Mention the Amazon Rain Forest and you are probably like me,
able to imagine what it would be like to stand there and see all the wildlife
and creatures that live in the surrounding trees and such, in truth it does not
happen like that. At the river’s edge
the tree growth goes from the water up the top of the canopy and is quite impenetrable. In the very rare places where there is a gap
to allow you to land, and just has important solid land to actually stand on
you can get inside this river’s edge barrier.
Everything that is growing is reaching for the light and the trees stand
tall and straight without the lower branches that so many of our native trees
have. That barrier is just a case of the
trees going out sideways to the light. Visibility
is very restricted and this stops you from seeing much wildlife. You can hear birds and things moving through
the undergrowth but few are seen. The
occasional butterfly will make an appearance and dazzle you with their vivid
colour but prove very difficult to photograph since they rarely settle. One particular butterfly, perhaps 6 inch
across and the most vivid blue lead me all over the place but I failed to get a
single usable photo.
Left to right - Danny, Joe, Nick at back, driver, myself
The rain forest.
On my recent trip to Suriname, it is positioned on the bulge
of South America that faces towards the Caribbean, our group travelled some
three hours up river a left civilisation behind. The group comprised of Joe Taylor who
organised the trip, Nick Berridge who has done many such trips, Danny Sherlock
who has been a few times, and me going to this country for the first time.
Camp on arrival, poles always left for next group
Camp set up, four camps and beds under cover
The trips are organised through Paul de Boer and we had two
boatmen/guides, David Hope and Ashok Manray both of whom were capable of
putting the boat in the right position on the river to catch the mighty laulau
catfish that were our target on this trip.
Paul’s organising skills are tremendous and the time went by without a
single fault, a somewhat unusual event when travelled out of civilised areas
where if you have forgotten it you go without!
Paul works his wonders on basic cooking gear.
The plan was that Joe and I would stay for two weeks on the
river while Danny would return home and Nick would travel onto another river
after one week. The first week I had
Danny has my boat partner and it was he who first landed a 100lb plus specimen
with a fish of 1.75m and weighing in at 155lb.
This was my first sighting of one of these monsters and very impressive
indeed, both in the fight and in their looks when held by the captor.
The first fish to our boat, around70lb.
The first hundred landed at 155lb to Danny.
Still, I’m ahead of myself and I’ll explain how we were
going to fish and what the countryside was like to give you a feel for the
place. First and foremost is that we
were there in what is known has the small rainy season, that means it rains
every day but not all day, the all-day rain comes in the big rainy season. The rain we experienced could be the lightest
shower that passes in five minutes or a really heavy storm with gale force
winds that lasts considerably longer, but more of that later. As mentioned, the bankside growth gives very
few areas where you can land a boat and you travel miles of river with no sign
of a break. Just occasionally a break
appears and most times the local fishermen with their nets will have stayed
there having travelled upriver for a few days to make the cost of fuel worthwhile
with their catches of silver fish. This
not a problem and indeed we only saw one other boat over our two week stay and
they were villages travelling home not fishermen.
The river is tidal even though we might be 50 miles or more
inland, this made it very difficult to relate to where you were when on the
river. Generally your first reference
point is the direction of the flow, but with it changing four times a day and
by one hour a day it proved quite a problem.
The tree lined banks all look the same and other than the occasional
bend that was it, fortunately the boatman always got us home. The change in the depth of water was
something else, miles of less than six foot and then great holes going down to
100 feet. The first few days I thought
we were fishing in six to fifteen feet only to notice the sounder was set to
metres not feet, the thirty plus feet I thought we had fished were over the
hundred, the leads had seemed to take a long time to hit bottom!
My first Lau, small but very welcome.
It proved the case that you needed to fish in deep water to
avoid the piranhas attacking the bait even to the point of biting through the
100Kg Kraken Braid, losing not only the bait but also the rig in use as well. The bait was gained by the use of nets being
laid out along the tree line edge, this produce various species in the 8oz to
2lb range all of which could be used.
One of the better baits looked like a roach until you checked the mouth
and saw the set of teeth there, it appears most of these fish have teeth so
care was always taken, especially with the piranha.
Nick with a 120lb+ lau
Tackle needed to be strong to battle these fish and mine
comprised of a Shimano Beastmaster 30lb-50lb travel rod, 5ft of power that only
bent under extreme pressure. I had found
a left hand wind multiplier reel this being the Penn Squall 40 loaded with 200 yds.
of 65kg Power Pro braid, backed up with a further 100yds of 40lb power Pro
braid. With the clutch set to a very
high resistance these fish take off at a rate of knots as though you had not
set it and you leave the mooring to follow them or you run out of line! The hooks were size 10.0 and 8.0 singles and
size 6.0 and 4.0 trebles, these being used in various combinations to suit the
size of bait being used. The hooklink
would take most of the damage from the cat’s teeth and for this we used the
Kryston Kraken in 100kg and it did not let us down.
Over his previous trips Joe had set up a routine that seemed
to work well and we continued to use the same.
Get up about 6.00am to 6.30am and have breakfast if that is your thing. Mine is muesli, Joe has none and the other
pair had eggs and luncheon meat or some such choice. All the meals were prepared to a fantastic
level and sometimes you would forget you are in the middle of a rain forest. Stretch beds in a tent with a mosquito net
ensured a good night’s sleep as well.
Once breakfast was complete we would go out on the river about 7.30am
and fish through to 1.00pm and then back to camp out of the blazing sun. A light lunch of a few rounds of toast with
whatever topping you wanted and then relax until about 4.30pm and we were back
out again until 7.30pm which was just after darkness fell.
Nick with his 27lb tarpon
Rather than go on about different fish that were landed I’ll relate the story of my largest fish of the three over 100lb that I caught. With Danny having lost a very big fish the previous day when the hooks failed to hold after playing it for some time I perhaps would not have returned to the area so quickly, but Ashok our guide went straight there and indicated to put the baits out. The nets had produced lovely looking baits full of colour and banded along the lines of a perch, it almost seemed a shame to use such pretty fish but we were after laulau and they love these for dinner. We would be fishing in about 14m of water and with the high flow going past it was easy to place the fish in the water near the boat and then work it down the flow in a series of jumps where the 6oz lead is lifted and the flow takes it further away, this would be repeated until the bait was nicely positioned some distance away from the boat. With the free spool engaged and the heavy ratchet on it was sit back and wait.
Rather than go on about different fish that were landed I’ll relate the story of my largest fish of the three over 100lb that I caught. With Danny having lost a very big fish the previous day when the hooks failed to hold after playing it for some time I perhaps would not have returned to the area so quickly, but Ashok our guide went straight there and indicated to put the baits out. The nets had produced lovely looking baits full of colour and banded along the lines of a perch, it almost seemed a shame to use such pretty fish but we were after laulau and they love these for dinner. We would be fishing in about 14m of water and with the high flow going past it was easy to place the fish in the water near the boat and then work it down the flow in a series of jumps where the 6oz lead is lifted and the flow takes it further away, this would be repeated until the bait was nicely positioned some distance away from the boat. With the free spool engaged and the heavy ratchet on it was sit back and wait.
The conditions seemed quite nice but then the tell-tale wind
picked up and almost before I could get the waterproofs on we were in the most horrendous
storm, the heaviest rain you can imagine being blasted by a very strong wing
coming straight up the river. We had all
brought a cheap umbrella and these proved useful against the light showers but
now mine was under severe attack and I had the lower ribs braced against the
side of the boat in order to give it some support. With Danny in the front of the boat and Ashok
at the back we were all battened down to the best of our ability and praying
for no runs at this time but you can guess what’s coming. The noise of the rain on my umbrella was such
that I did not hear my clutch screaming until Danny said ‘you’ve got a run.’ Now you are hoping it’s a small one that can
be dealt with more easily but that quickly proved to be a false hope. I struck and the rod slammed down horizontal with
the power of the run against the tight clutch setting, time to leave the buoy. All three of us got absolutely drowned over
the next 30 minutes or 40 minutes during one of the most exciting battles I
have had with a fish. We often say that
fish fight harder as we get older, but this one stretched me to the limit with
Danny laughing at my feeble efforts to lift it off the bottom. With the rod bent well over I had the bruises
on the guts to show I could not have pulled harder.
Meanwhile we had been pulled and drifted the 600 yards or so
down towards Joe’s boat where we discovered the Nick had hooked a fish of
around 40lb that got them just as wet in the storm. As we got closer they could see I was into a
big fish and their boatman lifted their anchor just in case and perhaps 10
minutes later I had it beat and it came to the surface where a rope could be
placed on its tail. Fortunately the tide
was at the high point and we could find a place at the tree line edge where we
could get photos. With the tide at the
lower point there is 3 foot of mud to contend with and photos are
difficult. This explains why we so few photos of the fish, it’s just too much hassle.
Bait for my biggest fish.
Stripping off and jumping into the water I managed to find a
place where the roots of bushes gave me some support to sit on and with the
help of Ashok I managed to hold the fish such that Joe and Danny could get a
pleasing range of photos for my album.
Weighing these large fish is difficult at the best of times but with
Nick in one boat and Ashok in the other holding the bar high the scales were
read at 175lb a very satisfactory result for my first big fish here. We were all soaking wet and before long it
was back to camp to relate our various stories of the two fish landed, an
adventure that will stay long in the memory.
Over the holiday there were 38 laulau caught with over ten
of these being 100lb+. Nick landed a
rare tarpon, most of these come off, indeed both Danny and I hooked and lost
these fish, a screaming run, strike, and two seconds later it jumps clear of
the water and one second later it’s thrown the hook. Joe had caught the largest proportion of the
fish and he also added a stingray and some unidentified catfish to his list as
well. This is indeed a fishing holiday
to experience, contact Paul and arrange a trip you will not be disappointed.
Great photo of Joe's 160lb+ lau.
Paul de Boer wonotobo@yahoo.com
Fb Piraiba Fishing in
Suriname
