The Financial Times asks in a new article: “Can tourism offer a lifeline for one remote community?” The answer is yes. A big thank you to author Ruaridh Nicoll for his article on Kendjam and how fishing tourism has the power to protect communities and ecosystems from a wide range of threats.
To read the article in the Financial Times, CLICK HERE.
The Untamed Angling team always looks forward to the opening week at Kendjam, and one of the most exciting aspects is having an untouched Iriri River to explore and scout for ourselves. Talk about a great opportunity to fly fish these world class waters!
The week started with a nice meeting with all Kayapo of Kendjam. We introduced our staff and new guides and had a great integration meeting at the warriors house. All of the members of the Kendjam village and the UA staff were – excited to launch the new season, and the energy of the young Kayapo guides and the new guides were the highlight of the event!
We are pleased to have an impressive guide team this season:
With everything in order, we finally got our feet wet on the water and started scouting things out.
As always during this part of the season, the Iriri River was very clear and had excellent water levels, flowing at a good pace day by day. The condition of the water was perfect for floating wider river runs and wading in small river branches where fish hunt and hide.
This is one of our favorite times of the year for topwater action for bicuda, matrincha, and peacock bass. Jungle fish are always really hungry at the beginning of the season. Just imagine: They spent the wet season with a lot of water inside the jungle, thereby allowing shelter and protection for their prey. This makes feeding much more difficult. So when the water finally comes down, it’s hunting time for all predator species, and they really become aggressive.
We started training our new pro guides in all sections of the river (1 to 4) and showed them the wide range of fishing possibilities on the all river sections. This included the variety of jungle species possible on the fly and techniques for each specie and each water type.
The key in the training for the guides is to crack the code of fish behavior and discover their feeding, resting, and protection zones. Of course, this is all different depending on fish species, type of water (runs, pools, riffles, flats), and water level. Mastering these complexities is the key for determining and executing a successful fishing strategy each day.
While scouting, we were blessed with some amazing feeding frenzies of peacock bass in rock structures. Then we saw fish feeding on the surface, and these were the big matrincha. Always fun!
The highlight of opening week was the large schools of nice-sized fish in perfect water conditions. This allowed us to catch them with dry flies and poppers — a delight on a 5-6 weight rod. These fish were hungry and strong, and they averaged between 4 to 6 pounds.
Later we found where the wolfish were sheltering themselves. At the beginning of the season, these fish are generally not as discoverable as abundantly as they are later in the season. However, we found some fish in perfect shallow and crystal clear, small jungle tributaries. And finding schools of wolfish is like finding hungry wolves — you can expect them to attack your fly. No question.
Fishing with dry flies for pacu gave us one of the best gifts of the week. We also got some crazy topwater action with the torpedoes of the jungle — the bicuda. These fish hit all kinds of topwater flies, but the best was getting them to come to the surface to check out Chernobyl flies and seeing them hit in shallow water right in front of us. We normally catch these fish at the top of a run before the whitewater, but in this case, we had a different experience. They attacked the flies, and once hooked, they headed downstream at light speeds to the whitewater, jumping repeatedly the whole time. We ran after these fish as they headed downstream, jumping over rocks – and a few times, we hit our shins and knees on them. Eventually we ended up with the trophy in our hands. We consider these fish torpedoes for good reason!
Untamed Angling is pleased to be featured in another new episode of The Venturing Angler Podcast. In this episode, Rodrigo Salles and Tim Harden discuss jungle fly fishing at Kendjam.
Click here to listen to the podcast.
Meredith McCord and photographer, Matt Jones, of Tailwaters recently returned from jungle angling in Kendjam in the Amazon Basin of Brazil with Untamed Angling. We will be featuring Meredith’s daily record of her angling ventures in a nine-part travel journal. This is part eight.
The morning began with a beautiful sunrise and Augustine’s excellent egg scramble and coffee in my forever hot YETI Rambler. I couldn’t help but be drawn to fish busting just on the rock point right off our campsite, so grabbed my rod and headed out, hoping to put yesterday’s tough day behind me. Sure enough, fourth cast out, and I managed to land a nice little peacock bass.
I’ve found that first thing in the morning, when the water is cooler, the fishing is better. This morning was no different, and Matt immediately caught his first wolf fish of the trip, along with three medium-sized peacocks on Ross’ new prototype reel. Super sweet drag and ultralight. Following this trend of biting fish, I managed to land a pacu borracha, a matrincha, and a peacock all in one rapid area.
My highlight of the day was catching lots of six to seven pound peacock bass on Dan Blanton’s blue and yellow Flashtail Whistler 4/0. At one point, Augustine and I doubled up twice. I’ve found once you find the school, you can usually almost catch them all. Bass are creatures of habit that go right back to where you just pulled them out, so cast again, and you’ve got the entire school chasing your fly again.
Lunch was simple and perfect. It was a typical Kayapo lunch of tucanare peacocks, grilled whole over an open fire, sprinkled with a little salt, and served on a paddle. As a western add-on we had cold sodas and a kiwi.
The chef’s assistant made a special treat for me on this camping trip: chocolate-covered sweet coconut, dusted with oats on top. Almond Joy has nothing on these!
Due to the relentless sun and water as warm as bath water, the afternoon was slow. We couldn’t even see fish in the shallows, so we hit some deeper holes with an intermediate and a sinking line and managed to catch a few more tucanares and a bicuda.
Late in the afternoon, we tried our hand at the infamous payara armed with my Hardy Proaxis 8wt Ross reel with 350 grain sinking line. With a red and white Tarpon Snake by Umpqua, I would throw a long cast out and let it sink attempting to get it down 10 meters. My first retrieval of long, consistent medium speed strips resulted in three consecutive “pop, pop, pop” hits, but nothing going tight. This happened twice more, making it likely that payara hit my fly, but their toothy hard mouths prevented any solid hook ups. I managed to get a piranha chupita, and the most unique fish of the trip – a corvena, that had us all thinking it was a payara at the end other end, as this was the first corvena caught in the existence of Kendjam.
– Meredith McCord
Meredith McCord and photographer, Matt Jones, of Tailwaters recently returned from jungle angling in Kendjam in the Amazon Basin of Brazil with Untamed Angling. We will be featuring Meredith’s daily record of her angling ventures in a nine-part travel journal. This is part seven.
A camping we will go. Augustine, Roberto, Djocro, and I all loaded up in one boat, while Matt was in the longer “luggage” boat with all the camping essentials for the next three days. The day was bright with not a cloud in the sky. With an 8 am departure, we were sweating through our clothes by 9 am as we headed upstream in search of more fish and a campsite for the night. After several hours of navigating rapids, rocks and narrows, we made it to our first potential fishing spot. We were all excited and optimistic based on our first day, as we saw water stocked full of pacu and matrinxã on our way downstream to the lodge. Unfortunately, with no rain and only bright sun over the last four days, the water had done nothing but drop and heat up. Not good for this fishery.
Finally, just before lunch, we caught a few tucanares on Umpqua’s new black, red, and white Jungle Love. This new 2017 fly is killer because Umpqua put rattles in them. I’ve found that peacocks, as well as all bass, love the vibration and shake of the rattle.
To ensure their bellies would be filled, our Kayapo friends hand-lined a few peacocks and piranhas with their cool “fishing rig” armed with a fly and a weird grub that they find in a nut-like shell. The hopper-looking grub is encased in such a hard shell that the only way to get into it is by cracking them open with a rock.
The highlight of the day was witnessing Roberto catch his first pacu (borracha) of the week. This was especially sweet as it was his last day (he left early the next day for meetings back in Rio). And Matt put down his camera and caught a matrinxã within 30 seconds. Not only can Matt cast beautifully, but he just catches fish! Every time he picked up a rod during this trip, he caught a fish within five minutes.
Overall, it was a tough day. We saw lots of pacu and matrinxãs but very few seemed to have the energy to eat. We stayed at it until the sun was low on the horizon and we knew it was time to call it quits and find a campsite for the night. Finally, after another hour up river, we found the perfect site to pitch our tents and set up camp for the next few nights. Right before the sunset, Rodrigo appeared in his straw hat with two others to join us for the night, as it was too late for him to make the four hour trip back to the lodge.
– Meredith McCord
There are unique fishing destinations in the world – wild locations where getting there is half the adventure and one can experience life-changing angling experiences.
At Untamed Angling we dream about these waters, and pursue the most remote and difficult-to-operate angling destinations in the world, undeterred by the distances, difficulties, obstacles, and the naysayers. We are wholly driven by legends, myths, and the spirit of adventure.
It’s the unknown that drives us each and every day in creating and developing the most exotic, remote and spectacular angling odysseys that have ever been made available to the fly fishing industry.
It’s the soul of our being:
venturing deep into nature.
