Rio Negro Lodge

By Andrew Marsteller

As the season comes to a close we finish with one last week in which our anglers boated 1554 peacock bass with 105 of those being 10 lbs. or better and 7 of those being 20 lbs. or better.

• This week’s monster goes to both C.L. and Dan Aicher who had 23-pounders each.
• Then in second place we had a tie between Jimmy Parish, Kathleen, Pat, and Patti who all had 20-pounders.
• This time Clay brought his wife Holly, who caught the bigger fish at 19 lbs., but he wasn’t very far behind with an 18.5 lb peacock.
• Even though he only stayed half the week, Glen caught the most fish in one day this week at 31, and came close to catching the most fish for the week.
• Stephanie brought in a 17-pounder this week.
• David’s big fish for the week was a beautiful 15-pounder.
• Jim left to go fishing with Paul, but when he came back he found out that Veronica wasn’t idle while he was gone catching a 17-pounder.
• Gordon caught not 1 but 2 15-pounders this week.
• Rich’s big fish for the week was a 15-pounder, but it was his skill with the video camera that really earned him merits this week.
• Jim Burge had 2 14-pounders this week.
• Gary Larr brought in a nice 15 lb. peacock this week.
• Though the fish were determined to make off with Lucia’s favorite lure this week, her guide was adept at getting it back each time.
• Determined to get it all in this week, Ruth and Less got an authentic tour of the rainforest, which means it was pouring down rain, though Less also had a nice 16-pounder.
• Gary Scott proved a better peacock bass fisherman than a catfish fisherman catching a 16-pounder this week, though you’ll have to ask his guide what happened to that big catfish.
• Roy finished the week with a 15 lb. peacock.
• Fishing hard this week, Wade and Todd were also here for a very important reason this week besides the fishing, which was training our guides and other staff in CPR and basic first aid, though Todd had the bigger fish of the 2 at 16 lbs.
• Steve brought in a beautiful 14-pounder this week.
• Bernie had a 15-pounder as his big fish for the week.
• When they weren’t hacking their way back into some far remote lagoons, Ross and Nora were pulling in close to a hundred fish for the week.

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

Amazon Queen II

By Marc Cobos

As the season comes to a close the Queen sets sail with her group of anglers mostly composed of anxious new-comers. When anglers come down for the first time they think of peacock bass, mosquitoes, Indians, piranhas, and don’t swim in the river, but soon the whole perspective changes, and they really start to appreciate this enchanted land. The group of 12 anglers landed a total of 46 fish 10-pounds or better with the largest at 22-pounds among hundreds of smaller fish. As the week went on the rains started to pick up so we had to move on to keep up with the river and the fishing spots.

Jeff Stewart a veteran salt water fisherman came and tried his luck at fishing with top water. Jeff on the first couple of days seemed a little unsure if he was chopping right and making the right sound, but soon after he got the hang of it and with the help of the guide he landed his big fish at 15-pounds. Jeff is now a pro at peacock-bass fishing and hooked on it. His partner Chris Vought also had a few doubts on his ripping, but as the guide said, now he’s got it, and in just a matter of time and his turn will come. Chris landed a nice 16-pounder among others big ones they landed. Now when it gets to talk about Charlie, well he is another story. Charlie was the first to land a monster fish. Charlie fished with his friends Craig Clark and John Sanders. Charlie landed the first 20-pound plus of the week and after that he was sure of his theory. Charlie’s biggest came in at 22-pounder, so big that he had to hug it to be able to hold it up. Nice job Charlie. His friends Craig and John tried their hand at fly fishing and bait casting. They had more luck with them “little” woodchoppers though. Craig landed a nice 20-pounder and John landed an 18-pounder.

Steve Shell came with his son Dustin and their friend Gary Torres. Also being new comers they had fun getting into the rhythm of chopping and ripping. As I always do with all our new anglers professional or not, I give them as much information as possible, so when they do get on that big fish, they know what to expect. The guides also help them out, and we work together to help them get the best results possible.

One day Steve went out by himself and got into a hot spot landing 11 fish in a short time. Steve’s biggest fish of the week was a beautiful fully colored 22-pounder. His son Dustin landed a 14-pounder, and their partner Gary landed a 16-pounder. They do lots of salt-water fishing, and this was a real experience for them too.

Now one of our friends that have come over the past years was Jim Dorris who came with his friend John Lange. Jim fishes hard and John does both fishing and lots of nature photography. Not to long into the week John had even Jim spotting out birds and learning a little bit more about the bird life than just peacock bass. They both had a wonderful time and learned lots of new tricks and new things.

Gary Hall one of our Amazon Anglers Club Members came with our Dallas travel Manager Jenni McDonald. This being her first trip down to fish for peacocks bass, she got to see first hand why all those anglers come down year after year in search of those monsters. She visited the communities, did a jungle walk, did the shore lunch with the group and also caught her piranha, but accidentally let it go since she wanted to keep a souvenir. She tried her hand at peacock bass fishing with those big choppers, and different lure types with the help of Gary, and landed her first peacocks. Gary fished easy, not wanting to show off too much and put too much pressure on her. Gary landed an 11-pounder, and unfortunately lost several big ones.

From the crew of the Amazon Queen II we would like to wish all our anglers a safe trip home and hope that you got to take back some wonderful memories of your experience. Also I want to thank Clay Kemper and Holly Kemper who came up from the lodge and spend their last two days on board. They got to try out both operations and highly approved the experiences. With lots of fishing stories to tell and well; let’s see what kind of fun stories Charlie will have to tell when we get back together next season. Till next season we hope to see all of you back again and just a special thought, next time those fish won’t get away, since like always the first trip is a learning experience with lots of new friends and the rest is all just pure “PEACOCKING”. Good luck guys and gals.