I know this isn't fly fishing, but it sure was fun! Thanks Doug for jogging my memory!
Doug Jeffries, after viewing this year's Agua Boa Lodge photos, reminded me of another monster caiman we met on a trip to the Amazon in 2009. Doug commented:
'Rex' was the big 17 foot caiman that hung out in front of the lodge and would come in and lay her nose on the beach when the boats returned from a days fishing because she knew people would bring her a piranha or dogfish. 'Bob' was the caiman you guys were hand feeding borbaletas to until it bit your boat and broke that weld on the motor bracket. Do I need to post a picture or two to remind you?
Once he had a borboleta peacock in his mouth, he would swim to shore and in the shade of the rain forrest canopy, he would lazily tilt his head back to swallow the fish. It was at this point that we would jerk the fish from his mouth and pull it back to our skiff. This would really piss off Bob. He would chase the fish angrily hissing all the way. We inappropriately played with Bob until he bit our boat's gunnel and broke a weld near the motor mount. Showing rare good judgement, we decided to stop!! It seemed like a bad idea to be in a sinking boat in a lagoon that was home to a very pissed off caiman!
This photo was taken at the precise moment the weld broke. You can see the broken weld just to the right of the outboard's handle. Seeing the damage wisely put an end to our fun!
After reading this, it all came back to me. We met "Bob" in a very remote lagoon that we were in one day when headquartered on a houseboat. Bob followed us around hoping to steal one of our fish. Eventually, we decided to fish for Bob instead of the big peacocks in the lagoon. I know.. very politically incorrect! In any case, we caught 2-4 lb. butterfly peacock bass and attached them to heavy monofilament line then dangled them in front of the big caiman. It was an awesome sight to see Bob attack the fish.