Amazon Jungle fishing 2012

The Amazon Jungle 2012 - fishing the rivers Acarri and Sucunduri in Brazil.
© Copyright Kenth Esbensen and friends.

Out from Manaus in a small plane for some 2 hrs. - and then in a bus on dirt roads for another 1½-2 hrs. - and then high powered speedboats!

Not much time to catch the wildlife with the camera - but this Kiskadee had patience enough, - a small turtle - I've got no idea of the species!

Going ashore for lunch after some 45 minuttes - and we were looking forward to this! Probably the smallest swallow species, I've seen - no more than 10-12 cm from tail to beak!

With more boats arriving, all 11 anglers end the guides were there.

Several clusters of yellow and orange butterflies were drinking from the moisture in the humid sand by the hut on the high bank.

I noticied this impressive, but in reallity rather small leaved Plurothalis orchid species in a tree close to the outdoor "kitchen".

These are the chickens being prepared for our lunch.

Magnificent fish were also on the menu - and there were more to come!

Barbequed fish of several types - chicken and beef were part of our first meal in the Amazon jungle - and of course salad and tapioca! - Delicious! This is a boat with our luggage and important supplies passing by - boxes of crushed ice for cooling our drinking-water, beers and other drinks!

After lunch, we soon started to fish our way towards the jungle camp, that Robinho have had established for us (and of course forother customers before us). It didn't take long to catch the first tukunaré - in american called peacock bass. We saw several species of toucans, even early on. This is Ramphastos tucanus - the species they are all in this gender named after as a family. This is alco called the White-throated toucan. Even on the way to the camp we all caught enough not to bother to count them!

Robinho of course greeted us welcome, when we arrived at the jungle camp - and what an impressive sight it was! A few chose to do the nights in hammocks - like most probably had expected - but the most us were accomodated in one-person tents in full coverage of a large constuction to secure, that noboby got wet in case of rain! - Bath and toilets of course also available and full functioanal! - No missses here .... - either! This is our cabins - newly dressed up every afternoon on our return from a day's fishing! Johnny presents his recent book to Robinho and Maria - and Pedro and Regis. Pictures of previous trips with Robinho are part of the book, and of course he was delighted to be a part of the very much praised tales from Johnny.

Early next morning - full speed out for adventure fishing! Not all went too far away from the camp, but started fishing in the raising sunlight closer to the camp. I think this is my first tukumaré from the first day - please note, that I've chosen not tonescessarily bring pictures in a chronological order! These trahira are probably the most feroucious predators, that I've ever fished for - as long you keep your bait in the surface! - A little more deeper, the pirhanhas reighn during the day!

Due respect to the piranhas - no chances taken, however small it may be - and with good reason! Rune with a small black piranha. - Even in this size, you can clearly hear, when it snaps the teeths together! Even a small black piranha has razor-sharp teeth!

Rune with our first female tukunarée - Peacock bass. Usually the lager male attacks first.

Caimans were everywhere - this is one of the bigger spectacled caimans.

Fishing for pirarhaya in the afternoon - and the chance to get a pictire of the river dolfins ... After a 15 min. fight Johnny just lost a pirarhaya - a plain cut of the line above the swivel - no doubt piranha work!

This bend of the river appears to be a prefered site for these river dolfins. They came to look all of us over - and probably also to see, if gooddies coud fall their way.

Pedro is into a good one ... .. - and got it! These otters do not approve in our prescense at all - they sneezed very violently at us - we were certainly not welcome at all!

This red-tailed catfish is really impressive .... The fish wasn't put on the scales, but the guide estimated it around 50 kg. ... the visiting angler happily announced a weight of 60 kg! - A big fish anyway ....

Lunch-time - and time for a cooling and refreshing dip in the river!

This time Rune has 2 tukunaré on the same lure simultaniously - one on each treble! This around 2 kg piranha was the first fish to take this lure for almost 40 years! It has been well stowed away in my old tackle box for 4 decades! This was my biggest tukunaré - and it pulled the scales to 5 kg.

We saw several of these clusters of butterflies, sucking moisture from the sandy beach. Yellow vented piranhas are clearly smaller than the black species. An Oropendola colony in a tall tree. The nests are almost a meter long. Johnny is into another piraraha (red-taild catfish) - untill a piranha once more cut his line at the sviwel!

Allan was fishing for catfish, when he got an odd run - and this sting.ray came to the surface. It is quite obvious, that not many rays preserve their long tails for long in a water packed with piranhas! What on earth is this coming out of the ray? 3 baby-rays, all fully developed and alive. Even at this size, the babies can inflict serious pain, if they get to hit you with the spines on the tail, so great precaution was taken, when they were released into the river together with their mum.

Early morning at sunrise, the quides hav prepared all boats to another day of fishing. Rods are collected from the rail in the camp. The last provisions are taken from the kitchen to the boats.

Within a few minuttes, all boats are out - sailing for 1½-2 hrs - before we started fishing our way back to the camp again during the whole day. This is one of the bigger black piranhas to Rune.

Rune couldn't resist casting his lure to this small caiman at aprox. 1½ m in length. The croc didn't hessitate for more than a second - and took the lure! Luckily, it didn't stay hooked for more than 15 seconds - so we didn't have to bring it to the boat!

The beast took refuge to dry land after that experience! The guide Vouzy preparing some tukunaré for lunch. Grilled fish, bananas, tomato and onion salad and tapioca for lunch - deliciously prepared over a small fire on the river bank Another butterfly species.

Rune fishing a small side-stream with a float rod - catchig nice tiddlers for bait! My first take fishiong for piraraha resulted in this 5-6 kg fish, and I was very well pleased! This species can go way over 50-70 kg - so this is by my standards a fine beginning. I must confess, that I had loads of offers by much bigger specimens - but I lost the lot! A few was lost as piranhas cut the line and a few others got stuck in obstackles on the bottom - the rest simply got off the hook. An orchid on a bankside tree.

We saw a few turtles ... ... - and this beach, where one came to shore to lay eggs on the hight bank, and returned to the river. It was easy to dig up a few eggs - but we put them back in the same place and covered them with the moist sand again.

This is a new quest into a small tributary, teaming with life. In numerous places, fallen trees blocked or made our way with the boats quite difficult.

As an aquarium entusiast - and world reknowned fish photographer - Johnny took the opportunity to make underwater film recordings of the smaller species in this location.

Rune had the misfortune of being stung by several "killer bees", while they passed beneth this bush. The guides acted quickly - and burned down the colony in the tree with a towel soaked in petrol! No chances were taken - an we were guided around the bend on land - while the guides with the boats passed the bees-nest in the river. More fallen trees - but no real problem ....

After several hours going upstream in the tributary (and all loving it) - we fished some deep pools for catfish. - No luck on this one. This must be a species of basilisk / Jesus Christ lizzard - but I'm not sure which one. Near the mouth of th tributary, the forrest is almost mangrove-like. Another caiman of around 2 meters on the bank - cleary well fed

This is an air acrobat - the silver arowana - spending as much of the time during the fight in the air as in the water! We're heading for home now - fishing for a few hours - and Johnny threw his lura at this small caimen - that headded direct at the lure immediately - but a tukumaré beat it to the pray in this spectacular take! Poppers, wobblers and surfece lures of all kinds will work here - as will of course popper-flies! I didn't see many orchids in the trees as expected before we left home - but the most of the time we were on boats! - Explaination saimple!

Jauzy doing magic again - together with the rest of the crew. On this particular occasion, Robinhio had prepared a very special tukunaré-carparchio - an excuisite delight beyond rival!

Johnny hooked an apparently good fish. that got snagged, without me recognizing how good untill our guidee Baku stripped off, and started swimming into the submerged trees to free it. I don't know, i fJohnny up until this point had caught the drift of what was going on -I was a little slow on this - but here comes the guide with a magnificent fish!- And he returned to fetch the lure! - This is a magnificent quest - and show the standard and quality of the fishing adventure here! - Did I forget to mention, that it's actually Johnny, that arranged this trip for the four of us?

Whether was fine all week - but on the last day, raincoats were nescessary after fishing all morning. A shower can be handled - and is mostly shortlived - but Baku was clearly worried about these clouds coming up behind us - very fast! .... I and Baku saw it coming - and it turned out to be torrential rain for more than an hour!

Torrential rain - for hours - what a final to the trip! - We were dressed to it - others used to it!

More pictures from this trip can be found in Johnny's site.