Payara Memories
I can’t believe it’s been five years since my third and most recent fishing trip to Brazil. The first two were to the Rio Negro basin, north of Manaus, but that last one was to a comparatively un-gringo-fied river to the south. It was one of the best trips I’ve taken for a variety of reasons, not least of which was the fact that it wasn’t a cookie cutter experience.
I was reminded of how great it was when Anglers Inn recently put up the following video:
A few notes:
What the hell were we thinking heading through those rapids in a v-hull with an outboard and no spare prop? Dumb as a box or rocks, but totally worth it.
When we got to the waterfall and had to portage around, the kids who helped looked like they were 8 years old, but it turned out they were all 12 to 14 – and could carry more than most of us grown ass men.
We also visited their village, which had no electricity. That may have changed in the ensuing period, but I fear that may be the last time in my life I get to see such comparatively unspoiled places.
The one thing that has kept us from going back to Brazil is the inflexibility in our schedules and the fact that trips have to be moved around due to water levels, but in those fast-moving rivers that’s less of an issue.
While the video makes it look easy, we struggled to hook and land the payara, and it took some creative tackle-crafting to consistently get the job done.
Hopefully you watched the video through to the end – because my excitement was real and unfiltered. You don’t get too many of those moments of pure bliss in a fishing lifetime, so it’s nice to have that one preserved on YouTube.
Every day I look at the payara replica in my office and I’m thankful not only that I had a tape measure, but also that Advanced Taxidermy had the proper mold.
Best of all, the experience was special because not only was Billy Chapman Jr. leading the trip, but also that my good friends Dale Steele, Leroy Boss and Ray Kawabata were along to share it.
