It was gorgeous morning here at Xingu Lodge on the Xingu River deep in the Amazon.  I was up before 5 AM enjoying the birds while working on my blog from yesterday.  The bird life is incredible in every direction and on the far side of the river you hear the roar of howler monkeys.  All this while the stars and darkness gave way to the orange glow of sunrise.

We downed omelets and coffee and we took both boats down river to fish a deep pool for payara.  I fished with Ross Purnell and guide Marcos Hlace.  Joe and Rodrigo went together with one of the other guides.  It was a nice run through small rapids and rock gardens  The locals handle the boats and motors beautifully.  Undoubtedly I’d be knocking off propellers left and right!

The pool was gigantic.  There was plenty of room for two boats.   We were spread out far enough we couldn’t talk if we wanted.  A small mountain borders the east shore and the view was ominous as the sun worked its magic through the rainforest steam.

As good as things looked however, the fish weren’t cooperating.  Ross and I got our flies deep and slowly stripped them back to the boat just as payara usually like, but nothing.  Finally after about an hour Ross hooked up but it wasn’t a payara.  The hard pull and vicious run happens on every payara but Ross stripped this fish in almost effortlessly.  The mystery fish was the corvina (Plagioscion squamosissimus), a unique freshwater drum-like fish.  Photo by Marcos Hlace – Untamed Angling

I’ve been wanting to add this odd river corvina to my list for years.  I saw them first at the famous Manaus fish market and since on many on the Untamed Angling weekly reports.  I asked Rodrigo about them recently and he said I had a good chance this week.  After Ross caught his I sent my fly the same direction and rather than the long slow strips for payara, I sped my strips up a bit.  Ross actually got his when he sped up to bring the fly close to recast.  Photo by Marcos Hlace – Untamed Angling

We worked the area where Ross caught his corvina for awhile then went back to payara.  Back to the long cast, long countdown for sinking the fly, then slowly stripping the fly back.  We were in the dead middle and Marcos said it was 60 ft deep.  60 feet in a river!  Suddenly I went tight and a payara leaped 80 ft away.  Photo by Marcos Hlace – Untamed Angling

This payara had plenty of room to fight me in.  He jumped twice then dove deep.  I kept tight and played him by stripping only.  If you lose contact they will shake your fly in an instant.  Soon Marcos had the payara in the net.  And a nice one at that!  Photo by Marcos Hlace – Untamed Angling

Our boat worked this pool hard.  The other guys too.  No one took a break for three hours.  I watched Rodrigo.  He was confident every time.  The payara simply weren’t feeding.  Many predator fish act this way.  When their not hungry its tough fishing.  In the end, I’d jumped and lost one more payara, Ross, kind of funny, landed another corvina.  I wished we could have traded catches!

We retreated to the lodge around 11:30 before the brutal heat tried to cook us.  Clouds were moving in and as we ate lunch it started to rain.  Here in the rainforest of the Amazon downpours can be impressive.  This one was.  We are fortunate to be in the shelter of the lodge.  You may remember last year at this time I was camped in the Borneo jungle and it rained like this daily and comfort was nonexistent.  This was far more enjoyable.

We waited till about 3 PM for the rain to easy before heading out.  It’s no fun fishing in a downpour but it lightened enough it was ok.  I was back with Joe.

After the fun I had with pacu yesterday, Joe wanted to catch some too.  Usually pacu fishing is good after a rain but it rained too much.  The water was badly off-color.  Nonetheless we put our time in and sure enough Joe landed this gorgeous silver pacu.

After only one pacu in two hours we made a run to a payara hole for the final hour.  It was a great move.  While we didn’t smack any of the “standard” payaras (Hydrolycus scomberoides), I lucked into my fourth new species of the trip and sort of a dream fish I’ve only ever seen in pictures.  There are three payara species here.  This is my first (Raphiodon vulpinus), also called the machete payara.

Landing this unique payara was a circus and the film of it will be posted on a Scientific Angler IG post later today.  You don’t want to miss it!

Mr. Machete and the silver pacu were all she wrote for us on this afternoon session.  But Joe and I each had a new species so we were thrilled.  We returned to the lodge by 6 and enjoyed some of Rodrigos fine red wine and yet another amazing meal.  Xingu Lodge is the real deal!

If this is a trip you want to do (and you are crazy if you don’t!) you can Contact me, Yellow Dog Flyfishing Adventures or Untamed Angling.

 For more pics from trips check out my Instagram page @jeffcurrier65

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