” In the stunning light, under the fantastic blue sky, every information of the splendid forest was brilliant to the eye: the excellent trees, the network of bush ropes, the caverns of plant, where thick-leaved vines covered all things else.”
– Theodore Roosevelt, Through the Brazilian Wilderness ( 1914 )
A cocoi heron cruises off into the splendid forest.
2 weeks back, I led a group of Americans into an area of the Amazon Jungle within the country of Guyana that I have actually had the good luck to check out over the last numerous years. I have actually established relationships with the Amerindian guides, discovered their fishing techniques, and listened to their ghost stories. What follows are my notes and pictures from this exploration 100 miles up the Rewa River from its eponymous town.
Day 0, Feb. 13
Mac and Dave showed up in Georgetown, Guyana, last night and are headed to Ogle Airport en path to Lethem. Sam and Elizabeth will get here in the capital tonight. I’ll be participating in the best of “Shadow People at the Falls,” the F3T-selection movie I produced in 2015 with April Vokey and Jesse Males ofBackwater Productions About 30 hours after seeing it for the very first time on the cinema, I’ll be back because very same unusual corner of South America for a 3rd effort at understanding.
Day 1, Feb. 14
I left my Valentine at 1:00 am to drive to Billings to fly to Dallas to Miami to Georgetown. Our motorist and capital connection, Eon, complains losing fishing areas to the large Exxon terminals developing along the Demerara River as he drives me from the worldwide airport to the hotel after 1:00 am. I’m sleeping instantly.
Day 2, Feb. 15
Occurring prematurely, I lastly fulfill Sam and Elizabeth at the buffet for breakfast. Eon trips us through the city to the local airport. Check-in and security provide the normal mix of attention and intransigence, and soon we’re crawling into the twin-prop for an hour-long hop to Lethem.
The Country of Guyana is approximately the size of Utah. Stars show Georgetown, Lethem, Rewa Town, and Corona Falls.
The station of Chinese wholesalers and outdoor dining establishments on the Brazilian border surrounded by ranchland and savanna is 2 hours of rough gravel from The Sanctuary Dining Establishment and Annai, then you enjoy two-track. Our intense young motorist, Yousef Abraham, informs us that the livestock ranching stops around here, someplace near where the jaguar area starts. He’s operated in preservation and sustainable farming with the native neighborhoods around here the majority of his adult life– however likewise side-hustles tough with his raised, kitted Toyota Hilux. You require huge knobby tires to come down the otter slide that is the “roadway” to Rewa today.
The savanna ranchland nation from Lethem to Annai is never ever except fascinating sights and modes of transportation.
2 more hours of 4-low crawling through the mud and there’s light ahead at the landing. Yousef beeps a couple of times, hailing my pal and Barefoot Experiences head guide Terry who rips below his home simply up the Rupununi. He transfers us and our equipment simply up from the confluence at the Rewa Ecolodge, where we slurp cold Itaipava and Banks beers before pumpkin soup and fried arowana. Tiny bats roost in the primary lodge cabana rafters instantly above the octogenarian British female on her jungle safari. I talk to artist and Indifly director Johann du Preez on on entirely off-the-wall fly patterns and mystical fish types habits before retiring to bed. The painting of an intense red pacu in my cabin can just be a promise.
A painted pacu at the Rewa Ecolodge.
Day 3, Feb. 16
I pack a fried egg and chopped sausages into to my puffy “bake,” a regional specialized someplace in between Native American frybread and Greek pita. We refill the bass boat and Terry launch upriver, delighting in the increasing waters. This trip took 5 hours 2 weeks back; now we’re taking a look at 2 as the sandbars fade from view. Jabiru storks raise greatly from a within bend before a rookery of excellent egrets, then a churchgoers of spectacled caimans. Capybara spread into the plant, and after that Terry reduces to the bank to drop me off.
Jabiru storks alight on a sandbar.
I follow the jungle course specified by perpendicular log rollers for boat dragging. Emerging at the pond, my eye initially captures the huge, fresh wildcat prints amongst the young coastline turf. A boat reduces from around a corner. I discover a dubious hole in the trees from whence to shoot pictures, rig a rod, and rest while Mac and Dave effort to offer craft-fiber peacock bass to sunning arapaima.
Fly fishing for arapaima is a difficulty on par with tarpon or authorization. Casts need to fast and precise; strip-sets need to be strong and definitive.
Ultimately we rendezvous, trek out, and run upriver, slapping flies and entices into creek mouths and lagoons. Payara and black piranha are as spirited as I keep in mind. Dave and Mac currently have those under their belts, along with arowana, peacock, a 100-pound-class redtail feline, and 3 smaller sized arapaima. I capture a set of redtail catfish that night while cleaning in the river and bullshitting with the guides.
Payara or “vampire fish” have holes in their skulls that fit their huge fangs. They’re amongst the most amazing sportfish you’re most likely to come across.
Day 4, Feb. 17
It’s great to be back in camp. The young boys have actually plainly been hard at work developing the tarpaulin structure and milling boards for a brand name brand-new hammock house/cabin. They even sculpted an indication inviting visitors to Anteater Swimming pool. After breakfast we head upriver, pausing for a standoff with a gang of huge river otters.
Anteater Basecamp is an ever-evolving wood frame and tarpaulin structure some 40 miles upriver from the town.
Huge river otters typically run in big packs. They’re extremely curious and can be drawn close by imitating their calls.
Back to the lagoon and Mac locks into a great butterfly peacock on a popper. His 9-weight immediately folds simply above the cork and it’s a handline rodeo. I hand him my Winston, and we press through the neck and into the lake, outraging more green, yellow, and orange cichlids along the method. As the sun increases to scorching levels we tuck into the shade to deal with offering supper. Blue-and-yellow macaws pass shrieking overhead.
Remarkably colored butterfly peacock bass do rarely endure a popper passing over their lie.
A tiger catfish each pertains to Dave and me, and after that Mac is unexpectedly connected to an arapaima. It’s a workable one– perhaps 40 pounds–” the enjoyable kind,” I state. Bugs wrangles it rapidly after a couple of runs and tailwalks, an easier job when you have actually trained on designs 10 times that size. Prematurely we need to go back to camp to see Mac off downriver for the African half of his experience.
Even a “little” arapaima typically takes 2 individuals to manage.
Weeks back, Bugs and I had actually traded a cellular phone for a hand-carved fishing bow. We head out on the rocks throughout the river after supper to train me in its methods. I whiffed a couple of great chances before starting to correctly accommodate the light refraction. It’s great to invest a long time in the bullpen before the ballfield.
Tiger catfish or surubi abound and a staple of regional food.
Day 5, Feb. 18
Camp leaves early and heads upriver in 3 boats, stopping at rocks and rapids along the method to fly fish. Hardly 2 hours’ trip time puts us at the riverburst where we have actually typically camped to access the falls at lower water. We consume lunch and push on, the river narrowing past its confluence with the Kwitaro. A huge tapir wades the coastline plants as we start to go into the tailrace and terraced drops where the river recuperates from the violent Corona Waterfall.
Tapirs or bush cow are far-off family members of rhinoceros that can grow to 500 pounds.
Captains pilot deftly up sluices and stones to make land simply listed below the very first genuine vertical pour-overs. All boats offload and anglers move off to look for supper, the cooks towards setting up a location to prepare it, and the team raising tarpaulins versus the unavoidable monsoon. We rise river-right through the forest to a flat-rock apron opening to the broad wash of falls and nearby lagoon. Dave lands a payara and I miss out on a bicuda, however the bite feels off in the increasing water and baking sun.
Corona Falls is the very first in a series of cataracts about 100 miles up the Rewa River from its mouth.
We adjourn to shadier locations to buckle down about that supper. Without refrigeration, the cooks didn’t bring any meat– so we ‘d much better discover some if we desire some. Elizabeth locks into a couple of payara before Stephanu pertains to shuttle the couple back to camp at sunset. I inform him to leave me there; we do not have supper yet. A 35-pound tiger feline half an hour later on resolves that issue, and I hail a trip.
Payara, bicuda, and pacu flourish around quick water in this system.
Day 6, Feb. 19
The team invested much of the other day night portaging 2 of the river canoes around Corona Falls. I’m thrilled. We added to the next 2 sets of falls– Powis and Cataback– on my very first experience down here and came across a great deal of pacu. I could not capture one on that journey, or the next one, and I’m out for blood this time.
Jungle camp at Corona Falls: established in a couple of hours, broken down in a couple of more.
Blue-and-yellow macaws make a screech that’s as awful as their plumage is stunning.
Myleus pacu is among lots of types understood by that typical name, a big herbivorous cousin of the piranhas. This Guyanese variation generally runs an intense red or orange outside made all the complete stranger by its human-like teeth utilized for water plants, berries, fruits, and flowers. The name “jungle authorization” is expressive of more than simply its dinner-plate profile. They are incredibly shy, creepy, selective, enigmatic, and effective when connected. I’m bring a choice of grassy, fruity, flowery flies made mainly from Michael’s craft shop discoveries and directed by unclear intel, intending to lastly break the code. The native guides have a specific interest in seeing us land a pacu beyond its difference as a sportfish: they securely think it’s likewise the tastiest fish in the river.
We trek the path from camp to the landing above the falls, load boats, and run a mile or more upriver to Powis Falls, more of a chute actually– called with the regional word for black curassow or bush turkey. No pacu found. Sam hooks a couple of payara and piranha. Terry and Stephanu skillfully pilot their craft up the gush and we refill. It’s another 3 or 4 miles to Cataback Falls, an assortment of house-sized rocks dropping the river perhaps 50 feet in elevation before cleaning into a large bay.
Cataback Falls, home of petroglyphs and pacu.
There’s less water than last time I went to and no circulation in the channel that was loaded with pacu 2 years back. Slipping up on the outflow, nevertheless, we find 3 pumpkins holding tight to a within bend. The group does disappoint them enough stealth and they disappear. While the customers gladly remove banners for more predatory fishes, the guides shuttle me throughout and we rose the falls. Terry is bring my fishing pole with the little gold Mepps spinner, a recognized pacu hack, so I understand he indicates organization. He points me to a deep trough simply above the cataract, and I start to overcome it with my craft-store mixtures. Then, on a long cast with a drifting fuzz, an intense orange dinnerplate appears and hurries downstream after the fly. It gets simply with its lips and I stop briefly, waiting on it to breathe in. Head turns and I raise back into the air, groaning loudly. A couple of casts later on, the very same thing occurs– however this pacu breathes in immediately. I sweep tough and the jungle authorization stress out my slack line upriver, turns, then shoots down towards the falls, taking me around a stone. I virtually fly out to the snag, recuperate stress, and lock the drag. Trevor shows up behind me and I swing the knocking fish to his hands. All of us begin war-whooping: me for marking off the single greatest product on my fish desire list; the guides due to the fact that they’re especially delighted about the coming lunch.
The author with a veteran objective accomplished: pacu on fly.
Back at the beach listed below, the guys spatchcock the pacu, sandwich it a fish grate, develop a fire, and sizzle. Set out on a broad palm leaf beside coconut crackers and the common Mambo Sauce, I need to concur that this is the very best fish flesh in the river– most likely in no little part due to the fact that it took me 3 years to capture it. After a soak and last session at Cataback we start to come down, working the logs and rocks unsuccessfully for aimara, the huge wolf fish, the types now at the top of my list.
Bugs with a short-term objective accomplished: pacu for lunch.
Everybody is tired and starving once again by the time we trek back to camp, and the cooks serve a suitable surubi banquet while I sculpt everybody’s mixed drink ice with a hatchet. Determined as constantly, after supper the young boys ask if we wish to go catfishing. The plunge swimming pool around the corner from Corona is understood to host jau or gilded catfish of shocking percentages. As we stroll from the cook camping tent to the boats, a big, wide-headed snake slithers into our course. “Bad snake, return!” Bugs screams. As the snake opts for the undergrowth towards the guide’s hammock location, Stephanu shows up from behind and saws its avoid with the 12-gauge. Labaria, they call it– lancehead or fer-de-lance, my later research study yields– a strongly poisonous pit viper. Enjoyment stimulated, we run the huge boat up and throughout and trek the path, experiencing a tapir in the falling rain. Dave lands perhaps a 45-pound redtail, however the bite feels sluggish.
Redtail catfish discharge a series of croaks and grunts audible from some range away.
We stroll the rocks back to the boat an hour later on and Demas identifies a pacu. Everybody turns off their lights and the guides inch me forward displaying my fishing bow. Appropriately located, Bugs informs me to draw then flicks on his spotlight. I see the big orange orb, objective down then upcurrent and launch. The arrow shaft removes then leaps and we’re on the handline, reefing the skewered dinnerplate far from the chute listed below. Everybody is up to pieces when Trevor lastly gets it, showing that they do not actually offer a shit about dry flies beyond what makes Americans delighted– eliminating a pacu with weapon is the real accomplishment for these Macushi/Wapishana tribesmen. We go back to camp simply ahead of a cacophonous, deluging rainstorm. I dream we’re sleeping under tarpaulins straight under the waterfall upstream.
Avoid your fly angler’s look: this is what it indicates to go native down here. And it’s method more difficult than you believe.
Day 7, Feb. 20
It’s time to start our 100-mile descent towards the town, and the young boys have another wedding day prepared. They just recently found a reputable area for Hoplias aimara, likewise called hymara, traíra, or huge wolf fish. Whatever you call it, the demonic visage of this black-and-indigo ambush predator is as most likely to appear in your problems as your jungle struck list. We reach the nondescript riverbank and start treking, getting here a while later on at a small drip going through rocks. Everybody slides down a high bank to the water. We work flies and jigs around the fractured rock developments to no get.
Small-stream wolfishing deep in the jungle.
The group distributes to work nearby pockets, however the guides insist they are here. Stephanu sits right on top of the rock in concern, dipping Dave’s jig into a crevice that appears hardly able to hold an eel. All of a sudden, a huge aimara blows out of the structure, tightens up the line, and corrects the alignment of the hook. I proffer a more powerful steel and the scene plays out, this time with Stephanu trailing a 18-plus-pound wolf fish.
Ugly or ornate? The aimara or huge wolf fish recollects lingcod and other creepy ambush predators.
Lastly I have my opportunity to see and photo among these really scary fish in the flesh. We have actually captured traírao, a smaller sized cousin, and I can personally vouch for the bitch of their bite, however there’s absolutely nothing like the genuine thing. Ghoulish facial skin covers down onto the couple of however terrifying teeth. Big, reflective, dark purple-and-blue scales taper back to round tail suitable for a much larger fish. The Halloween countenance and rock-pile churchgoers recollects the saltwater lingcod I matured capturing in Washington.
Dip your fly in the best crevice and it might be taken in.
I capture one casting to that specific island, then Sam and Elizabeth both land their specimens dipping flies into the cracks. We poke around some more before climbing back to the boats for rum and lemonade on ice and fried paca, the 30-pound fawn-spotted rodent Bugs and Terry collected the night before. Both make a hit.
Day 8, Feb. 21
We made it back to basecamp last night and commemorated our upstream experiences. Early morning relocations slower, however soon we’re treking into an arapaima pond, among my favorites. Sam and Elizabeth pole around with Jules, Dan, and Trevor, sight-casting to the magnificent fish as they come near breathe, while Dave, myself, and the rest of the team cast from a creek mouth. Everybody got gotten or hooked to among these swimming freight trains; nobody got to hold one. That’s all I wish to state on the matter.
After supper, Bugs uses to reveal me the brand-new catfish area he discovered. He, Dave, and I add there without light and bind. I lose a substantial fish immediately, then remain connected to another. We raise the 70-pound redtail aboard then look for a shallower area for photos. Another desired accomplishment. The day’s failings are tempered.
The author with a big redtail catfish captured simply above camp.
Day 9, Feb. 22
We go back to the lake back in the jungle where we left the boat the other day and approached the very same strategy. Not long into our session, Dave ties into something massive. The fish declines to come near and declines to tailwalk, an anticipated action in any arapaima dance number. After a series of runs and disconcerting headshakes, the fish comes close sufficient to Stephanu that he can touch the leader and pat the tail to motivate another run. Dave transports it close when again, and our bronc rider saddles up, grasping the bony pectoral fin deals with to move with the fish. Then it chooses to leap– directly into Dave, knocking him off his feet. We clear the line from deadfall and the war of pull is back on. Ultimately Stephanu gets an excellent grip and we have it: Arapaima gigas, some 350 pounds or more. There suffices space along its flank for 4 people to raise it.
Arapaima are the biggest types of freshwater fishes in the world that have conventional scales. Just particular sturgeons and rays grow bigger. This one was well north of 300 pounds.
Jules poles the boat with Sam and Elizabeth to observe the phenomenon. It has to do with lunch break, so they join us in the shade while Bugs grills a tiger feline we captured last night– the last of that sweet, fatty flesh I’ll get to consume for a long time. Soon, line peels and we have Elizabeth connected into one. She lands it deftly and without much inconvenience, definitely stating something with a fish almost two times her size. Sam battles, lands, and launches another adult arapaima not long after, accomplishing some fictional objective of capturing and launching 1,000 pounds of fish in an early morning. Prematurely we hear Terry owl-hoot from the landing and we need to leave. I bid goodbye to my brand-new buddies Sam and Elizabeth, who are taking the more peaceful path home, while Dave and I start our more fast retreat.
The contrast to dragons is too simple. Every angler is transfixed by their very first arapaima.
As the skiff slides around a large bend on the blessedly greater water, I find an unusually in proportion swelling on a high bank in the sunshine. “Jaguar,” I gasp, pointing. The huge feline, 2nd I have actually seen in 3 journeys here, concerns us for numerous minutes before hissing and departing to the jungle. We get to the ecolodge entirely material.
A jaguar surveys its domain from a bright coastline perch.
Day 10, Feb. 23
Terry ferryboats us early from the lodge to the landing where Yousef is waiting to bounce us back to Lethem. Some Brazilian beef consumes time while we wait to check out our flight with his uncle, and after that we’re cruising into the sundown towards the Caribbean. Eon is out on a fishing expedition, so his partner Corinne cabs us from one airport to the next. Security personnel make me question my desire to go back to this nation, however the bartender rapidly restores it. Nigh on midnight we’re in the air to New york city, then I’m onward to Dallas while Dave divides for Amsterdam en path to Africa. By 3:00 pm and with the assistance of a friendly seatmate, I frequent Bozeman. Cut, contaminated, bruised, bitten, and still watery from the malaria medications, I take a seat, breathe deeply, and include another product to my packlist for next year’s journey up the Rewa River.
Sam Lungren is an author, manufacturer, professional photographer, and MidCurrent’s Director of Production. Send out a note to [email protected] if you wish to find out more about the 2026 Guyana exploration.
