Peacock Bass Fly FishingTournament

Welcome to the official site for RUFUS WAKEMAN'S FIRST ANNUAL RIO NEGRO PHOTO RELEASE PEACOCK BASS FLY FISHING TOURNAMENT. This event promises to be a great tournament and will shed some light on a fish that deserves more recognition from the fly community.

Oh yes, and a good time will be had by all. Due to limited space we will only have 36 anglers for the tournament.

First lets talk about the fish. The Peacock Bass is a fantastic adversary for the fly fishing enthusiast. They will eat flies anywhere in the water column. They will smash Dahlberg divers and poppers on the surface leaving huge holes in the water that are sure to make your knees weak! They will slam streamers fished at varying depths and will usually pull the line from your hand and leave you guessing, and those are just the little ones. The bigger fish of 10+ pounds will pull like fish twice there size and really put on a great aerial show. They truly are a great fish and I have put them at the top of my list of fish to catch.

The Rio Negro River is the second largest river in the world and when you see it and its never ending maze of waterways, islands and sandbars you will understand why this is the Peacock Bass capital of the world. The river just goes on forever and the fishing is just as impressive as the river. A few years ago a friend of mine went down there with the fly rod and when he got back all I heard about was how I would have to go also. He was bragging about catching hundreds of fish up to 17 LBS. So a year went by and we left Miami on Varig Airlines at 10PM on Dec. 11th. We arrived in Manaus at 3 AM and cleared customs and were then transported to another terminal by Amazon Tours. We departed Manaus at 5:30 AM on a 30 seat twin turbo prop plane for the 1 hour flight to Barcellos. As the sun came up we were over the Amazon Basin and that in itself was exciting. We were met at the small airport by the gang at from the lodge and were whisked away to the landing at the river. Once all our bags were put on the transport boat we headed up the river to the lodge which took about 1 1/2 hours. Upon arriving at the lodge we all started to put our rods together and get out tackle situated and we then had a light breakfast and headed out to fish. We started at about noon and by 5PM we had 118 fish up to 15 LBS. That was our first day! By the end of the trip the 6 fly rodders had caught a total of 1227 Peacock Bass up to 19 LBS!

What an outrageous week of fishing.

I went back this year much earlier in October and the water was much higher. It was about 10 feet higher than the previous year and the fishing was much harder. During the week we caught 400 Peacocks on fly and that was between 8 anglers. The water and the time of year have a lot to do with the success of this trip. That is why the Tournament will be in February. The water will be low and the fishing will be much easier and we should see numbers such as 40-100+ fish per day per boat! It was then that I decided to try to promote a tournament here for the fly rodder because this place is just TOO COOL not to!!!

The Rio Negro Lodge is a beautiful lodge cut from the rainforest along the banks of the river. It boasts air conditioning in each cabin as well as the main lodge house. The cabins are comfortable and have 2 bathrooms per cabin. They will sleep up to 4 people per cabin and 1or 2 more could be squeezed in if necessary. The staff at the Lodge is fantastic and they are there to help and serve your every need. The food is great and there is plenty for seconds. If you are thirsty, not to worry, because there is all the water, sodas, beer and booze you can put down.

The boats are 17 ft Nitro Bass boats with 90 HP four stroke Mercury engines. They have Motor guide electric motors and are sate of the art fishing platforms. The owner of this paradise is Phil Marstellar. He grew up down in Brazil and was the son of missionary parents.

He left Brazil to go to college in the states and quickly returned. He started the first Peacock Bass operation in Brazil, the Amazon Queen. She is an 85 ft triple Decker that serves as a mother ship and tows 8 boats behind her. The beauty of this is that she can move around to different water thus providing a change of scenery as well as different water to fish each day. Unfortunately she only takes 16 anglers and we need more for a really great tournament. The lodge was built in 1998 and can sleep up to 26 people and a few more could be jammed in if need be. The whole operation is FIRST CLASS and I mean FIRST CLASS. There absolutely no better destination in the world to fish for Peacock Bass!!!!

If you have any questions please contact me or Amazon Tours and hopefully you will be able to join us for a great week of fly fishing and camaraderie at the Rio Negro Lodge.

Thanks for stopping by our website and have a great day.
Capt Rufus Wakeman

Tournament Sponsors
Redington Rods - River Palm Cottages and Fish Camp - Amazon Tours
EZ-Hitch Trailer Hitch Alignment Guide

2002 Qualifying Event
Rolex / IGFA Inshore Championship

Site Design, Hosting & Maintenance by
Will White Creations @ http://www.compwareusa.com/