yeah I know this is a salmon/steelhead board, but a friend asked me to make a post about peacock bass fishing on the Amazon. He is going to fish the Amazon in August with out a guide. He is looking for what kind of lures he should try to buy before his trip. He also was going to fish for pirahna. Both of these fish I have no clue how to attempt to fish for. If anyone has been there my buddy would appricate the help.
thanks in advance.

dont know much about peacock bass or pirhanas, but sounds like a great trip, im sure he will have a lot of fun whether he catches fish or not, you should tell him to fish for aerowanas too

Imitating the natural baitfish in the amazon is the way to go.

Any Neon Tetra, Zebra Danio, Rainbow Fish pattern will work . Go to your local fish store and look at the fish, go to your local fishing store and buy little spinners that look like the fish at the fish store.

Pirahna, I would sugest a steel leader for the spinner.

For Pirhana, I'd just troll with a small hunk of meat on a small hook. Make sure he uses pliers to get them off the hook. Their teeth are razor sharp, and they'll take a chunk out of your finger faster than you can imagine. As a former owner of a Red-Belly, I can personally attest to it.

I saw a show on TV a couple of years ago when a couple of bass fishermen went there to catch Peacocks.

When they met their native guide and were loading gear into his pram, the guide had a pretty animated discussion with their interpretor, who relayed the message that if they were planning on using their bass gear, they shouldn't plan on landing anything.

These guys had the usual heavy duty pool cues, 20# braided line, and high torque, low retrieve ratio reels. They laughed and decided to show the natives how Americans catch bass.

They used topwater plugs...after five or six casts one of the dudes gets a hit that almost rips the rod out of his hand and breaks the 20# before he can yell "Son!".

Five more minutes, three more hookups, two more busted lines and a busted hook, and the fellas accepted the guide's gear, which consisted of super-heavy-duty boat rods, roller guides, and big, big, Penn big game reels, with 50# braided line.

They still only landed about half the fish they hooked.

They did, however, hook a lot, and they hooked them on damn near everything...plastic worms, buzz baits, spinnerbaits, and plugs. The Peacocks didn't seem to care, as long as it was moving they'd hit it.

Pirahna's, on the other hand, I believe are usually pursued using small hooks, steel leaders, and bait. They have pretty small mouths, and contrary to popular belief, aren't particularly aggressive. They're not very big, either, so probably wouldn't require very heavy gear.

BTW, the Peacocks looked to be anywhere from eight or ten pounds to well over twenty, and the only resemblence to largemouth bass was body shape. They have big teeth, too, hit and jump like tarpon, and make really fast runs, usually right into trees in the water.

I'd love to give it a try sometime...post results of your buddy's trip, expecially pix if you can get 'em.

Fish on...

Todd.

I've been watching a lot of peacock fishin on tv and it looked to me like it was all topwater, they make special topwater lures just for peacocks because they will tear up normal stuff. The guys I saw were all using heavy bass gear with 80# braided lines. Using this they caught bass as big as they get (world record is 27 1/2 lbs. I hope your friend gets some, they look like a ton of fun and absolutely exploded on the topwater.