debris in the water. We encountered a handful of paca during our trip and they varied in size from 5-17 pounds.
The giant Brazil peacock bass are Temensis in the “Asu” color phase and grow up to 30 pounds. The Rio Marie reportedly has the highest concentration of fish over 20 pounds of any fly fishing operation in Brazil. Their deep orange and olive colors are striking in the tea-colored waters of this Rio Negro river drainage.
Trip Report From Our Week in October, 2015
Rising water was the theme of our trip - which is never really a good thing for fishing in rivers - regardless of where I have been in the world. As the waters rise, the jungle edge gets pushed back further, giving the fish more room to roam in the inaccessible waters of the flooded jungle. Still, we managed to find plenty of fish around points and creek mouths, but the rising waters filled the lagoons to the highest levels of the season.
After making 300 casts with the sun burning down on me while 50 species of bees and a zillion flies covered my head, feet, hands, and eyes, I found my patience for lagoon fishing to be limited to 15 minutes at best. I preferred fishing along moving water, sandbars, and at the creek mouths to the lagoons.
However, the lagoons are the best places to catch the giant peacock bass…so my patience was put to the test.
Luckily, my patience and persistence were rewarded a couple of times on the trip as I did manage to land two trophy peacock bass over 20 pounds. One of the guides and I were messing around - I was learning to use the remote-controlled trolling motor and he was casting – when he hooked into a 23-pound giant too. So, they do exist, but I learned not to expect to hook into one every day – there’s some luck involved, for sure.
Post Trip Roundup
After thinking about the week, I think most anglers should expect to catch good numbers of butterfly peacock bass in the 2-6 pound range, a few in the 8-15 pound range, with a real chance at a 20+ pound Brazil peacock bass every day. As with any type of fishing, a lot of things must go right, and you have to be in the right spot at the right time to land one of the true giant peacock bass on a fly rod.
If Rio Marie in on your list - and it should be if you want to push your angling skills, see no other anglers (or civilization), and target trophy peacock bass on the fly - try to book the first few weeks of their season. I think we were week 5 which was just fine, but I would shoot for week 2-3 if I did it again.
This is traditionally the low water, dry season which is better for sight fishing and covering the lagoons. We experienced a lot rain during our week – always possible in the rainforest – and had a few days with tough conditions as the river rose.
About The Guides
It’s a very challenging place to be a guide, so don’t expect to be to run into the same guides year after year. The challenging part is the monotonous nature of the fishing, the heat, the bugs, and the isolation.
The guides were all very fun to fish with and spoke English well enough to converse with. The “lead’ guides are typically professional fly fishing guides from elsewhere in South America like Argentina or coastal Brazil.
A “native” guide from the indigenous tribe helps with boat placement, landing fish, and general river knowledge. The natives speak pigeon Portuguese and are difficult to communicate with directly. However, they provide essential insight throughout the day on the nuances of the river and surrounding forest.
Peacock Bass Fly Fishing Gear
I took 5 rods and broke two. I primarily fished 10 weights in varying lengths – all were four-piece models. I did not like fishing the shorter rods as the casting is typically in the 50-80’ range and it’s just easier with a 9’ rod. I imagined that we would be fishing in tight quarters, but the river is actually quite large, and we were almost always fishing back towards the bank with lots of room for the back casts. My dad fished a 9’ 9 wt. the whole trip and it handled everything well I liked it a lot too but couldn’t get him to give it up after 15 minutes into the trip.
The rods that I liked best and fished the most was the Orvis H2 910, and the 9 weight was a Sage Salt*. I would recommend either of these rods, as they are lighter than most of the other options, which becomes important when you are making 500+ casts a day with heavy lines. If I were doing it over, I would take a 7 wt., 2 10’s and an 11 wt.
*updated to 2025 rod models – St. Croix Evos Salt, G. Loomis NRX+, and Sage Igniter are now my go-to 10 weight jungle rods in the 9’ length
Jungle fly lines are a critical piece of the equipment puzzle. Most folks recommend the Rio Tropical Outbound with a floating running line and a clear/intermediate sinking head. The problem with this line - that I ran into - is it's head is 2X the stated fly line weight, resulting in the rod needing to "carry" a lot of weight when casting long distances. It's a great line design for quickly shooting a long cast when fishing for stripers, tarpon, or snook but it's a tough one to repeatedly cast all day in the heavier line weights.
I liked the Rio Tarpon Quickshooter line the best of all the 10 weight lines I messed with on the trip with sinking heads. It handles all casting ranges very well and has a shorter sinking head when compared to the Outbound. I used a Rio Tarpon* taper for fishing poppers and lightly dressed flies on the sandbars. Regardless of your preference, be sure to have 2 rods setup al all times, one with a full floating fly line and the other with a floating line with a clear, intermediate sink tip line .
*updated to 2025 models – The Rio Elite Warmwater Predator is now my fly line of choice for Brazil peacock bass fly fishing. It’s available in three densities, the floating and the floating/hover/intermediate (F/H/I) are essential for Rio Marie. I recommend including a fast-sinking line in your packing kit for a backup in case you run into high water like we did in 2015.
A wide selection of heavily dressed flies on heavy hooks in the 3/0 and 4/0 size range are what you want. The guides preferred flies with Rattles; I didn’t fish them and didn’t find that it mattered. Flashfire Mushies, Super Mushies,, Pole Dancers, Bangers, Aggravators, and Meat Whistles* are a few commonly found Umpqua jungle fly patterns that all worked reasonably well for me. Chartreuse, Orange, Yellow, and Red color combinations were all effective.
*updated for 2025 to include Bad Attitude, Flashtail Whistlers, and Cruisers
The only leader/tippet you need is 50 or 60 pound fluorocarbon. The fish are not tippet shy and you need that heavy line to get fish out of the trees where they run to immediately once they are hooked. This makes the reel pretty much irrelevant as you essentially just clamp down on the line once a fish is hooked and strip them in rather than fighting them on the reel. I was grateful to have a Hatch Finatic (Iconic is current model in 2025) on both of my rods for the largest fish as the drags will stop a heavy fish and save your fingers!
The Jungle Calls
This trip will go down as one of the better ones in my life for many reasons, but also one that I won’t be doing again* (I was wrong…I’ve been back two more times since first writing this and am going again in late 2025). The simple experience of seeing and being immersed in the Amazon jungle was worth the trip alone. I had no idea how big the jungle is, but it goes on forever and looks the same mile after mile along these rivers. The area is vast beyond my comprehension, even now.
The monotony of green is overwhelming at times. The fish are beautiful, eat a fly well, and pull as well as anything else. However, it is hot, there are a ton of bugs, and it is a relative pain in the ass to get to, plus it’s an expensive, once in a lifetime trip for me. If peacock bass fly fishing someplace remote with giant fish is on “your list,” then Rio Marie won’t disappoint.”
Reach out to Untamed Angling to learn more about this incredible peacock bass fly fishing destination in Brazil. Availability is limited, so plan to book a year or more in advance. Reach out to me via e-mail with any questions regarding my experiences with Untamed Angling, Rio Marie, and peacock bass flies or gear.
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Brazil Peacock Bass Fishing Information
