Xingu: Payara on the Fly

By: PAT FORD // Photos by: PAT FORD and LUCAS DE ZAN

There are four distinct species of payara and they have been caught up to 39 lbs and almost 4 feet in length. They are a sleek, powerful, aggressive creature which is expected if you have a mouth that looks like it was designed for an alien horror movie. They are found in the Amazon Basin from Venezuela on the north to the Rio Tapajos River to the south. They are difficult to find and even more difficult to catch, and recently the payara spots in Venezuela have been ‘’off limits” to travelers for multiple reasons, which pretty much leaves Brazil.

Several years ago Rodrigo Salles and Marcelo Perez told me about a river they were exploring, which - reportedly - held large concentrations of big payara. Rodrigo and Marcelo are the founders of Untamed Angling, which operates a number of exotic fishing lodges in South America. Their search for these remote sites always began with rumors of excellent fishing in rivers that run through remote Indian territories and are literally inaccessible to tourists.

Their first challenge is always to get an invitation to enter the area and do some exploratory fishing, just to see if the rumors are true. If the fishing was as good as expected, the negotiations began in earnest with the indigenous tribe controlling the area to set up a very unique fishing operation.

Discussions with the Kayapo tribe led to the formation of Kendjam Lodge, which proved to be an enormous success.

The deal was that Untamed Angling would build an environmentally compatible lodge, hire native workers and fishing guides, bring in a limited number of guests each week during a limited season, each of whom would pay a fee of around $600 to the tribe… and they wouldn’t kill any fish.

Rodrigo jokingly says that the natives thought that he was pretty much crazy when this proposal was first made, but over the years it has worked out well for everyone involved. The success at Kendjam Lodge led to new rumors and ideas.

The Xingu River is also on the Kayapo reservation (which actually is about the size of Rhode Island) and supposedly had a large concentration of payara. A few exploratory trips led to the construction of a lodge and a new fishing operation that began in the Fall of 2019 with only four anglers allowed per week. Chris Lalli and I were one of the first to visit this amazing place and we were not disappointed. We flew from the US into Manaus, then took a private plane to a landing strip in the middle of the Amazon jungle and hopped into an unusually long aluminum boat to run upriver to the lodge.

The actual lodge was pretty basic, probably because it had only been operational for a few weeks before we arrived.

There was a wood frame, but we were actually housed in elaborate and surprisingly comfortable tents. There were fans but no air conditioning, but temperatures dropped as soon as the sun went down so there were no problems sleeping.

Actually, there was one problem… a village rooster that crowed every morning about a half hour before we had to get up. By the time we left there was a bounty on him. Meals were served in a separate building and the whole operation was situated right in the middle of a small Kayapo village. There was no doubt that we were in the middle of the jungle.

The river was interesting. There were sections of fast water where payara are known to hang out, but there were also deep pools (like 60’ deep) where current was minimal. Our fly fishing guides for the week were Everton Pires and Marcos Hlace. One of them would be with us each day, along with a native boat operator. Marcos and Everton spoke perfect English and knew the waters well. They explained that most of our fishing would be in the deeper pools and a heavy sinking line (400-600 grain) was a necessity. We were using 10-weight rods, so the heavy lines balanced perfectly. Tippet strength was pretty much angler’s choice, but

we stuck with 20lb to keep things legal. Twelve inches of 40lb braided wire was a no-brainer considering a payara’s dental display.

Payara are most active in the mornings and after 3 pm in the afternoon. We’d leave the dock early, fish payara till they stopped biting (usually around 10am) then fish the creeks and tributaries for peacock bass, wolffish, catfish, piranha, and matrincia until it was time for lunch. We’d take a few hours off then return to the water around 3pm and fish till dark. As you would expect, payara are major predators… they pretty much eat whatever they want and size doesn’t matter. One of their main food sources are piranha. With their amazing teeth, they can catch and kill most everything… which brings us to fly selection.

Rodrigo was very clear that we should bring big, double hook baitfish pattern flies, 9-12 inches long. Lead eyes also helped, and the hooks had to be ultra-sharp. Most any color would work, but we soon found that black mixed with red, orange or purple got the most strikes. Chris is a musky fisherman and a master fly tyer, so his collection of giant flies was very impressive. Casting these monstrosities was also a chore. The goal was to cast the heavy sinking line as far as you could and let it get the fly down as deep as possible… on every cast.

Setting the hook in a payara was far from easy and most escaped on the first jump. We were dredging so we’d cast up current, let the line sink and swing, then retrieve as fast as we could.

The strikes were vicious! Imagine that huge set of teeth chomping down on a 10 inch pile of fish hair. The teeth immediately tangle in the fish hair and if one of the hooks gets caught around one of those huge teeth, you can strip strike all you want and the point of the hook is not going to move.

Payara are excellent jumpers and if that hook hadn’t found some flesh by the time they get airborne, it was a very short fight. I found that sticking the rod under my arm and using the two handed retrieve we use for tarpon during worm hatches greatly increased my hookups. You literally couldn’t set the hook too hard. I’d actually keep the rod under my harm and literally hand line the fish till I was sure it was hooked well enough for me to fight it from the reel. If you tried to set the hook with the rod, you weren’t going to catch anything.

Payara don’t make any really long runs because there really isn’t much in their waters that they are afraid of. Running away was never their plan.

They thrash, tug, and jump with speed and power and if they get any slack… they’re gone… leaving a tangled mess of a fly.

When the payara bite slowed to a halt with the rising heat, we’d venture out of the pools and into creeks, casting to shorelines and riffles for whatever happened to be available. We used 8-weight rods and floating lines for this fishing and went back to civilized 3” flies, which were basic baitfish imitations. We caught a fair number of peacock bass, along with an occasional wolffish, pacu, and bicuda but the most exciting were the matrincia, which put up an excellent fight on the light rods.

At times this shoreline fishing was tough, and we found ourselves back at the lodge before noon, ready for a nice lunch and a nap. One day towards the end of our trip, we opted to take some heavy bait rods out and try to catch some of the local catfish, which can weigh over 100 lbs. This turned out to be a surprising amount of fun.

Chris caught a big brown critter (a pirabia, I think) that probably weighed 70 lbs. I caught a small redtail and another species ( a Jau?) that had whiskers 3’ long.

One of the fun things about fishing in the Amazon Basin is that you never know what you’re going to come up with on the end of your line. On my next trip I’m going to bring some tackle to seriously target the catfish.

During our down time each day, I found myself wandering around the grounds and the adjacent Kayapo village. I soon made friends with some of the local children who eventually became comfortable enough to allow me to take their photo.

The Kayapo are a proud race and very much locked into their own culture. The decorate their bodies with a plant-based ink that is very interesting. I’m not sure what exactly the purpose is but I was told that it is a bit of an insect repellent as well as a major part of their culture. It stays on about a week and the varying patterns are most impressive.

Untamed Angling is deeply committed to protecting the way of life of even this small band of Kayapo Indians and our interaction with them was fascinating. They were more than happy to paint their design on out faces and arms always with the promise that it would fade before we had to return to civilization.

Chris and I released close to 40 payara during our stay and lost dozens more. We’d expected bugs to be a problem, but they really weren’t even noticeable while we were fishing and the netting around the tents kept them at bay during the nights. We did wear long sleeved shirts, buffs, and jogging tights under our shorts, which we found more comfortable than long pants, while fishing.

There is one rule to fishing the Amazon Jungle… do not leave one square inch of skin exposed or something that bites will find it. Always use insect repellant even if you think you don’t need it.

I had a friend at a different lodge that decided to fish the river bank before breakfast one morning wearing shorts. Bad idea! When he got back to the lodge, his legs from ankles to thighs looked like he had chicken pox… He must have had over a thousand bites form something that can only be described as a ‘no-seeum’ on steroids. Remember this if nothing else… No exposed skin in the Amazon!

The food was surprisingly good even though our special requests for ‘rooster’ were repeatedly ignored.

One day Chris caught a second species of payara, which was thinner and more streamlined than the others. We caught several corvina between 10 and 14lbs while dredging for payara. We found a few big peacocks, but most were under 5lbs. The wolffish lived in the creeks in sluggish flow, lurking under ledges and trees, while the matrincha were in fast water.

There is an amazing number of different species of fish in the Xingu. It’s probably the most prolific multi-species fishery in the Amazon, which is saying a lot. It’s always exciting to look down at your catch and ask “What is that thing?” and no place does it better than Xingu Lodge! If you’re looking for a true adventure, this is definitely the place to go!

For more info: https://www. untamedangling.com

UPDATE! A new full-board lodge is in the works at Xingu and it will have the same accommodation and service as all other Untamed Angling lodges. The new lodge will cater to 8 anglers per week and the prime season is September to December.