Fishing for Pirhana

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Friday, January 9 at Posada Santa Clara in the Pantanal

7:30 a.m. horseback riding through the bush for 2 ½ hours, nice ride---hot and dry. The Pantanal is very dry as the rainy season starts in December, but there hasn’t been any rain yet in this area. The river is 4 meters or so below normal and the bush is really dry.

After lunch we went for a motor boat ride on the river, which is so low the guide had to get out of the boat occasionally and pull it along. We saw lots of caiman, some very small, some as big as 7 feet or so, which is as big as they get in this area. The caiman are quite docile, preferring fish to attacking other animals, but clearly you wouldn’t want one to bite you!!

Our boat guide caught a couple of piranhas and baited the caiman to pose for pictures of us petting its back, very carefully!!

We saw lots of birds and the capybarra, which is the largest rodent in the world.

The next day we went Pirhana Fishing.

This is a pretty basic activity. You take a cane pole, about 10 feet long, and tie on about 10 feet of fishing line, with a big hook on the end. Stick a piece of bloody, fatty meat on the hook(we used horse meat provided by the hostel kitchen.) Then wade out into the Pirhana-infested river in your bare feet. Try to tuck your toes into the sand so they don’t present a tasty opportunity to the little fishes, and they recommend you not have any bleeding sores on your feet or legs. Toss the baited hook out into the warm, chocolate colored river….and wait. Soon, you will feel a tug on the line. Jerk it quickly to set the hook, and then pull the pirhrana from the water, being careful where you land it on the bank. Use pliers to remove the hook, these fish have serious teeth.

We had Pirhana for dinner, along with some other fish we caught. They were tasty, but kind of scary looking up at you from the plate with their mouths still open in a toothy grin.

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Photos

todays catch
Pirhana and snakeheads

Peccaries at Santa Clara
This family of wild peccaries wandered around begging food

Here I am fishing for pirhana
Well, you missed the pic of me wading in the river, but I did, and we all waded across