Rio Negro Lodge

By Andrew Marsteller

Another week at the Rio Negro Lodge with fishermen coming far and wide to experience the beauty of the Amazon as they sought after peacock bass. This week our anglers landed 1082 peacock bass with 60 of those being 10 lbs. or better and 3 of those being 20 lbs. or better.

For this week's monster we had a tie between Dodd, Frosty, and Mark Higgins each with 20 lb. peacocks.

Catching the most fish this week we had Ben with 100 peacocks, not to mention the 18-pounder he picked up.

John Henderson's big fish for the week was a not one but two 18-pounders.

When they weren't fishing Warren and Ann were tracking down some of the elusive wildlife the Amazon is home to putting Warren's 20 lb. camera to good use.

While David caught the most fish out the 2 on his fly rod, Sandy caught the biggest at 16 lbs.

Russell was saving the best day for last catching his 17-pounder on the last day.

Another one with a great fish for the week, Mark Goodin caught a beautiful 17-pounder.

Father and son Jim and Garret both did well this week catching a 14 and 16-pounder respectively.

Paul and Heidi got some good use out of their fly rods this week catching a 17 lb. and a 16 lb. peacock.

Jimmy barely topped his brother Greg this week with a 14-pounder over his 13-pounder.

Michael showed he's no novice to peacock bass fishing bringing in a 16-pounder this week.

Warner finished the week with a nice 16-pounder.

The group Greef worked the hardest to get here this week, some coming from subzero temperatures and others from South Africa via Reno. When Sylvia wasn't introducing new drinks for the whole lodge to try, herself and Matt were pulling in 13 and 14-pounders with their best day catching 34 fish. Brian and Susan had their best day catching 26 peacocks. Keith and Bob were telling me how they were diving straight into a snow drift as soon as they got back, a thought that left my guides wondering about these strange lands such as Alaska.

Another one of the many fly-fishermen this week, Justin caught a beautiful 15-pounder.

It was a great week guys, and I hope to see all of you next season. Have a safe trip home.

Amazon Queen II

By Marc Cobos

The Amazon Queen II set sail from home base soon after the anglers arrived. The week offered lots of sun and cool breezes giving the group of anglers' good weather conditions for fishing. The river made it possible for us to travel to diverse spot after large fish and our guides helped our new comers get into the rhythm of fishing for these peacocks using surface lures. One thing is true, for big fish it's done with a surface lure, and team work to bring them out. The anglers soon learned to work the lures and the results started to come in with large ones were being landed one after the other.

I asked a local villager why some catch more fish than others and he simply explained that the fish are there, it just depends on the angler and if it is his fish to catch or not. He said "a jaguar is one of the best hunters in the jungle, and not even it always gets it pray." If it was not meant to be at that moment, it will be one day and yet another jaguar can be around and catch the same pray with less effort, meaning that it was meant for the other jaguar. The right time will come for it too just like the all the others.

Our anglers landed a total of 372 peacock bass with 57 fish in10-lbs or better category and 8 landed in the 20-lbs or better with the biggest at 22-lbs all confirmed by a IGFA Certified Scales. This was a good week for the anglers where most of them landed big fish.

It was a nice group to have onboard. Anglers of the week goes to the only couple on board, Audrey and Steve Nelson, who came with the group and kept all the anglers in line and had lots of fun. Audrey started of the week by landing one of the first big fish of the week together with Roger Green. Audrey landed several in the high teens with a 19-pounder and Steve landed a 14-pounder.

Charlie Parks came back and brought his friend JB Roberson for his first visit, Charlie landed a 19-pounder and his friend JB landed a 16-pounder. Their friends Dave Bush and Tim Walker made up the rest of their group with Tim landing an 11-pounder.

Frank Byers Jr. landed a 19-pounder, and fished with his son-in-law Steve Gaubert, who managed to land 3 fish 20 or better in one day with his biggest at 22-pounds. What a rush!

The group from Gage Outdoors fished together, each day one would fish with a different partner making it a fun week by getting a chance to fish with all their friends. In the group was Sergei Shvetzoff who landed a nice 16-pounder. He fished with Roger Green on his big day, who landed a 13-pounder days before.

Jake Bruhn-Ding came with his father Dean Bruhn-Ding. Jake landed a 19-pounder, and his father landed an 18-pounder. Bill Flynm landed a 10-pounder and loved being here having the experience like many others in the group of being in the middle of the Amazon Jungle. Tim Hanratty landed a 21-pounder for a good week of fishing.

Ted Erickson fished with his friend Scott Gage for the week; Scott also landed 4 fish 20-pounds or better with his biggest at 22-pounds. Ted's biggest fish was 19-pounds, but he also had some big ones on that weren't ready to be landed. It looked like Ted called them out and Scott landed them, with great team work guys!

To complete the group was John Richards who landed a 19-pounder on the last day and Mike McConnell who landed a nice 16-pounder for the week.

Fishing started of slow but the crew worked hard and made some good choices for fishing destinations that paid off with good size fish on the long run for the anglers. From the crew of the Amazon Queen II, we would like to wish you a safe return back home and will await your return for more adventures, fishing and stories to be told.