Giant Peacocks on the Fly in the Amazon Basin

I lifted the tip of my 9 weight fly rod and flipped it forward to do a roll cast and straighten out the line; with rod tip pointed at the water, standing in the bow of the boat, I lifted it up again and at the hard stop the line laid out behind me, loaded the rod, and then came forward watching the tight loop stretch out before me, straighten, and then the red and yellow streamer landed on the water right on the edge of a mass of roots and limbs in the back of a pocket of water in flooded timber off of the Xeruini River in Brail’s Amazon Jungle. With the fly falling in an acceptable position I strip sharply once to get the attention of the fish, continuing with a quick, jerky retrieve. A foot from the edge of the structure a fish aggressively takes the fly and turns to the side. I continue the strip with my left hand until I come up tight. Then with the butt of the rod in my hip and the rod tip low, I hit two or tree times hard.  

The fish is in the air, upside down, then makes a run taking the loose line coiled at my feet with it. I clamp down on the line with my left hand on the cork to stop it from taking more line and getting under the structure to break me off. I am thinking about my knots, hoping I tied them well, I am confident in the 40-pound mono that I had used for the leader if I can just keep him out of the deadfall in the water. Mo, my guide, is backing the boat up with the trolling motor trying to back up into open water and with the line clamped down to the cork with my left had I am reeling up the excess coils with my right hand. Once I have most of the line on the spool, I let go of the line with my left hand all the rest of the slack is gone in an instant and now we are on the reel. Now the fish is burning off line from my reel, the drag on my Reddington reel not having much effect, and I am palming my reel trying to slow this freight train. Finally, after peeling another 40 yards of line off my reel I am able to slow him down. I have a deep bend in my rod, and he is working sideways as I reel down and pull trying to work him back to the boat. This fish feels heavy and strong as I continue to work him up to within ten yards of the boat and he comes to the surface and it boils. I can see the bright yellow sides with the black vertical bars, and the red gills of a giant Peacock Bass, this variety the three barred Acu, through the clear, leaf stained water of the Xeruini. Mo maneuvers to the side of the boat with the net, I can tell he is as excited as I am because this is a big fish. I lift my rod tip, steering his head toward the net, he sees the boat and does an abrupt about face and starts peeling off all the line I had just gained back off my reel. I instinctively reach up to grab the handle of the reel and the line is burning off so fast I beat up my knuckles on the reel handle and slide my hand under the reel and begin palming it again trying to slow down the retreat. This sequence of events is repeated five times before the big guy begins to tire and I am able to steer his head into the net with my rod bent to the cork and then he is in the boat and we are doing “high-fives”.