A FANTASTIC FISHERY ON MACAMBIRA FARM

 

Kdu Magalhães

     

                                        http://www.sportfishing-brazil.com/

Thirty two of us were huddled in the lobby of the Hotel Taj Mahal in Manaus eagerly awaiting word from several attorneys that were trying to stop an injunction that called for  the cancellation of the 2nd International Peacock Bass World Tournament. A hush filled the room as the legal counsel informed Don Cutter, the tournament host who had offered his Amazon Cutter and Explorer operations on the Unini for this event.

They were not able to persuade the local judge to lift the injunction and the tournament unfortunately was cancelled. Anglers had traveled from several states in the USA, from Portugal, from throughout Brazil and Venezuela to compete in this event. Now, all that was left to do was to head back home to their cities and countries.

On my side, Dr. Mauro A. Prado smiled and recited a Brazilian adage to me… “Kdu, forget how sour lemons are and let’s transform them into sweet caipirinha.”

So, next day, instead of heading home, several of us boarded a small plane and flew to the village of Nova Olinda, only 92 miles in a straight line from Manaus. map

Dr. Mauro is a fine biologist and a great fisherman. He is the manager of the Macambira Farm, where he breeds fishes like Arapaimas, Peacocks, Tambaquis and  Catfish. He has three lakes where he keeps his fish, breeds them and then sells them to another fish farm or export them to other countries.

But, like most of us, he is in need of new revenue streams. So, Dr. Prado invites people to fish in the lakes surrounding his property and transfers some of the fish caught to his nursery lakes. It is a very pleasant program. A three-day fishing trip there is more than enough. And the charges are very  low. Just to cover the air transportation, food and beverages.

We took the plane in Manaus at 10 am, and 10.30 we arrived in Nova Olinda. A very old pickup took us to the harbor on the other side of the island. There, we boarded a speed boat and arrived at the farm at noontime. The farm has a small house with a nice garden full of wild and tamed animals. Peacoks, pecaris, manatees and the like. In the photo, you can see a small Giboia (Boa) that lives in the ceiling of the house in order to take care of the bats.

After lunch, we went to fish on the first lake. Full of peacocks. Not big ones, but plenty of them. Lots of great action. Good spot to practice casting before going to the Negro River.

Andre and I caught two Arapaimas each. And plenty of small tambaquis as well. The other two anglers caught more than 40 peacocks. But the big one was caught by my friend Willer.

Next morning, I fished with a very small rod and reel. The reel itself was only two inches wide. It was very amusing to catch the 4-pound Tambaquis with it.

But the great fighting happened in the afternoon. I handling an Abu Garcia Abassadeur reel loaded with 80 lb Spiderwire line. And the Pirarucu (Arapaima) was very big. It fought for 20 minutes until it found the protective confines of an underwater tree. And my drag was set at 40 lb. Check out the blisters in my hand.

Two guides dove into the water and untangled the fish. By this time, the great fish was starting to get tired. But anyway see the fuss he was still making.

The other guys in the photo with the net on their hands were waiting for the fish to submit, and after that they threw a net over it. Next step was to take it to a holding tank. Next morning we would transfer this worthy gamefish to another lake where it would breed more arapaimas. But unhappily it did not survive the fierce fight.
 

We used,as bait, small live fishes with a Mustad circle hook. Five years ago, fishing in the Mexiana Island , we discovered that the use of circle hooks, shortened the mortality rate of 100% (conventional hooks) to only 30% with circle hooks. See my article about that in http://www.pescarte.com.br/english/adven/advent009_pirarucu.htm

And the funny thing for me was to find that five years latter somebody was using the same technique inspired in the article I mentioned above. It made me feel good.

Next morning we were back to Manaus. Those two days resulted in 65 peacocks, eleven arapaimas and dozens of tambaquis. It was great fun.

Despite the disappointment of not being able to participate in the International Peacock Bass Tournament, all was not lost that week and we did turn sour lemons into smooth Caipirinhas!

 

If you are interested in taking a future trip with me to Macambira Farm, please get in touch with me.