(Will Blair photo)
October 29, 2025
By Glen Colton
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This article originally appeared in Fly Fisherman's 2025 Destinations special publication.
“There’s a whole lot of water down there!” I exclaimed to my friend Ron Catterson as we began the final leg of our journey from Manaus to Amazon Eden Lodge in Pará State in northern Brazil. I was flying in a comfortable Cessna Caravan with five other anglers—all of us from Colorado—and there was a tremendous amount of water in the Amazon River and its tributaries. It was mid-June, soon after the rainy season, and the rivers were much higher than during my previous Brazil trip in November, when I’d fished at a different Amazon lodge during an unusually dry year.
We were the first group to fish at Amazon Eden Lodge in 2025, which I had heard about through Will Blair and his company The Best of the Wild. Will and I have known each other since the 1990s, when I fished at his Ozernaya camp in Kamchatka. In those days his company was called The Best of Kamchatka but now has expanded to include remote fishing opportunities in Brazil, the Bahamas , Alaska , and Kamchatka —where Will has run fish camps for more than 20 years.
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In 2024, Will explored numerous potential locations in Brazil, seeking the perfect location for a new fly-fishing operation. In August he found Amazon Eden Lodge —a spectacular compound on a remote stretch of a clearwater tributary in the Amazon watershed.
(Will Blair photo) His exploratory trip included wading and fishing from rocks to a variety of exotic Amazon fish, including colorful melaniae-strain peacock bass, huge wolf fish, payaras, bicudas, two types of pacu, matrinxã (Brycon falcatus ), several piranha species, jacundas, sardinatas, and many others. It turns out that August 2024 was the driest month of the dry season in an abnormally dry year, and the water was so low that the boats were unable to navigate some of the rapids. In 2024, access was limited, but the fish were stacked up for exciting sight fishing on foot.
In June 2025, we fished mostly from brand new flat-bottom fishing boats with casting platforms on the bow and amidships, so that two anglers could fish at the same time. The knowledgeable Brazilian guides navigated carefully through the few rapids and numerous rock gardens, and we were able to access miles of unfished water in all directions.
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The rains had ended by the time we arrived, and the river was dropping and clearing noticeably as the week progressed. I imagined that fishing would only get better during the remainder of the short six-week season, with fish less spread out and more sight-fishing opportunities.
Fishing a clearwater jungle river is quite an experience. This was my third trip to the Amazon basin in four years, and I was over my original apprehension regarding the myriad perils that I had previously envisioned lurking in the jungle. My uninformed mind worried about things like hordes of mosquitoes and associated diseases such as malaria and yellow fever, and maladies caused by bad water. I was concerned about wild creatures, poisonous snakes, deadly plants, stinging insects, caimans, piranhas, jaguars, and other wild critters—and worried about the jungle heat and humidity.
(Will Blair photo) The reality is that Amazon Eden is a beautiful lodge erected on stilts well above the Sonhos River’s rainy-season levels, built from local forest woods. Accommodations are safe and extremely comfortable, with outstanding gourmet food, wine, beer, and local mixed drinks, not to mention the friendly, hardworking staff.
Two anglers share a large, well-appointed bedroom with two queen beds, air conditioning, and a bathroom with shower. A walkway off the main lodge leads to a private wing with four more bedrooms. There’s an inviting covered porch outside, and the main lodge features an indoor kitchen, a large dining area, and a sitting area with sofas and TV.
A generator supplies power, and Starlink Internet access keeps you connected to the wider world. We accessed the boats via a wooden stairway leading down to the home pool, home to payaras, pacus, corvinas, enormous catfish, and countless other species. So while the lodge is nestled in a remote, pristine area of the jungle, this is not a “roughing it” experience. Amazon Eden is one of the nicest fishing lodges I’ve ever visited on my various trips around the world.
The one thing all visitors should be prepared for is the hot sun. Keep well hydrated, consume plenty of electrolytes, and cover up with long pants and sun hoodies, broad-brimmed hats, sun gloves, neck gaiters, and good sunblock. The lodge provides bottled water, which we consumed in enormous quantities—daytime high temperatures were in the low 90s. No-see-ums (also known as sand flies or biting midges) are present along most tropical rivers, so insect repellent such as Repel is important if you wish to avoid getting itchy welts on exposed areas, which could last for days.
(Will Blair photo) There are caimans and piranhas, so I recommend not falling out of the boat and doing a lot of splashing. Caimans—smaller relatives of American alligators—generally aren’t aggressive and there weren’t a lot around, but the sounds and splashes of our poppers did attract them, along with the peacock bass and wolf fish.
We started each day with coffee and a filling, tasty breakfast around 7 A.M., our goal to be on the water before 8. Each day, two boats went upstream and two down, each angler armed with three rods: a relatively fast-action 8- or 9-weight with a floating line and a large popper; a 9-weight with a sinking tip or an intermediate with a streamer; and a 6- or 7-weight with a warmwater floating line. The heavier setups had 40-pound-test fluorocarbon leaders tipped with 8 inches of 40-pound-test wire. The lighter rod had 20-pound-test fluorocarbon and 20-pound-test wire—it was rigged to fish for pacus with either a fruit imitation or perhaps a terrestrial pattern, if the fish were really looking up. All the rigs terminated with wire because almost all the fish here are toothy.
The water was relatively high, so we fished from the boats almost exclusively, although we did occasionally get out to stand on exposed rocks and cover the water more thoroughly. The rocks held a variety of fish, especially enormous wolf fish that like to hide in slower water in the nooks and crannies of boulders. On the first morning I was excited to have my first wolf fish explode on a popper in a shadowy area. I struggled to keep it from running and breaking off on rocks and logs, and was elated when my guide landed it with his net. It was just one of several wolf fish that my companion Ron and I landed that day.
The rock structure also held peacock bass up to 10 pounds that fought hard, jumped, and took off for cover. The melaniae strain peacock bass here don’t get as large as others in famous peacock-focused areas, but pound for pound they fight harder. We found one spot where a rock outcropping in the middle of the river held both big wolf fish and peacocks. We spent an hour or so casting both poppers and streamers at the numerous fish milling about the rocks. While both species fought hard, they don’t make long runs. Most often, we fought both peacock bass and wolf fish by stripping the line to keep them out of structure, and didn’t fight them from the reels. You don’t necessarily need an expensive large-arbor reel with hundreds of yards of backing here, like you might need in salt water.
(Will Blair photos) In addition to rocky areas, we found the peacocks in more traditional lagoon settings, set back deep in the mangroves where an accurate cast was necessary to get the fly very close to the cover. Another highlight of the week was finding a pod of peacocks in a shadow-covered pocket at the jungle’s edge, suspended near the surface where we sight fished for them. We hooked a handful and landed three or four. We were sweating up a storm after that action and took a needed water break.
Occasionally we would target pacus, usually along the banks under trees, where they hung out and would occasionally rise to eat flowers or fruits that would fall off trees. The go-to technique was to peg a marble-size bead on a stout hook and cast it near shore, plopping three times in quick succession and then making a fourth cast where you let the bead sink for five seconds. The splashing of the false casts would attract pacus to the area and sometimes they would hit the fly immediately on the surface or as it sank. These fish weren’t huge, but the pan-shaped, 6- to 8-pound silver pacus fought incredibly hard on a 6-weight rod. One day I caught several using a large stonefly dry fly, with the fish rising like trout to the fly.
Other species we caught, including in areas with faster water near rapids, were matrinxã, jacundas; a very bright fish colored like a brook trout, and sardinatas—fish that look something like big, gold-colored American shad. We spotted some bicudas and made attempts to catch them, but none were landed on my trip.
One of the reasons I went on this trip was to target payaras (Hydrolycus armatus ) aka “vampire fish.” During the previous year these fish were caught in very shallow water. We targeted them for a few hours during the last two days, and I had a large one swipe at my fly in fast water. It was the first week of the season, with seasonably high water, and the guides weren’t yet sure where the payaras were hanging out, so we tried a variety of spots and techniques. On the last day I hooked a scarcer relative of the payara called a redtail payara (Hydrolycus tatauaia ) in moderately fast, deep water, stripping a blue and white streamer on an intermediate line. It was definitely better than dredging super deep water with a heavy sinking line.
(Will Blair photo) We did not target piranhas on this trip, but they were abundant, large, and let their presence be known, either chewing up the tails of flies or hitting the same flies that we used for other species. We caught a few different piranha species, including very large specimens, and they fought incredibly hard. Some of these red-bellied and black piranhas ended up on our dinner plates, as sashimi, ceviche, or grilled. The piranha meat was tender and delicious. We were glad to eat some of them before they had a chance to eat us!
Two special aspects of the trip were the abundant wildlife and the gorgeous jungle scenery we saw traveling along the river. We spotted numerous species of birds, including blue and scarlet macaws, parrots, kingfishers, ibises, egrets, roseate spoonbills, various raptors, and a host of others that were amazing to behold. We also saw river otters, monkeys, capybaras, electric eels, and more.
(Will Blair photo) One note is that a trail is being built leading both upstream and downstream from the lodge, to allow access to miles of river via ATVs in case of extremely low water conditions.
If you have ever wanted to do an Amazon jungle fishing trip, but have been reluctant, I would highly recommend a trip to Amazon Eden Lodge. It’s an adventure both seasoned veterans and less experienced anglers can enjoy. You can target and catch a large variety of jungle fish with excellent guides, experience the sights and sounds of the jungle, and do it all in the relative safety and comfort of a top-class lodge with friendly and accommodating staff.
I was particularly impressed because this was the first week the lodge was open. Kudos to Will Blair on this new jungle fishing destination. But beware, once you do a jungle fishing trip, it is hard to quit dreaming about doing another one.
Recommended Gear (Will Blair photo) You should carry three rods each day on the river: an 8- or 9-weight with a Scientific Anglers Jungle Titan floating line; a 9- weight with a Scientific Anglers Jungle Titan intermediate line; and a 6- or 7-weight with a floating line.
Book Your Destination Anglers can take an easy direct flight from Fort Lauderdale to Manaus using Copa Airlines, or indirect flights from other U.S. cities through Sao Paulo or Rio De Janeiro, and then to Manaus. A charter flight included in the trip cost takes you from Manaus to the private airstrip at the lodge.
thebestofthewild.com
Glen Colton is retired from a career in finance and lives in Fort Collins, Colorado. He has enjoyed streamer fishing and swinging flies for a wide variety of species in locations including Alaska, British Columbia, Russia, Mexico, Belize, the Bahamas, Tierra Del Fuego, Louisiana, Florida, Wisconsin, the Great Lakes, Maine, Brazil, and Bolivia.
