When Rick Pope, founder and President of Dallas’ Temple Fork Outfitters (TFO), returned to the Captain Logan yacht after his first afternoon of fly fishing for Peacock Bass he was grinning from ear to ear.  After dreaming of fly fishing for Peacock Bass for over 20 years, the first fish he brought to the boat weighted 17 lbs!  Rick was all smiles as he related how his guide Blackie, had told him to put the 400 gr sinking line on his TFO 375 reel, and then positioned the bass boat off a brushy point that dropped into about 10 feet of water.  Rick tied on a weighted chartreuse and green Deceiver patterned fly tied on a 4/0 hook and after a couple of false casts dropped the fly near the submerged brush.   Stripping the fly several times and then letting it fall, the big Peacock hammered the fly and the fight was on.  The 9 ft, 4 piece Baby Blue fly rod, the smallest of TFO’s “Blue Water” series, proved to be the perfect rod for the brawling Peacock Bass.  After several minutes of the game of gaining line…losing line….gaining line…losing line, with hands burning Rick brought the fish to the boat where Blackie clipped the Boga Grip on the fish’s jaw and hoisted it from the water.  17 lbs even the Boga Grip read, a very nice Peacock let alone your first Peacock on a fly rod!

    After using TFO’s rods at Rainbow Bay Resort in Alaska, which I managed for the last 4 years, I immediately contacted Rick this past summer when I was named Director of Sales and Marketing  for Brazil’s Captain Peacock Yachts and Expeditions.  I was looking for strong dependable rods for our Peacock Bass fishing operations in Brazil  and from my experience in Alaska using TFO’s fly, spinning and bait casting  rods, I knew this was the rod I wanted for our operations in Brazil.   Upon further discussions with Rick he stated that Gary Loomis, one of the most renowned rod makers in the world, was designing a new line of bait casting rods and asked me for my input on rods for use on Peacock Bass.  During our discussion Rick stated that he thought he could put a group of fly fishermen together to come down and test TFO’s new Baby Blue fly rods as well as Gary’s newly designed bait casting rods on one of the world's toughest fighting freshwater fish, the Peacock Bass.  What we ended up with was 8 top shelf fly fishermen with more talent and fishing stories than I had ever seen together at one time!  From the TFO office in Dallas there was Rick Pope, Jeff Jackson & Brandon Powers, Dr. Mark Lamose and Bruce Henley from the Baltimore area, past Browning President Bill Franklin & retired Air Force jet jockey David Price from Dallas.  The group was rounded out by yours truly and my oldest son Jason Kern.  I had tied over 100 big deceiver type streamers for the trip and figured we were ready.  I did not realize that the other anglers were also tying of fly patterns and we ended up with a total of nearly 1,000 flies between us!

After traveling a good part of the night from Dallas to Manaus Friday night, we boarded the twin engine turbo prop charter Saturday morning in Manaus for the 1 hour 45 minute flight 450 miles upriver to the village of Ste Isabella where we met our mother boat for the week, the 95’ Captain Logan yacht.  After the lowest water levels ever measured on the Rio Negro River a month earlier, we found that 3 weeks of rain had raised the river nearly 5 feet and was going to make fishing more challenging than we had expected.  Rising water levels tend to scatter the fish into newly exposed cover and our guides were going to have to “read” this new water and fish accordingly.  During the week our anglers caught nearly 600 fish, with Rick Pope experiencing the most fish caught including two 15 lb Peacocks and a 17 lb’er.  Bruce Henley caught the biggest fish on the fly rod with a beautiful 19 lb’er and David Price caught the big fish of the week by “going over to the dark side” as he put it, casting a Yo Zuri jerk bait on one of Gary Loomis’ newly designed bait casting rods.

The last night on the water, Luciano our Brazilian host on the Captain Logan pulled the yacht adjacent to a “hurt your eyes white” sandbar and set up a lavish dinner including dinner tables with pressed white table cloths.  Our on board chef then prepared an authentic Brazilian barbeque under the stars.  This was a fitting first class meal for the ending of a first class fishing trip.  To top it all off, Rick Pope spend the evening working with the fishing guides teaching them to use the Baby Blue fly rods and 375 reels he was leaving on the Captain Logan for our future anglers use.  Top shelf equipment for our top shelf Peacock Bass fishing operations!