Stan Fagerstrom
07-01-2005, 07:57 AM
“You Gotta Feed ‘Em Spoons!”
By Stan Fagerstrom
Part 1
The young Brazilian guide didn’t know much English. But he knew plenty about the peacock bass of the jungles where he had grown up.
I saw him watching me as I cast my metal wobbler up to the edge of the jungle underbrush and began reeling in. I’d already been told by some of my companions that you needed to bring the lure I was throwing back in at a fast clip to get results.
“Senor,” the guide said as he pointed to my reel. Then he made motions with his hands to show that he wanted me to reel twice as fast as I had been. “Holy mackerel!” I said to myself, “this kid’s out of his mind. I’ve already been cranking this dang spoon too fast for anything to catch up with it. And now he wants me to go faster.”
I didn’t have more time to ponder whether or not that young man knew what he was talking about. I cast again. The lure plopped into the water right at the base of a sizeable tree along the edge of the Rio Araca, one of the many tributaries of the Rio Negro River in Brazil. I let it sink a couple of feet, then started it back as fast as I could turn the reel handles.
Wham! Something smashed that wobbling spoon before it had traveled six feet. My rod jerked down and line peeled off the reel as the fish headed back for the jungle undergrowth from which it had come. I clamped my thumb down on the reel spool. Mistake! I might as well have tried to pick a piece of charcoal out of a barbecue pit. I got the skin on my thumb polished pretty darn good before my brain got around to telling me to let go.
http://www.ifish.net/sfspotpea1.jpg
I would have sworn this 7-pound spotted Amazon jungle peacock bass weighed at least 10-pounds when it smashed into my Tony Accetta wobbling spoon. The strength and agility of these jungle bass is difficult to believe.
I finally caught that fish. I was both surprised and disappointed when it was finally in the landing net. Why? Because that fish weighed only a tad more than 7-pounds. Before I had a chance to eyeball it up close and careful I would have sworn it was at least
10-pounds and probably more than that.
My experience wasn’t unusual. Anytime you hook one of the Amazon’s peacock bass you’re likely to have your hands pleasantly full. On second thought that you better make that “unpleasantly full” at least some of the time where these thumb burning, savage striking jungle bass are concerned. That’s especially true if you’re dumb enough, and I was, to clamp your thumb down on your reel when one hits.
I knew that before I went back into the Amazon for the third time. I caught my first jungle peacocks almost 30 years ago. I marveled at their strength and speed then, but I admit I had forgotten just what a remarkable game fish they are until they conducted that refresher course for me the last time around.
You’ll notice I said I hooked the fish I’ve been talking about on a wobbling spoon. Let’s get into the specifics because that shiny chunk of metal with its single hook is one of the best lures you can throw for peacock bass. If you’re headed into the jungle you should have some. It’s the Tony Accetta Pet Spoon marketed by the Luhr-Jensen Company, of Hood River, OR.
I was urged to throw the Pet Spoon by someone who probably knows enough about catching peacock bass to write a book on the subject. It figures he would. The guy I’m talking about, you see, is Phil Jensen, the president of the Oregon bait-making company that bears his name.
Jensen was the reason I was in the jungle that last time. We’ve known each other for almost half a century but had never shared a boat. He asked me to join him on what was his ninth trip into the jungle for peacock bass. I doubt there’s a bait maker in America who has spent more time than Phil has working with and testing the various lures his company produces.
http://www.ifish.net/sfphilpea1.jpg
Phil Jensen, president of the Luhr Jensen Company, got this dandy peacock on one of the topwater baits his company markets.
“Our Tony Accetta Pet Spoon is one of the most versatile lures we have for peacocks,” Jensen told me while we sat it the Miami Airport waiting to board a Varig Airlines flight to Manaus, Brazil. “For years it has been one of the lures we sell the most for anglers who are going after peacock bass in the Amazon.”
It’s one thing for the president of a lure company to say his company markets a lure that’s especially productive for peacock bass. It’s something else to have him prove it. That’s exactly what Jensen did on our Amazon trip. I’ll provide more of the details in my next column.
Watch for it beginning Aug. 1.
-To Be Continued-
By Stan Fagerstrom
Part 1
The young Brazilian guide didn’t know much English. But he knew plenty about the peacock bass of the jungles where he had grown up.
I saw him watching me as I cast my metal wobbler up to the edge of the jungle underbrush and began reeling in. I’d already been told by some of my companions that you needed to bring the lure I was throwing back in at a fast clip to get results.
“Senor,” the guide said as he pointed to my reel. Then he made motions with his hands to show that he wanted me to reel twice as fast as I had been. “Holy mackerel!” I said to myself, “this kid’s out of his mind. I’ve already been cranking this dang spoon too fast for anything to catch up with it. And now he wants me to go faster.”
I didn’t have more time to ponder whether or not that young man knew what he was talking about. I cast again. The lure plopped into the water right at the base of a sizeable tree along the edge of the Rio Araca, one of the many tributaries of the Rio Negro River in Brazil. I let it sink a couple of feet, then started it back as fast as I could turn the reel handles.
Wham! Something smashed that wobbling spoon before it had traveled six feet. My rod jerked down and line peeled off the reel as the fish headed back for the jungle undergrowth from which it had come. I clamped my thumb down on the reel spool. Mistake! I might as well have tried to pick a piece of charcoal out of a barbecue pit. I got the skin on my thumb polished pretty darn good before my brain got around to telling me to let go.
http://www.ifish.net/sfspotpea1.jpg
I would have sworn this 7-pound spotted Amazon jungle peacock bass weighed at least 10-pounds when it smashed into my Tony Accetta wobbling spoon. The strength and agility of these jungle bass is difficult to believe.
I finally caught that fish. I was both surprised and disappointed when it was finally in the landing net. Why? Because that fish weighed only a tad more than 7-pounds. Before I had a chance to eyeball it up close and careful I would have sworn it was at least
10-pounds and probably more than that.
My experience wasn’t unusual. Anytime you hook one of the Amazon’s peacock bass you’re likely to have your hands pleasantly full. On second thought that you better make that “unpleasantly full” at least some of the time where these thumb burning, savage striking jungle bass are concerned. That’s especially true if you’re dumb enough, and I was, to clamp your thumb down on your reel when one hits.
I knew that before I went back into the Amazon for the third time. I caught my first jungle peacocks almost 30 years ago. I marveled at their strength and speed then, but I admit I had forgotten just what a remarkable game fish they are until they conducted that refresher course for me the last time around.
You’ll notice I said I hooked the fish I’ve been talking about on a wobbling spoon. Let’s get into the specifics because that shiny chunk of metal with its single hook is one of the best lures you can throw for peacock bass. If you’re headed into the jungle you should have some. It’s the Tony Accetta Pet Spoon marketed by the Luhr-Jensen Company, of Hood River, OR.
I was urged to throw the Pet Spoon by someone who probably knows enough about catching peacock bass to write a book on the subject. It figures he would. The guy I’m talking about, you see, is Phil Jensen, the president of the Oregon bait-making company that bears his name.
Jensen was the reason I was in the jungle that last time. We’ve known each other for almost half a century but had never shared a boat. He asked me to join him on what was his ninth trip into the jungle for peacock bass. I doubt there’s a bait maker in America who has spent more time than Phil has working with and testing the various lures his company produces.
http://www.ifish.net/sfphilpea1.jpg
Phil Jensen, president of the Luhr Jensen Company, got this dandy peacock on one of the topwater baits his company markets.
“Our Tony Accetta Pet Spoon is one of the most versatile lures we have for peacocks,” Jensen told me while we sat it the Miami Airport waiting to board a Varig Airlines flight to Manaus, Brazil. “For years it has been one of the lures we sell the most for anglers who are going after peacock bass in the Amazon.”
It’s one thing for the president of a lure company to say his company markets a lure that’s especially productive for peacock bass. It’s something else to have him prove it. That’s exactly what Jensen did on our Amazon trip. I’ll provide more of the details in my next column.
Watch for it beginning Aug. 1.
-To Be Continued-