casting lures to any feature such as
rocks, fallen trees etc. could always
produce a surprise species with many
fish being predatory and aggressive.
The second fishing day of the nine
saw me heading out for monster catfish
with jovial expert captain and guide
Raymond who was the brother of my
excellent regular captain Steven and
my man from last year Brian. Raymond
stopped and shot two red pacu with his
bow and arrow. The arrow is more of
a harpoon on a line with a tip that
detaches from the heavy metal shaft
and turns sideways ensuring that any
animal or fish does not escape when
shot. Joining me for the day was Navin
Roopnarain who was the boss. Armed
with our secret weapon pacu bait we
hit a very deep hole below the
spectacular King William waterfalls
and dropped our baits down 60 feet or
so to where Navin assured me the
‘monsters’ could be found. He wasn’t
wrong and I caught a redtail catfish of
about 20lb followed by another about
40lb in short order. Navin was next to
get a take and we knew straight away
it was something really big. He was
using 100Kg plus braid and was able to
stop what turned out to be a huge jau
about 100lb from doing the usual trick
of using the rocks it loves to hide under
or break the line off on.With a 100lb jau already in the boat
we felt like we could really do
something special today and I was next
into action a few minutes later with a
fairly nondescript bite that didn’t really
develop until I struck the sharp 12/0
tuna hook into a fish which we knew
straight away was huge. A few short
unstoppable (on my 20-30lb class rod
and multiplier with 300m of 100lb
power pro) runs ended up with it all
going solid as the suspected jau
conformed to the stereotype and
snagged up under the first big rock it
could find. Twenty minutes or more of
yanking, tugging, leaving and tweaking
the line followed until the fish finally
was drawn out to fight fair. This time I
prevailed and got it up away from the
rocks and then up to the side of the boat
where the huge grey/green speckled
fish surfaced like a U-boat and I gasped
at its bulk and burst into fits
of laughter as I knew I’d caught the best
fish of my life and put the terrible luck
of last year behind me.
The fish was dragged into the boat
where it thumped down into the bottom
and was taken across to a nearby rock
for us to photograph as I laughed like a
maniac. We had nothing to weigh it on
but my two experts estimated it at
115-120lb. Russell Jensen’s IGFA all
tackle record jau was only 109lb so I£
Stunning landscape and
superb fishing - what
are you waiting for?A surprise surubim or
tiger catfish from hard
against the bank on
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