Peruvian jungle arapaimas

Canoes are a great way to discover remote spots.

The story began many years ago when I was a child, long before smartphones and the Internet, when I first saw pictures of one of the most iconic freshwater fish: the araipaima gigas. Of course, in those days, magazine content wasn’t what it is now, but an article on pioneer fishing for arapaima somewhere in the Amazon was enough to cause me to dream about this gigantic, beautiful and mysterious fish.

Years later, while making my living in the fishing industry and constantly exploring new areas, I became a bit frustrated with the opportunities to catch an arapaima especially since I wanted to accomplish this on the fly. Every option I explored for potential venues turned out to be fished out, illegal or out of my budget. For some reason, with all the other freshwater fish available on the planet, catching an arapaima became an obsession for me.

When my good friend Jon mentioned a place where it may be possible to fish for arapaima, at first I was skeptical. When he returned after 5 weeks of fly fishing exploration and guiding and showed me the pictures of the fish that were caught and told me about fish that were lost, my only question was simply: when can we go? Finally, after nearly 20 years, I began to see the chance to take a shot at this legendary fish.

The arapaima gigas

One reason that makes the Arapaima special, is the fact that it’s a living fossil. It’s been proven that the fish you can catch today are genetically the same as 23 million years ago, while homo-sapiens is more or less the same for the last 10,000 years. The idea of trying to catch such an ancient species in the wild, without lodge and guides, deep inside a pristine rainforest, for me was more than enough.

The arapaima is a very strange fish. Tt has lungs and after a fight you have to keep them out of the water to breathe otherwise, they might drown. The body is similar to a snake to allow them to hunt in shallow water in the jungle and when the water rises, to swim through grassland. Basically it’s a very different fish to chase, and it takes a bit to figure it out.

The journey

I met the team of crazy anglers we put together in Quito, Ecuador - a group of guys that fished with me several times and in several places already. On the first night between beer and rum, we were all so excited we couldn’t stop dreaming about the journey waiting for us. At 3 AM next morning, we started off for a 6 hour drive across mountains to finally arrive in the at a big Amazon river only to navigate for the next one and half days looking around, having a beer, a rum and talking about fishing.

During the journey we cross the border with Peru and follow different rivers downstream and upstream.

We finally enter in a small black creek, in a totally different environment compared to the previous rivers. The jungle became denser and we could see and hear more wild animals. During the journey upstream we saw two Arapaima sitting idle on the surface and that was more than enough to get us excited over the limit. As we arrive to camp we set up our tackle extremely quickly and are ready to fish for a couple of hours the first afternoon. We are finally on the water and enter a stretch of flooded jungle with our small shambling canoe and eventually reach a beautiful lake.

We set the canoe in front of a grassland and while attempting to find our balance we prepare our fly rods. I make the first check cast to adjust the fly line length and warm up, and of course, on the third strip i got almost pulled in the water by a submarine… The swell is just massive, but I manage to hold the fly line because my drag is still not set. This thing starts immediately to pull our canoe at 20 km/h, all I can do is scream, swear, hold the line and try not to flip, while we are literally pulled by this thing at the speed of sound, when suddenly, something fails. As i get my fly back I realize that my Tiemco SP600 6/0, by far the best hook possible, is bent!

My boat buddy and I are in shock. I have caught a lot of big GTs up to 55 kg, but being pulled this way was just as hilarious as frightening and exciting at the same time. At the first paddling after this scene, we flip the canoe and we almost drown, so we quickly manage to move the canoe in the shallow and with the help of the other guys we solve the problem. We agree that for the first day we had enough emotions and we call it a day!

The challenge begins

When things start too successfully when you had a great luck on the first cast, especially if you waited for that fish for 20 years and you hook a potential world record after 30 seconds of fishing, it means destiny will punish you.

In fact, we realized that water levels raised by 2.5 meters compared to the week before, and arapaima would be probably spreading for miles hunting in the shallows between trees and swamp. We prepare for lots of casting and persistence. The first three days I preferred to waste my time paddling in a small kayak inside the jungle’s small channels, exploring and discovering tiny ponds. I could see arapaima breathing everywhere, and heard loud splashes of big fish smashing baits with their tails. Despite my confidence on getting a strike, nothing happened. The first thing I realize: the place seems packed with fish, but these fish are not aggressive or are very spooky, or maybe both.

On day four we visit a new lake, with lots of trees and some shallow water branches, evidently flooded by the high water. The festival of splashes continues and we can hear tails hitting the water from all sides. My canoe buddy and I keep casting, changing places, paddling, until we finally arrive to a branch where we can see dozens of fish breathing in a very small area.

My confidence gets pumped up and we get move in closer extremely gently and silently. The fish keep breathing at the surface and I manage to cast my fly in the zone, with a high level of adrenaline pumping in my veins. First cast yields nothing, second, third, and nothing happens but the fish disappear as they got probably spooked. Another thing I realized, casting my 25 cm buck tail fly, is my blind religion for the next 6 days; no matter how many hours, or how painful it will be, I will have to keep casting until my fly lands in front of the right fish.

At the end of the day I learned one of the other fly fishermen had a fish follow under the boat, so that was better than nothing. Only three of us were fly fishing. The three others were fishing with spinning gear, and they definitely have better result than us. That was pretty encouraging and it kept our moral high and gave us a good excuse to celebrate at night!

The next day I feel is the game changer. We plan to visit the most remote and apparently fish- filled lake of the area that requires a solid 30 minutes of paddling through a swamp after a locals made a path for us with machetes and marked the way where we could get lost. As we arrive in a corner of the lake, dozens of arapaima come up for air but nothing really happens except a “small” arapaima of about 30 kg caught on spinning tackle. That was until Markiian started screaming like mad and I finally see a decent arapaima gigas jumping while connected to a fly line. It’s a good fish, surely over 2 meters. After an intense fight we admire this trophy, hopefully not for the last time.

A true beast on the fly rod !

The day after we decide to split the teams, and with the fly fishing guys we decide to try once again the small lake. For this appointment I had to wear my lucky shirt that was with me over many adventures and caught many fish.

This time we see much more action than the day before. Lots of Arapaima breathing, but no luck until 4.30 pm. In a corner of the lake in just five minutes, total mayhem broke loose. With arapaima breathing and breaching like crazy in a very confined area, my canoe is literally surrounded by swells and splashes. It must happen now! Indeed, I finally have another strike and I can enjoy my first ‘’human’’ connection with an arapaima that unfortunately come up to be only around 20-25 kg…not the trophy I was chasing, but still an arapaima gigas on fly, more than enough to be very happy.

The day after, the worst thing that could happen, actually happened - rain came. For some reason when it’s raining Arapaima seem to stop all activity, at least this has been our feeling. During the next days we felt fishing became harder with water raising a few centimeters every day, enough to make fishing even trickier. Despite that we manage to land another Arapaima on fly and have few more strikes without a proper hook up. By the end of the trip we had seen many arapaima. The spinning guys caught some fish each and lost some more. One guy had seven strikes and no fish landed, and so far 3 landed on fly and some lost.

On the last day I admit I felt a bit demotivated and I was considering spending the last afternoon at the camp. I suddenly realized that I’m lucky to be in such a special place, of which I had been dreaming for so long. On top of that, as a fishing guide I’ve seen crazy things happen and the only rule is keep your lure or fly or any bait in the water for as long as you can…

Eventually, at 4.30 pm on the last day I found myself connected with THE Arapaima. With only one hour left to the end of my trip I had the strike UI had been seeking for so long, probably for years.

Heavy rain, heavy fish !

It all came together in a few seconds. A strong, powerful pull, a huge swell, my fly line goes tight, I’m so fully focused, cold and full of adrenaline. Everything is perfect, I hold the line, and I surrender nothing to the fish. It comes out of the water jumping and shaking. Today my boat buddy is a local guy that is paddling full time for me. As we got the fish on i screamed at him to paddle like a crazy to pull the fish from the dirty area. After 5 minutes we are in the middle of the lake and I scream like a child with a 2 meter arapaima pulling down under me. I find myself actually praying to land it. After 5 more minutes we manage to get the fish to shallow water and I jump in to finish the job with a proper rodeo - stop the fish and bring it on the floating land for some pics and to allow it to breathe. I can say without any doubt that it has been one of the best

fishing moments and feelings of my entire life. The whole thing, the effort to make it happen, the years I waited, and the persistence to make it happen. Holding that fish in my arms alone with a local guy at sunset in a remote jungle lake in Peru, is just impossible to describe!

I won my bet, I caught a big arapaima. The bet was to make a tattoo out of it in case of success and sooner or later i will have to. While I’m deciding, I’m learning to tie some huge bucktails flies for my next visit, the world record of arapaima gigas is certainly swimming in those waters.