single treble hooks and payara fishing in colombia

[andresbotero]

Hey L, after a long time I finaly figured out a way to watch versus here in Colombia. I saw that episode with Patrick Sebile fishing for muskies were he used his lures with just a single treble hook (bigger than normal). Do you think this would work for fishing peacockbass? That would really reduce the damage on the fish... If not, do you have other suggestions for fishing peacock bass with less damage to the fish...

On other subject, after a week of fishing for peacocks in el rio bita in march, I went fishing for payara in the orinoco river (puerto carreno). we found some nice rocks that formed the most beautiful pool followed by nice rapids...anyways my buddy and I went fishing in the afternoon of the full moon and after a few casts with a minnow bait my friend had hooked and landed about 6 payaras (the biggest was 15 pounds). I on the other hand had no luck at all and was desperetly changing lures. Watching my suffering my friend told me that some guy he knows fished for payara with big poppers and straight retrieves (also he had told me that some guys caught huge payara with marlin trolling baits). So in my desperation I take a youzuri popper (red head) and just tossed it out there and brought it straight in and BAM! caught a 12 pounder on the first cast. After that I must have hooked about 50 payaras with the same popper (until it was totally broken). I didn't land all of those payara since they are so hard to hook and I had no owner hooks, but I had a blast fighting them and landing about 12 payara. I have to admit I lost the biggest ones (I estimate 25 pounders). I mention I fished with the red head popper. Well they only wanted that color. We tossed out any other color and they wouldn't bite. we had to go and buy red and white paint and paint all our poppers (lots of fun). It worked like a charm.
Anyways, just wanted to share my expirience with you. I cant wait to go again and fish for payara with poppers (with owner hooks this time!). It's my favorite type of fishing (after tarpon with alejandro linares). Also, I used the teramar and curado 300...this outfit keeps surprising me day after day.
Best regards,
Andres Botero
Medellin
Colombia

[dahlberg]

Hi A
For sure the single front hook works great for pcocks. My mr. whiggley, which is the best pcock lure I have ever seen has one single treble way up under the head and I never miss them with it.
Regarding the payara, it's not unusual at all for them to go for something moving fast on top. I've seen natives in Venezuela fish them with a 6" piece of 1 1/2" metal pipe with a bunch of hooks hanging on it! They toss it as far as they can on a 1/8" rope then bring it in, upstream next to the swiftest water, just as fast as they can!
Thanks for the post, say hi to my friends in Colombia!
best
L