My most memorable fishing trip ever. Peru.

[Hobious]

it was nuts.  we went and stayed at some jungle lodges in Peru.  took 2.5 hours in this big river boat to get there.  when we stepped off the boat I turned and looked at the water and said, "I wonder what lives in there?".  my brother speaks Spanish and wrangled the craziest fishing trip ever.  same giant boat.  we paid $25ea for this boat guy to take us fishing.  we had to pay homage to some military checkpoint.  true story..we gave them a plastic shopping bag of Peruvian Twinkies.  they looked like our Twinkies but were package with local language.  they waves us on and went back into their hut.  I assume to make coffee. 

well, we beach it. and they guy hands me possibly the worst fishing set up ever.  I brought my UL set up and he laughed at it.  what he handed me was like an 8 foot ocean rig.  SUPER HEAVY.  with a round bait caster held on with bailing wire.  my first cast was..yup.  I bird nest it.  lucky I am good at picking those out.  I did a bunch of nervous "flips".  the line was 50lb mono.  THICK and coiled.  we were on our way to a skunk when a boat helper caught a fish on a hand line.  we used our UL gear and caught some tiny cat fish..Pictus catfish.  I knew the fish because had one in my aquarium as a kid.  we used my Leatherman to chop it up and the boat captain helped me cast that thing into rushing waters. 
as we wait..a jungle Leopards shows up and swims circles about 75 yards upstream.  it looked at us and I whisper, "man, I hope that thing doesn't like Chinese food (I'm of Chinese decent)" my brother laughs and the big cat literally disappeared in blink. 

then it happens.  YANK!   it took me 30 minutes of fight to beach this thing. the entire time I was calculating the tensile strength of bailing wire in my head.  I saw the black tail.  the guide yells out what they call it.
when I beach it.. it was a giant PACU.  it has been the best fish fight of my entire life.  the boat captain wanted my Leatherman.  I wanted to give it to him, but I still had 2 weeks left to travel.  if it was the end of my trip I would have given it to him.  I wish I could mail him a new rod/reel combo. 

[Smallie_Stalker]

What a great story! And an interesting looking fish too.

Thanks for sharing it with us.

Sent from my SM-S908U using Tapatalk

[Pferox]

Wow, nice fish GREAT story! 
Sorry I'm late to the show, but welcome to Ultimate Bass, one of the best sites on the web. 

[big g]

Thanks for sharing the trip, and what a great pic of that fish.  You made life time memories!