A Taste of Peacock Fishing With Exotic Outdoor Adventures

[djkimmel]

Yup. Something's come up so I did not get a bunch of pictures done yet, but this may help show that, yes... I did have a time!!!

My biggest peacock bass of the trip caught early afternoon on day 2 fishing with guide Iggy using an 8 inch long, 4 ounce chopper bait.



18 POUNDS!!! The BIG fish hit like a freight train running at super train speeds off the edge of a main river sandbar. Then ripped down the edge of the bar at rocket speed before crashing out of the water and back in. Which is when Iggy said, "GRANDE!!!! NO JUMP!!! Rod tip down...." These magnificent fish are pure, rock hard muscle with jet boosters in their... tale.

I really, really, really wanted to break 20 pounds, but it just didn't happen for me. But wait until you see some more pictures!!?!! Just Amazing!!!!!!!! I will tease you by saying the 20 pound mark was broken - no shattered - many times during this trip!! Exotic Outdoor Adventures!!! Everyone needs to take this trip!!!

Personally, I broke the 10 pounds barrier 4 times and had one big fish hit twice that look bigger than my 18 pounder!!

[MadWags]

That is awesome Dan. What a spectacular fish. Can't wait to see some more pictures!
And how great is it to have a guide named Iggy?! That would make my trip as well.

[mikesmiph]

I can see the gleam in your eyes, even through the glasses. Looks like you are having a ball. The memories will be with you the rest of your life. So happy you had a great time. That is one fantastic fish. I too cant wait for more.

[djkimmel]

Wait to you see the one I caught with the big sail on his back!!!! I wish I had taken better pictures, but the whole trip was so stunning and different and HOT!!! 80's into the 90's every day with Equator sun (not prescribed normally for redheads ) and 80 to 100% humidity every day!! My brain and other things were not working normal at times (no jokes please).

Wait until you see the 'stats' for our group on this trip. It was a big fish bash!!! We had some great anglers on the trip including someone whose been there 20 times and another very distinguished gentleman (Mike) who has gone so many times since the early 80's he doesn't even know how many times he's gone.

There was one other first-timer there with me. We both had a BLAST!!!

Wait until you see the camain (or maybe it was a gator???) charge video!!!

I loved Iggy. He was small, as most of the men down there are thanks to the Indian heritage, dark-skinned and very hairy. Rick said, "Iggy, you're hairy like jaguar!!" And Iggy responded, "No. Iggy is little monkey."

So many stories...

[River Rat]

Don't know what else to say but... "Wow!"  Too cool, sir!

[djkimmel]

The guides we had were Iggy, his brother Lou, Gi, Gator, Saba, Chuilio Bueno and the veteran leader Rico. Gi is the character of the bunch. He played a number of jokes on people. But he's a very good guide.

We were about 120 miles south of Venezuela when we fished our last spot up the Rio Negro. I can't even begin to tell you how big this river is! It makes the 'mighty' Mississippi look like a mountain stream. Massive!!

I had Gator, Iggy, Gi, Saba and Chuilio for guides during the week. We switched fishing partners and guides pretty much every day. Sometimes twice a day.

I caught my biggest peacock with Iggy. Rico was the man overall for the trip. I think he was the biggest fish guide for 4 of the 6 days. More pics and video coming. Had to work late tonight at the 'day' job.

[Skulley]

Great stuff DK!!!        More pictures please................videos................we want videos!!!!!             


BD         

[LGMOUTH]

 Man its almost been a week and all you have to show us is one stinking picture. Come on Dan where are your priorities........

[djkimmel]

Had to wait until my thumb healed a little better... these 'bass' a lot more challenging to lip. I left some skin down there!! Lots of skin still coming off

[LGMOUTH]

 I hear if you put a little bit of electricity between the thumb and pointer finger (say a shocker pen) it will take that dead skin right off. 

[djkimmel]

I hear if you put a little bit of electricity between the thumb and pointer finger (say a shocker pen) it will take that dead skin right off. 

Even better... an 8 foot gator!!! It wanted a whole bunch of my 'live' skin!!! Yikes!!

[Skulley]

Sounds to me that the gators are a whole lot bigger down there than they are in Florida around the Big O.  Any hungry gator is a big gator to me.


BD           

[djkimmel]

The spectacled caiman, the kind we angered, seems to top out around 9 feet though 5 to 7 is the average size they reach. We saw quite a few that size, but we came across 5 or 6 caiman that were much, much bigger. I saw 3 of them that were in the 12 to 13 foot range - one swam along two posts and I was able to check the distance between the posts and see that one was definitely 12 or 13 feet since the posts were about 10 feet apart and the black demon stretched head and tail past the posts.

These were probably black caiman, which supposed to be pretty rare though I saw quite a few caiman of all sizes that looked like black caiman. No other caiman in that region are supposed to get that big and no spectacled caiman are reported over 10 feet. Besides, they look quite a bit different in coloration.

Many say the black caiman is the largest of the alligator family. In Florida on the Big O, cameraguy and I came across a truly massive alligator that I can't even really say how big it was, but that one was the exception. Most we saw in Florida topped out at about 10 foot or so though I saw a few slightly bigger there and in South Carolina.

These were some BIG boys off of the Rio Negro. I'm still working through online resources to figure out for sure what all we saw, but the big ones pretty much had to be black caiman as far as I can tell. They remind you of godzilla with their more primitive look. More ridges and angles than an American Alligator.

There are stories of black caiman reaching 20 feet, but the biggest one that seem accepted was just over 6 meters - close to 20 feet, and that one isn't fully accepted. There are local stories all over of black caiman over 20 feet, but shoot, there's local stories of 100 foot anacondas too so go figure. It is the average top size that earns the black caiman top honors in the alligator family - 4 to almost 5 meters (~13 to 16 feet). That's a BIG reptile!!

Regardless, everything seemed wilder and bigger down there. Loud birds with all kinds of colors and beaks. Big dinosaur-looking gators. Mutant grasshoppers that would get back up and fly away after you crunched them underfoot. Termite mounds as big as a dog house.

Piranha larger than Thanksgiving turkey platters (and a set of teeth bigger than mine). Primitive looking hump backed long nosed dolphin 5 to 7 feet long. Otters the size of small children.

5 to 8 feet long arapaima (didn't catch or see any in the wild, but we ate a bunch of them). Mystery fish that straighten out saltwater hooks (just saw the evidence unfortunately, maybe next time??)... AND peacock bass that hit like a cinder block dropped from the 3rd floor and strip out 80 lbs test P-Line Spectrex leaving everyone with chronic thumb burn!!! Only ~725 days until I go back!!!

[Skulley]

Literally the other side of the world.........if you stop and think about it.


BD               

[LGMOUTH]

They remind you of godzilla with their more primitive look.

Now was this the Old Godzilla or the newer version from 1998? The old Godzilla had a wider jaw bone than the newer one, but I think the 1998 version was alot smarter. Just a thought have they been doing any nuclear testing down in Brazil?

[djkimmel]

Based on some of the things I saw down there... I think they have had a secret nuclear program for centuries!!!

And I was definitely thinking old godzilla. Though I thought... just for a moment... the caiman was going to talk to me... "yeah, go ahead... jump on my back boy... I bet you taste like chicken..." Just the look in his eyes...