15th October 2023. Report and images by Dizzy.
First day fishing at Agua Negra Lodge, still dealing with gastro and feeling flat.
We left the lodge at about 8:30 am and walked towards the south of the Secure river where the lodge is located, back onto the Agua Negra River – a wider river with low water conditions.
The jungle is much more open than Pluma, where I was two weeks earlier.
We arrived at the river, and a dugout canoe was waiting for us. Two guys on poles would navigate us upstream.
This is such a stealthy way to ride; they can pass through 10 inches of water with ease. They are much quieter than walking, and the baitfish, sabilo, hardly spook upstream.
There were a number of small golden dorado around, but none could be tempted by my presentations.
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Different waters, skinny waters.
I was casting to mainly snaggy tree jams or fallen trees, with some shelfy rock structures.
My guide, Joaquin, kept advising me to cast closer to the trees, to the logs, under that log.
Oh, bloody hell, I’d lob a cast so close it would land in the flamenco tree or over that branch. Only I could do that (poor guide). I must have driven him crazy.
At one location under a huge root ball of a giant Amazon tree in the middle of the river, there was a school of Yatorana.
So many casts, good and bad; they would tease us and charge at the fly, then turn off.
After many fly changes, we left them as they were. Perhaps they were fly-wise, as it’s the last week of the season, and I’m sure they’ve seen plenty of flies.
We pushed on upstream, and it was very hot by now. We drank lots of water as we needed to.
Joaquin changed the fly and said, “Around the next bend, we have pacu waters.”
Sure enough, a couple of pacu were there, but none could be tempted, even with better casting.
We tried some sinking flies and berry flies (just 20mm wooden beads that the guide had, but larger than mine on a 4/0 hook). We sank them and dead-drifted through the deep pools.
You have to be very quiet in the gorge; just whispering, as the pacu are so sensitive.
At the end of a session, I fouled the bottom, and we spent ages trying to get it unsnagged. It was actually deeper than the 4-meter pole we were using.
We pushed up a little further and took a break for lunch and a swim.
The baby baitfish numbers were insane, predominantly Yatorana and dorado in sizes up to 3 inches. I’ll post a video of that.
We pushed on to find more golden dorado
A long cast upstream saw a decent-size golden take the fly, heading towards me.
Strip strike, feel the weight, loose the line – bang, he’s off. Loose line, no second chance; mate, he’s gone.
That was the only take I had for the day. It’s 4 pm now, and we turned and started back, again fishing some rapids and snags, but couldn’t draw any fish out to play.
Tomorrow we will head a long way up the Agua Negra River, have a campout, and then fish further up.
It’s not new water; this is part of the program.
Tomorrow, our guide is Santiago, and I’m fishing with a Yank called Scooootyy. He and his two mates, a married couple Trish and Brandon, guide in Alaska on big boats (45 ft boat) in deep waters, not fly fishing, using 3lb sinkers chasing halibut and salmon, but they love fly fishing.
Let’s see what tomorrow’s adventures bring.
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