    
Capt. Kdu Magalhaes (Capt_kdu)
New member
Username: Capt_kdu
Post Number: 2
Registered: 3-2005
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Votes: 1 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, March 14, 2005 - 6:14 pm: | |
Barcelos. The Peacock Bass Capital
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 70U$ a day, compared with 4000 U$ 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.
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.
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