When we talk about fishing tourism in Brazil, most anglers from outside the country soon envision the tucunaré-açu (Amazon peacock bass), a spectacular fish, able to generate merciless attacks on our surface lures, very strong and also extraordinarily beautiful. They’re not the only option.

I have been to the city of Manaus, Brazil, the gateway to the Amazon, three times – well, actually six times, because we’ve stopped there on the way in and out of the jungle on each fishing trip. It is a bustling yet friendly city, a once-wealthy home to barons of the rubber industry and now a free-trade zone.

As I anticipated the arrival of my payara mount, I thought back to that amazing trip organized by Billy Chapman Jr. to the Mato Grosso state of Brazil. We caught so many big fish of various species, and experienced things few gringos will ever get to see – especially because the similarly remote regions of the world are shrinking or evaporating daily. 

Have you ever seen someone waltzing onto an airplane with just a paperback book, a small tablet, or perhaps nothing at all? I’ve always wanted to be that guy, someone who travels light and doesn’t seem to miss anything, but the truth is I will never be that guy. I’m an overpreparer, a true belt-and-suspenders type.

I’ve been a redhead all my life, and I’m old enough to remember coming home from playing outside all day (Xbox hadn’t been invented) and having sun blisters on my shoulders. My mom would walk me upstairs, sit me on the top of the toilet, light a match, heat up a needle and poke the blister to release the “goo.”

As I sit isolated at home in the midst of the COVID-19 epidemic, 2019 seems more than just a few months away – it seems like another lifetime. It was an epic year when I fished more than usual at home, and still managed three trips to Mexico, a trip to the Amazon, freshwater and saltwater adventures in Alaska, and long weekends at Grosse Savanne and Table Rock.