Barchinho Riverboat Fishing Holiday
The Barcinho Riverboat
Tour Summary
| Destination | The Amazon Jungle aboard the Barcinho, one of our smaller riverboats |
| Area | Primarily the Rio Negro, Rio Branco and Rio Madeira watersheds |
| Country | Brazil |
| Season | July to March |
| Trip Type | Small Riverboat – groups of four people |
| Species | Peacock Bass ~ Suribim ~ Traira ~ Bicuda ~ Dogfish ~ Jacunda ~ Catfish ~ Pescada ~ Arauana ~ Piranha ~ Piraiba ~ Redtail Catfish ~ Jau Catfish |
| Description | Rustic accommodation aboard a smaller riverboat fishing deep in the Amazon rainforest |
| Approx Cost | $3,250 / £2,000 / €2,195 per angler * |
| No of Days | 9 day trip with 5 1/2 - 6 days’ fishing (depending on areas fished), plus your international flights |
Small Amazon Riverboat Adventure Fishing
This trip is for the adventure-seeking angler at heart. Come and join us for an intimate small-group adventure fishing trip of a lifetime with your host, Steve Townson (the original Fish Finder), for a Peacock Bass trophy hunt, deep into the mysterious and fabled Amazon jungle aboard a small exploratory riverboat. The trip is based on a full group of four people.
We will travel out of Barcelos (if fishing in the Northern watersheds), the tropical fish capital of the world, or out of Autazes or Nova Orlinda do Norte (if fishing in the Southern watersheds), deep into the Amazonian rainforest.
Our little riverboat has a small shower and bathroom with flushing toilet and an eating area that serves as the sleeping area at night.
Comfortable hammocks can be slung across the deck on the beams or simple blow-up mattresses can be used for sleeping arrangements. A cool breeze will flow across the deck as the boat steams on upriver. A daily laundry service is provided, so packing loads of clothes is not necessary.
A satellite phone is available, should clients need to make that all-important call home or for business. A separate charge is payable for these calls at USD $5 per minute.
All meals are provided on board the riverboat. In the morning, eggs, toast, jam, fruit and coffee will be served before setting out for fishing.
After lunch back on board the Barcinho (or a packed lunch may also be taken on board the fishing boat), more fishing will be done in the afternoon, or perhaps after a siesta in a hammock until it gets cooler.
In the evening, while ‘sundowners’ are shared, our cook will prepare a simple but nourishing meal of freshly-caught fish, beef or chicken with rice, beans, vegetables, potatoes and fruit. The boat may moor against a sandy beach so our guests can relax and talk about the day’s fishing tales.
Cold drinks are available 24/7 including all soft drinks, bottled water and ice cold beer. It is advisable anyone wishing to drink hard liquor to bring their own along with them.
Days are typically hot with temperature over 70F at night and 80-90F during the day.
This is the rain forest and some days will give a burst of rain in the afternoons. We advise clients to bring a lightweight rain jacket/suit as it can get chilly if wet on the way back to the riverboat in the evening or when temperatures drop during a storm.
As we are fishing in tannin-stained acidic water, there are few or no mosquitos nor many biting insects.
Your Itinerary
Our groups of fishermen fly into the Jungle city of Manaus in the State of Amazona, Brazil. You will be met either by Steve or our English-speaking representative and from the airport taken to a nearby hotel to relax or sleep the night away, depending on arrival times.
Very early the next morning, we will transfer you, our guests, to a smaller airport and put you on a charter flight to Barcelos or another riverside city (depending on where we will be fishing).
On arrival at the boat, a welcome drink and some food will be given to you and Steve or the boat host will give you a chat on what to expect and how things are to be over the next six and half days.
Once the boat sets off towards our fishing destination, you will set up your gear and go fishing (depending on arrival times and the areas to be fished, we will hopefully send you straight out on your first ½ day sortie into the wilds of the dark and mysterious jungle rivers).
For the next six days you will fish every day for as long as you like (until dark). For obvious reasons, we would like all our clients back to the river boat by dark to avoid having to send out a search party to find you!
Travel Plan
Day 1: From Europe – you will fly to Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Brasilia or similar, clear customs and check into a national flight to Manaus. From the States, you will arrive from Miami directly to Manaus.
Day 2: Arrival in Manaus. You will be met by Steve or our English-speaking representative and from the airport taken to a nearby hotel to relax. You may want to go and see the sights of Manaus and we can have our representative organise this for you.
Day 3: After a good night’s sleep, we will transfer you to a smaller airport and onto a charter flight to Barcelos or even another town (depending which areas are to be fished). Upon arrival you will be taken to the riverboat and from there start your fishing trip. Depending on arrival times to the boat, fishing should be possible this same afternoon.
Day 4-9: 5½ - 6 fishing days while travelling to and from our fishing destination. In the afternoon on Day Nine, depending on where we may be fishing and where the boat will be moored, we may opt for you to have you stay from mid- afternoon in a small, comfortable hotel (based on double occupancy – included in price), ready for an early start for travel back to Manaus.
Day 10: You will fly on an early charter plane from a small town or city or by speedboat (again depending on areas fished) back to Manaus, arriving at about 11am. You will be met and transferred to Eduardo Manaus airport for your flight back home.
Day 11: You will arrive from Brazil and make the onward journey home.
Kit
See our Kit Page for a PACKING LIST advice & suggested FISHING KIT
Through our travel agent partners we are able to secure excellent rates for all your international and domestic flights and travel insurance that are not included in our packages.
Please ask for Details
view the bARCINHO video
The Riverboat
Our little riverboat or ‘Barcinho’ will easily cater for a party of four anglers for the week. It will keep running while our anglers fish their way along the river we have chosen.
It is a shallow-draft boat drawing less than two feet of water. This means we travel to many shallower tributaries where other larger boats simply cannot go.
A large freezer/ice chest packed with ice and cold drinks will be on board and an 110v generator will supply energy when needed.
The riverboat will keep travelling well after our anglers have fallen asleep in their hammocks or on blow-up mattresses. It will moor on a beach ready for the next day’s fishing.
The Fishing
High catches of Peacock Bass are often taken on these trips and many trophy-sized monsters are regularly caught each week. This is a very mobile way of fishing and your boat, ‘The Barcinho’ will be constantly on the move, searching for different and varied fishing areas during the week.
We will seek out the remotest areas to fish where there is little or no fishing pressure. The upper reaches of these wonderfully pristine and unspoilt rivers themselves have even more small streams and tributaries, with beautiful white sandy beaches. They are all filled to the brim with hidden lagoons and oxbow lakes, the favourite haunts of the mighty Peacock Bass.
We will fish the actual Rio Negro and Rio Branco systems and many of their smaller tributaries including the Caures, Ciuini, Alegria, Padauari, Preto, Aracá, Arirarrá, and many other lakes and lagoon systems.
You will fish the numerous lagoons (some often land-locked and hidden), smaller rivers and streams and also the main river system. We fish in the areas where both world records for the Speckled (or three-barred) and the Butterfly Peacock Bass were taken. You just never know what size Peacock Bass will slam into your lures when wetting your line in the tannin-stained blackwaters of the Rio Negro, Rio Branco and Rio Madeira tributaries.
Over the last few years, the record for Speckled or three-barred Cichla temensis Peacock Bass have been broken many times and you never know if you might be the next World Record holder. In particular, the Speckled Peacock is a fish of such tremendous strength and character, that it will literally give you the fight of your life. Pound for pound, no other freshwater fish is known to fight harder or faster. Even a 10lb Peacock Bass will feel like a 20-pounder with its blistering runs and acrobatic leaps and jumps. Their ferocity can be seen and heard often when crashing at baitfish on the surface.
Many species of huge Catfish like the Piraiba, Redtail and Jau Cats can be caught in the same watersheds as Peacock Bass haunt. We always advise our clients to bring at least one heavy outfit for this. Sitting back and waiting for a run from a mighty Amazon catfish is a great way to unwind over a cold beer or soft drink in the shade… until you get one on that is!!
There is nothing else in the world like waking up with an Amazonian sunrise to the sights and sounds of a multitude of birds and parrots, insects and other animals, deep under the forest canopy.
A cool-box with your choice of drinks and filled with ice will be taken along each day while fishing on our 16-foot boats with electric trolling. Two anglers per boat will be taken fishing by an experienced local native guide.
Our Main Quarry – The Peacock Bass
Peacock Bass anglers will tell you that once you have a big Peacock Bass attack your surface lure, you’ll be hooked for life!
There is nothing more exciting for an angler than seeing that big fish explode on your Woodchopper, Spook or other surface bait. The strike is nothing less than awe-inspiring. It is loud, aggressive, fast, furious and shocking all in one. Peacock Bass like to stay close to structure in the main, although spawning fish are often seen with their young, dimpling the flat, mirror-glass surface of a quiet lagoon.
Anything passing in its territory is enemy No1 and they will attack it with a ferocity like no other fish. If they don’t want to eat it, they want to kill it and that is NO exaggeration. Baits have to be worked fast here in the Amazon. Nothing slow swims in the Amazon and stays alive for long.
The main structures that Peacock Bass love to inhabit are entrances to lagoons, points of beaches and trees, shoulders between a bank and an island, blow-downs and lay-downs, stands of trees and individual trees, sandy beach troughs made by the current, rocks etc.
Best surface baits to use are Woodchoppers and other propbaits, walk-the-dog style lures like Spooks and other cigar-shaped baits and Poppers. Best sub-surface lures are lead-head jigs, minnow-style baits like Rapala X Raps, Yozuri Crystal Minnows, Cotton Cordell or similar.
Jigs can catch you over 150 fish a day and although many will be smaller than when using the larger baits, huge fish are often caught. Fly fishing is a great way to fish in the right conditions, off sandy beaches, in lagoons and in the many river systems. You can catch over 200 Peacocks a day with large, flashy streamer flies.
What Does It Cost?
Our small riverboat ‘Barcinho’ Amazon rainforest fishing adventures (based on double occupancy) cover 11 days with five travel days, eight nights and 5 ½ + days fishing.
Included in our small riverboat ‘Barcinho’ Amazon rainforest fishing adventures: Airport transfers; one night on arrival in hotel room in Manaus (based on double occupancy); return trip charter flight Manaus/Barcelos or similar (depending in area to be fished) with 5 ½ + days fishing; fishing licenses; all accommodation aboard the riverboat; all meals, drinks, laundry service etc.
Not included in our ‘Barcinho’ Amazon rainforest fishing adventures: International airfaires into Brazil and National airfares to Manaus, Brazil; meals away from the riverboat; tips to hotel porters, staff and guides; costs associated with passports and visas (Citizens of the EEC do NOT need visas for Brazil); costs associated with medical advice and medications for your trip; hotel stays (if necessary after day nine) elsewhere; insurance.
$3,250 / £2,000 / €2,195 per angler *
A 50% deposit is required to reserve places when booking. The remaining payment is due 90 days before actual trip starts.
* Prices are stated as a guide and may be subject to currency and seasonal variations. Please enquire for exact prices for the dates you are interested in.
** Flights to Brazil and onto Manaus are not included, but we can help you arrange them.
***A strict 20kg weight allowance will be enforced on each trip for smaller charter flights.
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