The Dock at Rio Negro Lodge

I had teamed up with Enrico on the first day and after some “adjustment time” (for me) on how to use the fishing gear in the correct way to catch the Peacocks, I began to catch a good share of sizable Peacock Bass and many other species of native fish by utilizing his ability to find and take me to the good fishing spots. Enrico and I hit it off well and we found that, despite our severely different backgrounds and differing languages, we were able to communicate well. He spoke Portuguese (and local Indian) and talked to me in sort of a “pidgin” English. I can speak a smattering of Spanish. It proved to be enough.

At the beginning of the trip we each had put money into a pool. There were several ways to win. The highest two total weights of fish each day winning incremental shares of the total, and the biggest fish for the week winning the lion’s share. I had been lucky, early.

The lure in favor, recommended by the guides to catch the largest, trophy sized Peacocks, is the “woodchopper”. This is a top running lure that is retrieved in spurts by rapidly sweeping the rod tip in a manner that makes the lure (about 6 inches long) swim rapidly along the top surface of the water on a staggering path toward the fisherman. In between each sweep of the rod the reel is rewound in a rapid but smooth manner so that the velocity of the lure stays as smooth as possible. There is a rotatable metal “propeller” mounted on the lure that spins rapidly as it interacts with the water it is being pulled through. The faster it is retrieved during each rod sweep, the more furious the “rooster-tail” of water that erupts and it makes a sound like a motor driven “woodchopper”. The theory is that it is this sound combined with the violent turbulence of the water that attracts the Peacock Bass.

Whatever the theory, the lure does work when it is used properly and, to prove it, there have been many world record breaking Peacocks caught with “woodchoppers”; most of them in this same Rio Negro area. The lure is heavy, enabling it to be thrown great distances when casting. A proper technique needs to be acquired to work these lures correctly. In addition, it requires a fair amount of effort to do this repetitive retreiving and by the end of the day it can be very tiring, especially to the forearm.

Surprisingly, the reel that is recommended for this repetitive casting type of fishing is a bait casting, as opposed to a spinning reel, type. I came equipped with a brand new Shimano Type ___ bait casting reel that had been given to me as a present by my son, Larry, just for this trip (My two sons, Larry and Bob are ardent fishermen, they fish more than me, and they both know a lot more about fishing and the gear and techniques required than I do). My problem was that I was accustomed to using a spinning type reel, which entails a much easier operating technique than the bait casting type. It took a while on the first day’s fishing to acquire the right technique.

The result usually attained by incorrect bait casting reel technique is, very often, the creation of a tangled “bird’s nest”. This occurs when the lure hits the water before the reel stops spinning; thus the fishing line has no place to go and it just keeps blooming outward and tangling within the reel cage. The way to stop the reel from over-spinning is to hit (close) the bail at just the right instant as the lure hits the water. It is a technique that takes a bit of practice to master.