Fly fishing in the jungles of Bolivia

[Henry Gilbey]

The locals bow hunting for fish was just so incredible to watch – they make bending that bow look so easy. Sometimes they will draw back, wait for a while, and then not even let the arrow go. I tried bending one of their bows back and could hardly even do it properly, let alone hold perfectly still and wait.

I spoke a lot about the pacu fishing with the guides there, and the feeling is that the ones they are seeing are all the same species – and you can see a lot of them at times. They say they are the Amazon pacu, “pirapitinga”. I will admit to knowing nothing about these fish before I went, other than they existed in these rivers. I had no idea that there were so many pacu around though, and it seems that these jungle rivers in Bolivia are even more special than I had originally thought. Dorado to 40lb taken so far, weighed.

The guides said that there is another species of pacu that is a slightly different shape, grows a lot bigger, and is even more powerful than these ones in Bolivia – they reckon the best shot is in some really wild parts of Brazil. Sounds interesting……..

Part of me also worried about the potential forthcoming sport fishing pressure on these fish, but the heavy rains each year literally flush the rivers out. All fish move way, way downstream and then start reappearing again after the waters clear. Huge shoals of the local fish “sabalo” all over the place which the dorado feed on – sometimes attacking them like shoals of jacks. Never seen so many fish in a river in fact.

[Zach Matthews]

Great work, Henry.

[Gary Sundin]

Thanks for the info Henry.

[Zach Matthews]

Wow Henry. Beautiful stuff! Thanks for sharing and adding to my ‘places I need to go to list’.

[Henry Gilbey]

Zach – yes, we went at what is meant to be a really good time, and it was. First river was tough though, most likley due to a bit of cold weather about just before we got there, but then it went bananas. The fishing can get better and better as more and more fish move up, so later on in the year could even be a lot

[anonymous]

Hi

Amazing images !!!!

[adam barker]

Henry–
What an adventure, and you did a great job not just capturing the action, but telling the story. Nicely done.

[Henry Gilbey]

Will – email me through my website and I can put you in touch with the people who organise these trips. The best is not cheap, but I have never seen anything like it.

If I do not get back to your email for a while, it is because I am off to Mongolia on a photo job at the end of the week and won’t be back for a bit – will post some stuff up when I get back.

Adam – most kind, hope all is well, keep seeing some awesome stuff by you out there. In a perfect world, I would have loved to shoot the hell out of the fishing like I did, and then been able to pull away and simply go off looking for “other stuff” to photograph. There is a world of it out there. But work is work, and I had limited time to nail what I could on the fishing front………and keep my eyes open for any other opportunities.

[Bryan Gregson]

Bravo! What an epic (yes, I’m using that word here) trip. Thank you for posting this. It seems that each month another spot is added to the “Life List”. … again, WOW!

[lee church]

excellent thanks for sharing

[Henry Gilbey]

Thanks for taking a look at the photos. Writing this from a hotel in Molgolia, just about to head off on a rafting/camping river trip in the middle of nowhere for photos/fishing – will post some stuff when I am back home in the UK. Somewhat of an extreme opposite to the jungles of Bolivia……

[none]

Holy Molly!

[keith b]

Wow does not begin to do it for me, but I cannot think of anything else to say.

[Colin M.]

Gorgeous! Thanks for sharing.

[Henry Gilbey]

Thanks again guys for taking a look and for the kind comments. It gets me almost every time I go anywhere remotely cool that any kind of fishing is generally one of the world’s greatest excuses/reasons for visiting outstanding places.

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