BARCELOS. THE PEACOCK BASS CAPITAL

Kdu Magalhães

Barcelos is a municipality of the State of the Amazon, Brazil. It is situated almost under the Equator, near the borders of Venezuela, Colombia and Peru. It encompasses 45.665 square miles, almost 1.5 times the size of Maine, but has only 20 000 inhabitants compared with Maine’s 1 274 922. It is situated in the margins of the Rio Negro River that 375 miles later joins the Solimões River to form the Amazon River.

Around Barcelos lies the biggest fluvial archipelago of the world, known as “Anavilhanas”. It is made up of thousands of islands, inlets, bays, and swamps where the big Peacock Bass wait for the few of us who have enough time, money and stamina to chase it.

                                       

Life at Barcelos during the season that goes from early October until mid February revolves around the big “Bocudo” (Big Mouth), the nickname Brazilian fishermen give to the “Tucunares”, the elusive Chichilideo. The few streets of Barcelos teem with foreigners, mainly Americans. The rich ones go on huge boats like the “Amazon Queen” or the “Amazonian”. The not so rich, like the local American Baptist Pastor, charter small speed boats that will cost them U$70 a day, compared with U$4000  a week charged by the big operators. But do not be surprised if at the end of the day the quantity of fishes caught is the same on both.

The first time I went there was last February. I was invited by Mr. Flavio Talmelli owner/operator of the “Amazonian”, a brand new cruiser with a length of 92 feet and 35 displacement tons.

As owner/operator of the “Fishing in Rio”, a marlin charter outfit at Rio de Janeiro, and used to the Spartan conditions of our fishing machines, I was very impressed by the interior fittings of the Amazonian. It was super well decorated with the best mahogany furniture and fittings I ever saw in a commercial boat. The air conditioning system and appliances were of first world quality. The boat towed 7 small boats with 25 hp outboards, electric motor, and a big cooler of soft drinks and beer.
 

Sunday morning I went out fishing with a very peculiar guy. We started to fish at 6 am, and Mr. Biajoto was so obsessed with throwing the heavy propeller baits, that we hardly spoke until lunch time.

Even so, he just stopped for 30 minutes, and against my protests, resumed fishing until six pm. Not the exact idea of fun I had in mind. The local guide, a very un communicative half breed Indian, had a great time laughing at my incorrect maneuvers, but did not advanced any advice to improve my fishing, quite a lesson for a ‘Top of the Line Marlin Captain”. Have you ever fished with propellers bait? After one hundred throws, everything aches in your body. Mr. Biajoto caught many “Tucunares” and a big “Pirararas” (Cat fish Red Tail). I just caught one fish, and almost had a sun stroke. Luckily due to the high Ph (acidity) of the local waters, I did not notice any kind of bugs.

               

The technique of fishing with propellers is to throw the bait at least 100 feet, and pull it very fast, striking your rod up and down every 10 feet. It makes a very big splash and noise, and the fish are attracted immediately.

                                   

The result is much more effective than with the other kind of baits, but you need to be a pentathlon athlete to fish with propellers all day long. The average weight of propeller baits ranges between 4 to 6 oz, and the rods must be at last 6.6”, heavy action. They use a 65 Lb braided line because is very common for the fish run to underwater obstacles and get tangled on them.

We arrived at the “Amazonian” 6.30 pm. I was tired, hungry, sun burned and depressed by the 6 to 1 score. So much for the 950 pounds marlin I caught one week before.

After a good bath and nice dinner, I asked Flavio to get me another partner for the next days, because I had came to enjoy myself, not to bake in the sun for 12 hours. And also I wanted a guy to teach me the right techniques for big peacock fishing that I just found to be completely different from the smaller ones I used to.

Next day he sent me with a very pleasant character, Mr. André Minniti, a 25 years old veteran, and his best guide, Mr. Chico.

He spent the first hour just teaching me to throw and work the baits. He advised me to alternate the heavy propellers lures with jumping minnows, or mid water lures.

The pilot, Mr. Chico, also helped me to choose the places where to throw the baits. After I lost a really big one, he explained to me that I was leaving too much slack in the line. He moved my position to the platform, and asked me to climb over it, to have more height for working my rod up and down.   

By 11 am, I was fishing with newly aquired skill, and the “Tucunares” started to agree to be caught by me.

We caught two species of Tucunares, the Açu (Peacock Royal) and the Borboleta (Peacock Butterfly).      

However, we also caught a hybrid one, a mix of the Açu, with the Pinima (Peacock speckled). In the photo you can clearly see the black bars of the Açu, with the small dots of the Pinima.

It was a very beautiful fish, and we released it.

                  

At noon we stopped at a nice beach, had a bath in the river, and waited for the barbecued tucunare to be ready, and to sleep in the shadow of the huge trees in hammocks. We resumed fishing at 3 pm, and it was really a nice day.

The others days followed the same pattern. Sometimes, instead of lunching on the island, we would drive back to the “Amazoniam”, and rest there until 2.30 pm. Sometimes at night we would throw a line overboard and would catch many Piraras.

It was fun. Learned a lot.