Experience
Ride along 800km/600 miles of Marie River´s pure, thrilling waters where the renowned biggest peacock bass in the amazon lives. All while enjoying second-to-none accommodation on the untamed amazon, an exemplar of green shipping: a vessel that is fully powered with solar energy and equipped with its own water treatment plant.
Get on board to enjoy amazonian sunrises from a unique point of view and experience fly fishing from a whole new perspective.
The Rio Marié is the first river in the Amazon Basin in which the Brazilian Government has collaborated with the local Native Communities to develop an ambitious project designed to protect the 800 km wildlife preserve while promoting catch-and-release fly fishing, andproviding exclusive access rights.
Through the cooperation of the Native Communities, the Brazilian Government, and Untamed Angling (the same South American outfitters who introduced the world toLa Zona in Argentina and Tsimane in Bolivia), Rio Marié is now the very first - and only - truly and legally exclusive fly fishing area of the entire Amazon Negro Basin. This protected area encompasses more than 400 miles of virgin waters, boasting a healthy population of giantpeacock bass. The Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA) has conducted numerous biological studies in the region. This research has demonstrated impressive results: Rio Marié holds at least twice the quantity of trophy-sized peacock bass compared with any other sport fishing destination in the Rio Negro basin. For anglers, this translates into very real opportunities to consistently hook and release the largest peacock bass on Earth, in fly fishing only water, with no pressure from conventional anglers as is found elsewhere.
The Rio Marié is entirely located inside a far-reaching Indian Territory, an area of more than 2 million hectares This untouched environment has more than 800 kilometers of rivers, 180 known creeks, 60 lakes, and three major tributaries inside the new operation area. It is thefirst exclusive fly-fishing only project allowed and supported by Brazilian Government. Official Environmental and Indian Institutes worked together with the Indian Association to create the very first official sport fishing operation in Brazil inside an indigenous Indian Territory. This brings a new level of commitment inside the current peacock bass fishing world within the Amazon region.
The Rio Marié begins its journey to the South Atlantic on the northwest side of the Brazilian Amazon, near the Colombian border. It’s a tributary of the upper Negro River. The Negro River Basin is the largest basin of “black” water in the world, with approximately 710,000 km2, one of the most pristine regions in the Amazon, with less than 0.5 % of deforestation. The Rio Negro is the second largest tributary of the Amazon River, whose headwaters originate in the Serra do Junai Hills of Colombia and flows approximately 1,700 kilometers to its confluence with the Solimoes River near Manaus.
The waters of the Rio Marié and its tributaries are scientifically proven - after several biological studies by the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA) and Untamed Angling - to be the home of the largest peacock bass in the entire Amazon basin. This is a fishery where fly anglers really can pursue and conquer the dream of reaching a world record on the fly.
The results of these studies and our experience in the first two seasons were remarkable: the average size of speckled peacock bass here is over 10 pounds and the amount of fish recorded at over 15 pounds is shocking. If that’s not good enough, there are more fish measuring over 20 pounds than anywhere else in the entire Amazon Basin, or the world. Studies have shown that the Rio Marié literally has double the population of big fishwhen compared to other, previously studied rivers such as Itapara, Agua Boa, Marmelos, and others.
Keep in mind that targeting these true trophy peacock bass is not a numbers game, and not everyone will land a fish-of-a-lifetime. That said, in our 2015 season, on average over half of the anglers at Marié did manage to land fish over 20 pounds, and more 20+ pound fish were landed on that river in an average week than most other destinations in the Amazon did in their entire season.
The fish are there, and every single cast made on this river brings about the potential for a world record fish.
In addition to the giant speckled peacock bass, the river also has healthy populations of smaller butterfly peacocks, which average 2-6 pounds. These beautiful, brightly-colored, aggressive strain of peacock bass hit hard and often take to the air when hooked, and helpkeep anglers enthralled and engaged while searching for their even larger cousins. The bird and wildlife can be spectacular in the deep jungle environment. From both your accommodations and you fishing boat, particularly in the mornings and evenings, you may see parrots, macaws, parakeets, toucans, cotingas, flickers, manakins, woodpeckers, andhummingbirds, as well as beautiful butterflies. Tapir, nutria, peccary, even squirrel and howler monkeys can at times be seen at the water’s edge. Keep your eyes peeled for dolphins and giant river otters that swim and hunt the waters of the Rio Marié. The jungle here is incredibly dense and the wildlife still very wary of humans as they’ve had little to no interaction with mankind, so you can expect to hear more wildlife than you’ll see; but it is there and always watching.
PEACOCK BASS RESEARCH PROGRAM
Untamed Angling in collaboration with the fish research department of IBAMA (Brazilian Institute of Environment) developed an extensive peacock bass research program. The main goal of this research is to better understand these wild and remote fisheries, and the fish stock, and provide necessary information to manage such an extensive river.
Marié is the very first peacock bass destination where all speckled species (Cicla Temensis) will be permanently monitored. The first step is to record all speckled peacock bass caught during the fishing season. Both Native and Fly Fishing Guides were trained by IBAMA to record the total length of fish and also big fish weight in a certified procedure. We count with IGFA-certified scales and rules to register all data and for the lucky anglers possible to register a world record as well.
In 2019 we launched our tagging program in a 10-year tagging project with the goal of tagging at least 5000 fish. We will continue to get valuable information about these amazing jungle fish. The tagging, weight, and measure procedure takes a few seconds; we appreciate your patience and collaboration in such an important research program.