The untouched Marié River promises to surprise you with giant peacock bass that will make your experience with us one you will never forget. Discover one of the best jungle fishing destinations in Brazil.
We want to share with you a series of episodes about this incredible destination and talk a little more about everything that is to come on our social networks. In our interview with Rodrigo Salles, CEO of Untamed Angling Brasil, he had a few interesting things to say:
What makes Rio Marié so special as a fly fishing destination?
In short, I have never seen a river that is comparable to the Marie as far as size of peacock bass goes. After searching for 25 years, I found the Marie, a river that boasts the largest population of giant peacock bass (fish up to and in excess of 20 pounds) in Brazil.
To further explain the reasons for that, there are three main possibilities.
The Rio Marie’ encompasses more than 600 miles of river, two big tributaries and more than 200 lagoons, the largest exclusive fly fishing reserve in all of Amazonia. That much water, combined with our mobile state-of-the-art fishing yacht, allows us to manage the fishery and rest literally hundreds of miles of river each week, which results in happy and unpressured fish. An unpressured fish willingly hits flies and does not have the stress that other fisheries have, due to their proximity to other anglers and outfits.
The Rio Marié is fully (from headwater to the mouth of the negro basin) inside a 2 million hectares indigenous land which is completely protected by our project and Brazilian Officials. There’s no other activity running inside the whole river, just our project where the natives are our full time partners. In addition to that, the native villages are all on the mouth of the river, so when you enter Rio Marie, you are in a truly unspoiled river. There’s no other peacock bass river in the Amazon with this kind of protection.
The Rio Marié is one of the deepest main channel Rio Negro tributaries, while most of the others are shallow water mouths, the mouth of the Rio Marie is deep and the whole river has a very consistent deep main channel with no natural barriers up to the headwaters. This has a direct impact on the amount of bait that can confidently run upstream into Rio Marie. When there is lots of healthy bait, there is more protein for the peacock bass, making them voracious and large.
How was your return to Rio Marié in 2021, considering it had not been fished in so long?
At Untamed Angling, we worked very hard to get the whole Rio Marié operation up and running for 2021, after 20 months of closure, due to the COVID pandemic. That was a long process, but finally we got all Rio Marié natives fully vaccinated as well as our Untamed Angling staff. We also established a very strict procedure in Manaus and also at the mothership to ensure safety for our guests, guides, and staff.
The river has been completely closed since January 2020, until our return in late August of this year, with the support of the Rio Marié natives. Their association, FUNAI, and the Brazilian Army secured the mouth of the river to insure no illegal activities occurred during the pandemic.
To come back to Rio Marié after 20 months and see the river completely untouched was like being there again for the very first time. Fish were happy and eating everything!
During the first months of our 2021 season, we have caught more giant bass and 20+lbs fish than we ever have before. The faces of our guests are priceless when they see just how magical this fishery is! We had a lot of fun experimenting with leader recipes, rods, and fly lines to see how we can best tame these monster fish.
What should your guests expect for the 2022 season?
Fly anglers looking for a legitimate shot at a true monster peacock, or a new World Record could not pick a more appropriate river to fish than the Rio Marie – truly the Rio de Gigantes.
Our 2022 season is almost sold out, but we still have some prime spots in Sept-Dec months. Take the chance to experience the largest giant peacock bass reserve in the Amazon, with knowledgeable staff and guides in the comfort of the very fish green ship in the Amazon.
The Untamed Amazon is our moving lodge all over Rio Marié reserve with access by float plane from Manaus, allowing us to reach the best water and most importantly, let fishing areas rest. This is a key factor to success with catching peacock bass, since they are a territorial fish, and can feel the pressure of a land based lodge, fishing the same areas all throughout the season.
We are happy to keep moving forward with the temensis tagging program, and we are reaching the goal of 1,000 temensis peacock bass tagged for the second season. Our goal is to reach 5,000 tagged to promote the largest tagging program for peacock bass ever made.
The untouched Marié River promises to surprise you with giant peacock bass that will make your experience with us one you will never forget. Discover one of the best jungle fishing destinations in Brazil.
We want to share with you a series of episodes about this incredible destination and talk a little more about everything that is to come on our social networks. In our interview with Rodrigo Salles, CEO of Untamed Angling Brasil, he had a few interesting things to say:
What makes Rio Marié so special as a fly fishing destination?
In short, I have never seen a river that is comparable to the Marie as far as size of peacock bass goes. After searching for 25 years, I found the Marie, a river that boasts the largest population of giant peacock bass (fish up to and in excess of 20 pounds) in Brazil.
To further explain the reasons for that, there are three main possibilities.
The Rio Marie’ encompasses more than 600 miles of river, two big tributaries and more than 200 lagoons, the largest exclusive fly fishing reserve in all of Amazonia. That much water, combined with our mobile state-of-the-art fishing yacht, allows us to manage the fishery and rest literally hundreds of miles of river each week, which results in happy and unpressured fish. An unpressured fish willingly hits flies and does not have the stress that other fisheries have, due to their proximity to other anglers and outfits.
The Rio Marié is fully (from headwater to the mouth of the negro basin) inside a 2 million hectares indigenous land which is completely protected by our project and Brazilian Officials. There’s no other activity running inside the whole river, just our project where the natives are our full time partners. In addition to that, the native villages are all on the mouth of the river, so when you enter Rio Marie, you are in a truly unspoiled river. There’s no other peacock bass river in the Amazon with this kind of protection.
The Rio Marié is one of the deepest main channel Rio Negro tributaries, while most of the others are shallow water mouths, the mouth of the Rio Marie is deep and the whole river has a very consistent deep main channel with no natural barriers up to the headwaters. This has a direct impact on the amount of bait that can confidently run upstream into Rio Marie. When there is lots of healthy bait, there is more protein for the peacock bass, making them voracious and large.
How was your return to Rio Marié in 2021, considering it had not been fished in so long?
At Untamed Angling, we worked very hard to get the whole Rio Marié operation up and running for 2021, after 20 months of closure, due to the COVID pandemic. That was a long process, but finally we got all Rio Marié natives fully vaccinated as well as our Untamed Angling staff. We also established a very strict procedure in Manaus and also at the mothership to ensure safety for our guests, guides, and staff.
The river has been completely closed since January 2020, until our return in late August of this year, with the support of the Rio Marié natives. Their association, FUNAI, and the Brazilian Army secured the mouth of the river to insure no illegal activities occurred during the pandemic.
To come back to Rio Marié after 20 months and see the river completely untouched was like being there again for the very first time. Fish were happy and eating everything!
During the first months of our 2021 season, we have caught more giant bass and 20+lbs fish than we ever have before. The faces of our guests are priceless when they see just how magical this fishery is! We had a lot of fun experimenting with leader recipes, rods, and fly lines to see how we can best tame these monster fish.
What should your guests expect for the 2022 season?
Fly anglers looking for a legitimate shot at a true monster peacock, or a new World Record could not pick a more appropriate river to fish than the Rio Marie – truly the Rio de Gigantes.
Our 2022 season is almost sold out, but we still have some prime spots in Sept-Dec months. Take the chance to experience the largest giant peacock bass reserve in the Amazon, with knowledgeable staff and guides in the comfort of the very fish green ship in the Amazon.
The Untamed Amazon is our moving lodge all over Rio Marié reserve with access by float plane from Manaus, allowing us to reach the best water and most importantly, let fishing areas rest. This is a key factor to success with catching peacock bass, since they are a territorial fish, and can feel the pressure of a land based lodge, fishing the same areas all throughout the season.
We are happy to keep moving forward with the temensis tagging program, and we are reaching the goal of 1,000 temensis peacock bass tagged for the second season. Our goal is to reach 5,000 tagged to promote the largest tagging program for peacock bass ever made.