August 13, 2016

2016 Peru (Day 15)

We planned a day to fish for micros around Iquitos. However, before the trip began, Ben's contact had some business and could not show us some of the good spots around Iquitos. Luckily, one of our guides, Homer, had a free day and he offered to take us fishing. It was Joy's birthday and Josh and Joy decided to skip out of fishing for the day.

Homer was monumental in helping us hire a couple of motorbikes to take us to a couple of spots for the morning, as the four of us couldn't speak any Spanish.

Homer had an idea where to go. We drove down paved road to get out of the city and then went down a dirt road that was more like a motorcross bike track. It was amazing the motorbike drivers can navigate through some of these areas that even a 4x4 truck would have to consider twice.

But we finally arrived at a beautiful little blackwater creek.

There were some Cichlids that I could see immediately. They were Aequidens tetramerus.

There were lots of Leporinus moralesi and they were very quick on the bait.

With the smaller hook, we started to catch some other species.

Twospot Astyanax (Astyanax bimaculatus) - Species #625

Moenkhausia colletti - Species #626 (Still trying to verify this)

I spotted a couple of small, slender catfish on the bottom. I must have missed the hookset 5 times before finally hooking one. They were not shy about biting!

Pimelodella sp. - Species #627 (There are so many similar Pimelodella species, still not sure which one)

There were these tetras that schooled together but I kept missing the hookset. Just before we had to leave, I finally caught one and it was stunning!

Moenkhausia lepidura - Species #628

Butterflies love salt. My tackle bag must still have some salt on it.

We never fished the second spot as this spot was already very productive, and it was getting hot toward noon. We took the motorbikes back to our hotel in Iquitos and parted with Homer. After lunch, I picked up some clean laundry while Ben, Michael and George packed for their evening flight.

After Ben, Michael and George left, Josh and Joy came by to drop off their luggage with me. We ere taking the same early morning flight and Anthony had arranged a taxi to take us to the airport from our hotel. It was better for them to drop off their bags at 9pm instead of 3am.

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