AFC#12 Peacock Bass | african-fisherman

At the Palmas airport we were met by Jerome Siffredi – a friend of mine who used to live in Bulawayo Zimbabwe. Jerome is a Frenchman, who was once active in the safari business, but now lives in Brazil and operates Peacock Bass Adventure Safaris.

We spent that night in a hotel on the outskirts of Palmas. It was hot and we were thankful for the air conditioning. The following morning we helped Jerome with his last-minute shopping and we were on the road by about 10. Palmas is almost in the dead centre of Brazil, in Tocantins Province. It is a clean modern city situated on the edge of a large lake. We headed west, then north west toward the Javae River. The five hour trip in Jerome’s VW Kombi was interesting – much of the scenery looked like parts of Mozambique – fairly open savannah interspersed with slender broad-leafed trees. Most of what we drove through was cattle country – and there were lots of cattle – thousands, in fact – we were to see even more later when we went to the Pantanal in the west. The cattle are all white in colour, and look like gaunt Brahman.

Once we reached the Javae we unloaded the Kombi and transferred all our gear and supplies into two boats which Jerome’s workers had brought upstream from his camp. These were 16 foot aluminium boats powered by 25 horse Yamahas. They proved to be just the right thing for this work and they could carry big loads.

The Javae here, is about 200 to 300 metres wide. The banks vary from mangrove-looking stuff, to thick bush, and magnificent tall trees – everything a million shades of green. There were lots of sandy islands, long white sandy beaches and low sand banks in the river. In this part of Brazil the rainy season was approaching and the river was at its lowest. On the two hour ride to camp we saw dozens of caimans (there are several types of caiman in Brazil – and I was surprised at the size of them in this area – we judged some of them to be in the 12 foot range). We saw numerous interesting bird species, and we noticed dozens of what looked like four-wheeler tracks on the sand dunes on the islands, which were in fact tracks made by large freshwater turtles on their way to and from their nests.

We reached Jerome’s camp after about two hours (wrestling our boats over and around the sand several times). Jerome told us that the Javae joins the Araguaia about 20 kilometers downstream and that the Araguaia is a bigger river than the Javae! Must be some river, as this one was plenty big. All the rivers in this province flow north to the Amazon.

The camp was situated on the east bank of the river nestled in amongst beautiful evergreens. On the one side of camp a re-entrant came toward the Javae and formed a perfect pool before joining the river. Within an hour of arriving at camp some of us had our lines in, and it only took a few minutes before we had our first piranha and our first Peacock bass! What beautiful fish they are.

We were Jerome’s first group in for the season, so we were landed with the job of dragging various canoes and flat kayaks several kilometers through the jungle (in some cases over dense grassland) to various lagoons which Jerome knew of. As it turned out, this is where the bulk of the fishing was done – in these lagoons. The main river held fish too, but nothing like what we found in these hidden backwaters. The first lagoon we went to was V shaped, each leg of the V about 500 metres long and 80 metres wide. The jungle came right to the edge of the water. What amazing fishing this was. I don’t know if it’s always like that, but we were definitely there at the right time. Just about every cast at cover (quite a lot of submerged bushes and stumps – juts like bass fishing in Zimbabwe) produced a hit, and even out into open water, you couldn’t cast ten times without a knock.

Of Piranhas, Dogfish and Peacock Bass

By Wayne Grant

September fourteenth, 2014. Worcester, Cape Town, Joburg, Sao Paulo, Goiania, Brasilia, Palmas. Thirsty four hours traveling, seven to go – five by vehicle, and the last two by boat. My family derisively refer to our family fishing holidays as “selection courses” and it looked like this one was going to fit that description. Unfortunately, due to work commitments my family was not on this particular “selection”. At Oliver Tambo I met up with Tony English, a friend from KwaZulu Natal, and later (much later!); we met up with three Americans in Palmas Brazil. They were John Strobel – (who has undertaken many selection courses with me – including a do-it-yourself backpacking safari into the jungle in Cameroon) - Ed Seybert and Lloyd Davies – all these guys are electrical lineman from America’s East coast area. Luckily they were all excellent guys and a pleasure to be with on a trip like this. It can so easily turn out otherwise when you don’t know the guys you’ll be on holiday with.

Tony was having success with a silver and light blue spinner whilst my most effective lure was a light yellow spinner about 8cm long. Of course the piranhas saw to it that we did not keep these lures for long. I had my Zambezi tiger tackle with me, which includes a lot of red and silver spinners – but there was a definite drop in strikes when I used these. I tried scraping off the red paint and removing the red stickers, and this definitely helped. All I could think of was perhaps the red and silver spinners resembled attacking piranhas and the peacocks shied away from them. I don’t know if this is true, because I’ve seen lots of advertisements showing big peacocks caught with gaudy red lures.

We were targeting anything and everything – but after a few days the focus shifted onto Peacock bass, and then onto large Peacock bass – (we arbitrarily decided anything over eight pounds was large).

Sunset over the Javae	Ed, Lloyd and Tony relax in camp	Jerome’s workers arrive to pick us up
View from the lounge, caimans behind the boats

Tony was having success with a silver and light blue spinner whilst my most effective lure was a light yellow spinner about 8cm long. Of course the piranhas saw to it that we did not keep these lures for long. I had my Zambezi tiger tackle with me, which includes a lot of red and silver spinners – but there was a definite drop in strikes when I used these. I tried scraping off the red paint and removing the red stickers, and this definitely helped. All I could think of was perhaps the red and silver spinners resembled attacking piranhas and the peacocks shied away from them. I don’t know if this is true, because I’ve seen lots of advertisements showing big peacocks caught with gaudy red lures.

We were targeting anything and everything – but after a few days the focus shifted onto Peacock bass, and then onto large Peacock bass – (we arbitrarily decided anything over eight pounds was large).

This is a Candiru fish, which apparently can swim into places on a person where they don’t come out!	Tracks left by turtles on their way to and from their nests	Jerome’s worker Regis towing a kayak
Yellow, or “gold” piranha	The common red piranha	Red and silver piranhas
Tony, being an old Wild Coast “fundi” can fillet fish faster than anyone I’ve ever seen.	My tiger spinners – left one with the red scratched off

There are four kinds of piranha found in this area, the common red one, a gold one, a silver one and a black one. We did not catch or see any of the black species, which was a shame as they apparently get quite large – (in the 3 – 5 pound range I think). The biggest we caught were red piranhas at about a pound to two pounds in size. There was no shower at camp, we bathed in the river, and because I’ve spent so much of my life in crocodile country – this practice gave me the heebie-jeebies, make no mistake. We could see 10 to 12 foot caimans not more than 20 to 30 metres away, whilst we were bathing. We were assured that they’re not man eaters, but it was uncomfortable knowing that if we did this back at Kariba, or Cahora Bassa, or just about anywhere in the Zambezi, we’d be dead. Needless to say, I didn’t spend long in the water. We were at first also worried about being eaten by piranhas, but although there are a few stories about people being eaten, it is actually almost unheard of. I was surprised to hear this, because we saw ample proof that they are indeed voracious creatures. A couple of times we had piranha on the line that were attacked by their relatives, and in several cases they were shredded down to the head and backbone within minutes! We did have two misadventures with the piranhas. Ed raised one up out of the water and it wriggled off the hook and fell into the canoe. Terrified it would bite his backside, Ed grabbed for it, but unfortunately it grabbed him first, and took an impressive chunk out of his thumb. A few days later Tony was doing the ethical thing and holding a piranha in the water, moving it back and forth, trying to help it get motivated after a good fight. When he finally released the fish, it spun around and bit him!

Another fish we found to be common here is the dogfish. These things also had a fearsome set of snaggly teeth and were quite ugly, primitive looking things. They all seemed to be in the 1 to 1.5 pound size, bullet-shaped, and dark grey to black in colour.

There are four kinds of piranha found in this area, the common red one, a gold one, a silver one and a black one. We did not catch or see any of the black species, which was a shame as they apparently get quite large – (in the 3 – 5 pound range I think). The biggest we caught were red piranhas at about a pound to two pounds in size. There was no shower at camp, we bathed in the river, and because I’ve spent so much of my life in crocodile country – this practice gave me the heebie-jeebies, make no mistake. We could see 10 to 12 foot caimans not more than 20 to 30 metres away, whilst we were bathing. We were assured that they’re not man eaters, but it was uncomfortable knowing that if we did this back at Kariba, or Cahora Bassa, or just about anywhere in the Zambezi, we’d be dead. Needless to say, I didn’t spend long in the water. We were at first also worried about being eaten by piranhas, but although there are a few stories about people being eaten, it is actually almost unheard of. I was surprised to hear this, because we saw ample proof that they are indeed voracious creatures. A couple of times we had piranha on the line that were attacked by their relatives, and in several cases they were shredded down to the head and backbone within minutes! We did have two misadventures with the piranhas. Ed raised one up out of the water and it wriggled off the hook and fell into the canoe. Terrified it would bite his backside, Ed grabbed for it, but unfortunately it grabbed him first, and took an impressive chunk out of his thumb. A few days later Tony was doing the ethical thing and holding a piranha in the water, moving it back and forth, trying to help it get motivated after a good fight. When he finally released the fish, it spun around and bit him!

Another fish we found to be common here is the dogfish. These things also had a fearsome set of snaggly teeth and were quite ugly, primitive looking things. They all seemed to be in the 1 to 1.5 pound size, bullet-shaped, and dark grey to black in colour.

The water in this first lagoon was a bit cloudy, and the bass were not nearly as vibrant in colour, as the fish we caught later in lagoon number two and three. The second lagoon was on the west side of the Javae, only about a 300 metre walk from where we left the boats. It was about a kilometer in length and about 200 metres wide and surrounded by dense reeds, grass and lilies. Because of this vegetation it can only be fished by canoe. This place was full of fish, even more than the first lagoon, and perhaps because the water was clearer, the bass were more colorful. We saw no caimans here, which was surprising. In about an hour, Tony and I landed about twenty to thirty fish, five or six of those were over five pounds and two of them were in the eight pound area. What fishing! It was superb. The scenery was beautiful, we had this paradise completely to ourselves, and the fish were hungry. When we paddled down to the western end of the lagoon we saw three Marsh deer, one of which was sporting impressive antlers, and from then on we called this spot “Deer Lagoon”.

At Deer Lagoon I caught a magnificent fish called Aruana. This fish leapt out of the water three or four times, just like a tigerfish, and gave a very good account of itself. It was about six or seven pounds in weight, and shaped a bit like a tigerfish, but not as thick across the body, and without teeth. It had a huge mouth and gills, and seems to suffer damage to the gill area quite easily. These Aruana were not common, I think on the whole trip we only landed half a dozen or so. Once the initial “embarrassment of riches” wore off after a couple of days, we began to experiment with different lures and different methods. The Americans were having good success with some top lures – bass plugs from the States – and it was exciting to see these noisy plugs disappear suddenly in a burst of water as peacock bass attacked them. We caught bass on spinners, plugs (mostly Rapalas) and the occasional one on a spoon. Knowing that it would not last long, I threw in a rubber worm. One knock, and just an inch or so remained. I guessed a piranha hit it, but I have no doubt that you could catch peacock on rubber worms.

In keeping with Jerome’s policy of catch and release we let most of the bass go – especially the big ones – but we ate some too, make no mistake, and they were outstanding. We ate some in the bush cooked on coals in their skin, and we ate them back at camp prepared many different ways, and they were really good.

The third lagoon we went to was a good hike through thick hot grassland. It was a little smaller than Deer Lagoon, fringed with mangrove-type trees, and the water was crystal clear. There was only one canoe at this spot, so Tony, John and Lloyd paddled off in it and Ed and I waded. What fishing! This place was unbelievable. Within five casts I had three fish, one of them a beauty of about ten pounds. The bass here exhibited more bright blues and yellows than the fish we caught elsewhere. Several times we watched them flashing in towards us, racing for the lure. They were that colorful and the water was that clear. John, Ed and Tony all caught fish here over the ten pound mark. (Lloyd had already landed his ten pounder at Deer Lagoon.)

It was really interesting to see the varieties of wildlife. (I should mention here that in some instances the wildlife was quite similar to that found here in Africa – such as kingfishers, doves, sunbirds, otters, cormorants, caimans.) We enjoyed watching the river dolphins that roll up out of the water blowing air like miniature hippos; we saw numerous bird species, - some spectacularly beautiful, giant otters, huge freshwater turtles, leguaans of several types, the already mentioned Marsh deer, and we also saw several freshwater rays, skidding under the boat like dirty plates with tails.

One evening we sat on a sandbank a kilometer or so upstream from camp, trying for catfish. Jerome told us that they had caught good sized red tailed catfish in this spot before, but our baits were hammered again and again by piranha, so we gave it up. It’s a pity we did not know more about the habits of the fish here, because later on we were told that the piranhas stop feeding later on – somewhere around 7 or 8pm – and that’s the time for the big catfish.

This was a fantastic fishing trip. It’s not for everybody, sure. There are many lodges and resorts in Brazil that offer peacock bass fishing, where you can retire to your air-conditioned room when it gets hot, but in those places you’re cheek to jowl with lots of other people, and, well... you’re still in civilisation! This area where we were is pristine. It’s hard to get to, but it’s worth it. In the eight days we were on the river we only saw about 2 or 3 other boats, one of them driven by a very suspicious looking couple. Jerome thought they were probably fishing poachers – judging by their numerous cool-boxes.

Our camp was a fly camp – long drop toilets, no showers (Jerome erected a small area in the river fenced off with chicken wire, and that’s where you wash); the tents were good, deep freeze, generator, the boating equipment was perfect for the job, and most importantly, the fishing in the lagoons was unbelievable. And Jerome says he’s seen more lagoons on Google Earth that he’s not even explored yet!

There is so much to see in a country this size, that one trip is not enough. After our fishing trip we went to the Pantanal in the west, and then we did the tourist thing in Rio. I would have loved to see the Amazon, but time (and funds!) did not allow it.

Ed landed this very nice Aruana at the third lagoon.	John and I on a kayak with a brightly colored bass	Working parts of the piranha
Jerome and Cristovao set off in a canoe	John at our fenced off washing area. One night a caiman entered this contraption and bent all the wire out of shape

The airfare Joburg – Sao Paulo was 1 100.00 USD. (Of course, writing this today, I see a special to Sao Paulo advertised for 680.00 USD!) The internal flight to Palmas and back to Sao Paulo was 300.00 and Jerome charges between 3 000.00 and 4 000.00 USD per person, depending on how many days you are on the river. The country is beautiful, (surprisingly clean and modern, and travel and tourist facilities were well organised) the people are friendly and we had no hassles at all.

Jerome Siffredi can be reached on Peacock Bass Adventure Safaris – jeromesiffredi@hotmail.com.

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