We passed by some of Anthony's gardens on the way to the creek.
Anthony made this pond by damming the creek. When the water level is higher, he would keep more Arapaima in the pond. He only had one in the pond at this time. Aside from the Arapaima, all other fish species occurred naturally. Every few years, flooding would replenish the pond with new fish.
Anthony mentioned two other species of smaller Trahira in the pond that we should target. He called them "Red Trahira" and "Purple Trahira". I fished a small spinner for an hour and only caught the regular Trahira (Hoplias malabaricus). Anthony immediately killed any H. malabraicus caught from the pond because they would eat all the fish in the pond. When nothing is left, the H. malabraicus would cannibalize each other.
After an hour of casting, I switched to small chunks of bait instead and caught the two species of Trahira along the undercuts along shore. They may be small, and extremely beautiful, but they are vicious predaotrs!
Aimara (Hoplerythrinus unitaeniatus) - Species #619
Erythrinus erythrinus - Species #620
We tried to fish some areas for Electric Eel, but found none of them.
Anthony said there were Angelfish in the creek, so we fished with tanago hooks.
We didn't see or catch any Angelfish, but there were a lot of Tetra species!
Bandtail Tetra (Moenkhausia dichroura) - Species #621
Glass tetra (Moenkhausia oligolepis) - Species #622
Moenkhausia chrysargyrea - Species #623 (seems most likely)
Astyanax sp. - Species #624 (In the publication Ornamental Fishes of Peru, this was listed as an Astyanax sp., but no one seems to know which species it is)
We also caught more of these. This one is a confirmed Mesonauta mirificus.
I saw something came up to the surface to breathe, but not too sure what it was. Anthony and the guides said it could be some of the smaller electric fishes. I tried to fish a larger chunk of bait for a while and caught another Crenicichla. We think it is Crenicichla lucius.
Crenicichla lucius
We had lunch at noon and spent the rest of the time packing all our gear.
Parting shot of Yamil and I. He was a solid guide for the past week. He made sure we always had fresh bait, always pointing out new areas to fish when the bite slowed, and made sure to tell me all the species that were "muy aggressivo" to make sure I didn't get poked or bitten.
During our week at the lodge, the water level has been falling. When we arrived, the boat was able to dock at this wooden dock.
A little over two hours later, we were back in Iquitos. Here is our parting shot - from left George, Ben, Anthony's wife, Anthony, Michael, me, Josh, Joy and Homer (one of our guide).
I'll give another shout out to Anthony and his operation, Otorongo Expedition, for the fantastic week. His kitchen staff produced delicious meals and always had a smile on their faces. His housekeeping staff always had fresh sheets for us and our laundry were always done same day. The guides Anthony employed paddled hard in the strong Amazon current, pulled boats over obstacles in the small creeks, chopped through jungles and sloshed through mud, and basically did all they can to help us find new species to catch. As for Anthony, he personally accompanied us each day to ensure everything went as smoothly as possible, and took us to all the fishiest spots that he knew. He expected much better fishing for Peacock Bass and big Catfish, but it appeared the seasons and the water level worked against us on this trip and we never had any wide open fishing. Yet, he spared no cost taking us all over the map to fish. It took a lot of his resources just to provide this great trip for us. Anthony took very good care of us and we highly recommend Otorongo Expedition to anyone looking for a similar experience!
No comments:
Post a Comment