So, there I was in Nova Venecia (New Venice), south east Brazil, with my wife’s family for Christmas and on our daily walk to the local bakery I noticed a lot of local anglers fishing with cane rods – and they were catching a lot of fish – mostly bream species but a few more interesting looking fish too. I just had to take a closer look…
Luckily I had brought a little light rod on my travels – a sea angling HTO Light Rock Fishing rod, which is mostly used for targeting mini species up to around 1lb, usually smaller. For sure it would deal with any of the bream I’d seen being caught.
I tried to dig around for worms for bait – which is what most of the others were using – but try as I might I couldn’t find any and, although the temptation was strong, I thought better of digging up my mother-in-law’s orchid garden so I improvised with some bread, ham and cheese.
“A ham and cheese toastie”, my wife remarked. I wasn’t sure it would work but gave it a try anyway.
Down at the river I started getting the gentlest of bites right from the start, I struck a few times and missed so as a second plan of attack I dropped the bait short into the bank, where the water was very deep and in the shade of a wall and some bushes. Again, something showed interest in my ham and cheese cocktail but this time I let the bite develop until the tip folded and the rod began to head for the murky waters, whereupon I grabbed it and held on to a very angry fish.
There are a few things that aren’t immediately apparent from the resulting short movie I put together featuring the fish…
First, although six minutes in length it is edited right down as the fight lasted 20 minutes in total! Second, it’s extraordinarily hot in this part of Brazil at this time of year – mid summer and it was something like 35 degrees – I was absolutely knackered!
There were a few interesting obstacles in my way as well. Initially I was standing on a wall some 8ft off the water with no obvious way down. I’d have to have pulled for a break were it not for the intervention of some amazingly helpful locals – who stopped work at the carwash and came down to see what all the commotion was.
They led me to a wall that was 5ft high, through banana trees and other plants, which were home to all manner of tropical creepy-crawlies and millions of bloodthirsty mosquitos; at the bottom of this wall was a bank of weeds which had sprouted from the wall on the waterline and on top of these was a little bit of mud about 1ft wide – it was enough for me to stand on but I didn’t know if it would support my weight. If it didn’t I’d end up in the drink – a dirty river called the São Mateus river which, I’m told, holds many dirty secrets. I certainly wouldn’t want to swim in it…
Those thoughts left my mind as I had a decent fish on, so I immediately threw myself down the wall with little regard for any consequences and followed the local guys’ instructions and – finally – the fish was mine.
I was absolutely exhausted from my encounter, so although only just touching double figures, and hardly epic when compared to European catfish standards, considering I was using 6lb line, a size 12 hook, and a rod that had no business landing such a fish, I declare it epic for me and a fish I’ll remember for a very long time.
It was a Christmas adventure that I certainly will not forget in a hurry, and luckily I survived to tell the tale – although not without having to subsequently nurse a few deep gashes on my arm and literally hundreds of mosquito bites…I’m awaiting the Dengue Fever to kick in.
I hope everyone has had a terrific festive holiday period and all the best for 2015. I’d be delighted to know your thoughts about this movie or fishing in Brazil. Please do click subscribe to my YouTube Channel where I’ll be uploading plenty more in the coming months. You can also chat to me over on my Facebook page, on Instagram or on Twitter and, of course, I hope to be back on FM again soon too.
