Where did you go and how did you get there?
I visited Untamed Angling’s Pirarucu Lodge. It was the second leg of an extended Brazil trip where my first week was spent fishing peacock bass at Rio Marie. Located within the largest protected flooded forest in the world, Pirarucu Lodge is best place on the planet to fly fish for arapaima. To get there, I took a float plane from the Rio Marie mothership to Sao Gabriel da Cachoeira. In Sao Gabriel I switched aircraft to a Cessna Caravan and then flew to the town of Tefe. In Tele I was transferred to a fast boat for the 1.5-hour ride to the floating lodge. Guests that only visit Pirarucu can take an Azul Airlines commercial flight to Tefe and then transfer to the lodge.
Where did you fish?
We fished the Japura River and the lakes and lagoons of the Mamiraua Reserve.
How was fishing?
Very good! I caught a few “small” arapaima in the 1.5- to 1.75-meter class and the other guests all caught arapaima over 2-meters long. The largest arapaima of the week, a monster 2.35-meter fish, was caught by an 81-year-old guest who had never fly fished before while sitting on the cooler on the boat. There were 16 arapaima landed in the week with the largest two being two of the largest arapaima landed of the season. I was also able to sight cast to willing arowana using lighter tackle in the hot afternoons.
How did you fish?
Arapaima fishing is done with heavy rods, large streamer flies, and sinking lines. The basic idea is to cast the line as far as you can, let it sink, and then strip it back as slow as you can. For arowana fishing, we could sight cast to them using a small popper. The arowana is a wonderful gamefish that fights hard and will readily take a fly. I like to think of them as the bonefish of the jungle.
Where did you stay?
At the floating Pirarucu lodge (also known as Uakari Lodge). For most of the year the lodge is an ecotourism lodge, but for 10-weeks one side of the lodge is reserved for fly anglers. The lodge is powered by solar so there is no air conditioning, and it can be hot there. If there was a generator the noise would scare off the wildlife. The lodge is comfortable for how remote it is. There is a lot of wildlife in the area. In addition to all the arapaima rolling nearby and the arowana swimming near the walkways there are large caiman in the area with one huge one living under the main deck. There is a wide variety of bird life during the day, and a few different species of bats at night. My favorite wildlife experience, however, was the howler monkeys in the trees in the early morning and in the evening while fishing. I knew that I was someplace special when casting for arapaima with monkeys “howling” in the trees near the banks of the river.
What equipment did you use and how did it perform?
I fished a 9-weight Sage Salt with a RIO Jungle DIrectCore F/I line in the shallower sections of the river and a 12-weight Sage Salt with RIO Leviathan 500-grain sinking line in the deeper water. Both fished well, and both had the backbone needed to fight and land very strong, very powerful fish. The only downside is that it can get tiring casting such big rods all day in the Brazilian heat. For arowana I fished a 5-weight lodge loaner fly rod with a floating line. It worked well and was lots of fun to catch the fast and ariel arowanas on.