Amazon Day 3
As I lay in bed and write, the familiar sound of a heavy downpour on my tents rainfly greets me. It’s an oddly comforting sound. Knowing the rain is falling but I am safe and dry in my tent.
Great day today. I fished with Tom Drendel, whose family settled/ started Naperville, IL.
We fished for peacocks all morning with no luck. Just as I was starting to get down I hooked into my 1st ever and 1st of the trip peacock bass. The 4lber hit right behind the back side of a rock, in an eddy.
I really enjoyed fishing with Tom. We share a lot of similar passions and thought processes.
Tom lost 2 nice peacocks - I ended the day with 5 peacocks and 1 big drum caught on catfish cut bait. Biggest of the day was a 7lber. Crazy beautiful fish. Very strong.
Broke the 10wt sage today. I was high sticking the fish as our guide pulled down on the tip to release / unhook the fish. Oops. Oh well - that’s why you bring backups.
After getting back to camp late, we arrived to the group raving about the cayman we had shot last night. The camp chief has prepared it as a fried/breaded dish as well as in a jambalaya type dish. I can honestly say it was spectacular. Blew me away how good it was, and I was not alone in that opinion. Every last piece of it was gobbled up. It was so good in fact, that the group asked us to go out hunting again tonight.
Pete came with us this time as we pushed off and spotlighted up river. We passed up 2 smaller caymans before finding one to take. Wellington pulled the trigger and one tribe member hopped in the water to finish it off with a machete. He dragged the cayman back into the floor of the boat, right at my feet. Wellington handed me the machete “just in case”.... Last night the cayman wasn’t fully dead and came to life for a moment at Wellingtons feet. Luckily tonight he was dead.
We also saw a paca, which is about a 40lb jungle rodent, and two snakes.
Tomorrow Wellinton invited Pete and I on a daylight hunt with the Chief of the tribe. Plan for now is to hunt the jungle in the AM and fish in the afternoon. Yeehaw.
Rain continues to fall. Tap tap tap. Tap