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| If
you're the type that likes fishing, the wild life and adventure try the
Pantanal. What is the Pantanal? You might access the alanet.com
br and see the beauty first hand. The Pantanal is 3000 (yes mother)
3000 square miles of wet lands. Somewhat like the Florida everglades
but as yet, not destroyed. Less than an hour from Campo Grande
the area changes. The rivers begin to widen and you'll come across
a town called Aquidauana. The citiy is on the banks of the river
of the same name. 40,000 sleepy inhabitants to the west of Campo Grande.
On the other side of the river lays a city of 10,000. What's
so different about this river? Good fishing and no piranha fish.
Even though the river empties into the Miranda river, before doing so there
is a rapids area, quite a lot of rock structure lines the rivers bottom
and sides and creates a rapids area. The piranhas, (there are two
principal types in the miranda river waters,) don't even want to
think about crossing these; or any other rapids. They like calm water
with a minimum of current.
So they don't
cross the rapids and the Aquidauana river has no piranha. Excellent fishing
though, even though the government doesn't stop the overload of commercial
fishing. We had a 50 acre fishing hole 5 mile south of town.
This was a few years ago. It was called the Panthers Nook or something
like that. Went there once a month to fish on the weekends with another
attorney called Erone Chaves. Erone is one of those big fat overgrown
patient guys that drinks as much as he fishes. But he cooks
darn well. Great company for fishing. Better yet he doesn't talk
much, like me. Anyway we got there about an hour after sun down and
saw that the locks on the gate had be violated. And when we got to
the the banks we found out that we been invaded by a big family of people
from the south of Brazil. |
| I'm an American
that has lived in Brazil for 27 years and worked as the only North American
attorney at law that could or would practice law here. Now retired and
back to being a hotel owner. We have plenty of time to talk and talk
to travelers. We've been to all the neighboring countries and know
the most inexpensive ways to go, get back and to live well. For the
most part people down here are nice, but there are many ways to avoid getting
ripped off. Campo Grande is the jumping off place for Paraguay, Bolivia,
Chile, Uruguay or Peru. Many times there are cheaper ways of going there
that travelers don't know about. Also we have a free 140 acre fishing
camp that is used by our customers and friends in the city of Miranda,
Brazil about 2 hours from us on the Miranda river. About 2 miles from downtown.
Yes it has lights and water and 750 feet of river bank for fishing.
The Pantanal is the South American wet lands and a really great adventure.
Anyway if our hotel is compliant with your criteria please lets us know.
~ Dion Ross |
|
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They'd taken
over, brought in two big trucks and had caught a half a dozen 10 or 12
lb. cat fish called surubim. (also called pintado which means spotted).
Things got hot and I got l hotter but Erone calmed us all down pointing
that the river had enough fish for everyone and we all had enough beer
for a couple of days. I wasn't irritated with the fishing but with
the blatant invasion of property and privacy, but Brazil is Brazil and
so we let it ride. They got drunker and drunker and I started fishing,
to cool off. Till 11:30 p.m. the only thing I caught were 3 fish called
armal.
| Of
course they were going out in their 2 boats and I was bank fishing.
Armal are a cat fish. I should know the scientific name but right now it
slips me. They are the funniest cat fish you've ever seen.
Their head is bigger than a normal cat fish about twice the size and their
body is covered with an alligator skin. they'll eat anything alive or dead
an some people call them the garbage collector of the river. I don't
know just how big they go but I myself have caught them up to 25 lbs.
They don't fight much, but their size makes for a good fight. To
eat them you have to cut off their head and so you lose half the weight.
After you gut and skin them you've got two filets of good white boneless
meat which the locals fry and gobble down. When you take them out
of the water they open up the fin that are kind of winged and bark at you
like a croaking frog.
I caught three
10 pounders just before midnight. Was a good night for fishing. The mosquitos
go to sleep at 7:30 p. m. and there was a slight breeze. No moon
and I was getting over being pissed at the invaders. Where I fished
I was just beyond the swirls of water deepened and the river levels out.
Not any snags to speak of. You can fish in the dark with only the light
of a gas lantern and be pretty comfortable. I put on my last piece
of cut meat for bait and was going to call it a night. Erone had
already drank his share of the beer and was now snoring blissfully in the
car. So few insects that he'd left the window half open and you could
hear him snoring. The invaders had calmed down and their stories
were about the gringo fisherman that could only catch armal, instead of
pintados. |
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The Passionate
Adventurer's Guide to the Brazilian Amazon & the Pantanal
C
L I C K H E R E
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Now occasionally
the trees break off branches and also big logs come down the river to screw
things up for the fishermen. They'll break your line after dragging
it out fully. You normally lose all your rig and have to put everything
back together. Just as I was getting ready to call it a night,
it happened. The line got dragged down about 10 yards and stopped
dead. I thought the branch had slid into the bank from the lines
tension, but anyway I considered just breaking it and calling it
a night. But, I tried reeling it in a bit and got back about 5 yards.
Something didn't feel right. Fisherman senses. Who knows?
But I thought I'd try to get some more back and started working my line
and rod. You know these French molinetes are great inventions.
I remember when we used other tackle. After getting all of my line back
I thought I felt a felt a wiggle and started hoping that I had caught something
and that I'd get unhooked from the branch. But there was no branch.
Just weight that started pulling the other way and out into the live current.
That's when I screamed at Erone to wake up and give me a hand. You
see where I fish there's a 20 foot drop off. The declining bank drops right
off and its slick as you know what. No real light and if you catch
something big you have to haul it up 20 feet and it weighs a lot more out
of the water. Erone woke up irritated like any half drunk and I told
him I had something big. He asked me if I was drunk or having a dream
but started moving. I keep working the big thing that was now feeling
more and more like the big one. As it headed out to the moving current
I saw a flash of light reflected off his back from my night lantern and
it WAS a FISH. Now he started really fighting, and I was the
happiest guy on the river bank. And a half an hour of Erones bitching
and my making my way down the darken bank and handing the rod up to him
so that I could get a hold of the leader, I finally got it in my hand,
the leader. We use a 2 foot long flexible leader. And I started
trying to haul what ever it was in. Took me 10 minutes to realize
that I caught a 30 lb. PACU. Pacu is a fish that looks like
our croppie. Runs in schools too and when you catch one, if you are
quiet you can catch 20. One bit of noise and they're off. You
catch one and the others run away at any sign of noise. Normally
they bite on a fruit called genipapo. Funny latin-american smell
to the fruit. You wouldn't eat it. But the pacu love it. Can
smell in the water 500 yards down stream. But they also eat meat.
No real teeth to speak of. They really good eating up to 10 lbs.
After that they full of fat. Well, after struggling with him up the
slick bank we saw his real size. I hadn't ever, ever seen one bigger
that 20 lbs. Oh, there are some but you don't see or catch them,
you only hear about them around the bar tables or at the fire sides. but,
there he was and all ours. That fish even cleaned the invaders plow
and shut everybody up. Except me or course and I'm still talking
about that fish till today. Why not? But don't be satisfied
with other peoples fish stories, come on down to the Pantanal and catch
your own. There are plenty left.
By Dion
Ross |
