by Anne I've gone fishing before, but nothing like how we fished in the Brazilian Amazon. And I've definitely never fished for piranhas with razor sharp teeth before.
Ten of us (including our guide and his boat mate) piled into a tiny motorboat that felt like it would tip over at any given moment. Now, I can swim, but it doesn't mean I want to be swimming in piranha-infested waters and who knows what lurks in the Amazon River. After a while, though, I got used to the boat tipping side to side, but not ever really flipping over so I calmed down and the the fun began.
We used fishing poles that were just regular branches. Our guide tied fishing wire to it and tied a fishing hook at the end of the fishing line and that was our make-shift fishing rod--no fancy stuff. For bait, we used raw and bloody pork meat. Our guide said this was the best way to attract our prey. To attract the fish we splashed the water around with our fishing rods (branches) and just held our rods over the water and waited for anything to tug. As soon as we felt a it, we were to yank our rod a little bit to hook the little suckers. It was easy as that!
It took me a while before I caught one, but once I did, I was on a roll! It was exhilarating! One of the piranhas I caught actually bit my hook off! My guide said to be careful because one piranha bit his friend's finger off straight through the bone. Scary.
Our guide did cook up the piranhas we caught and they tasted pretty good, but they're very bony. All in all, it was a nice experience to have.
If you ever plan a trip to the Amazon, make sure you check to see if your guide offers piranha fishing as one of the activities.
Do you like to fish? Would you go piranha fishing in the Amazon?
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Comments (15)
Wow! I've always been fascinated by piranhas, and I love to fish, but I don't think I'd be brave enough for that adventure! Cool to hear about it though!
This is a terrrific post! It's rather difficult for me to go to South America due to my geographical location, but I can imagine how exhilarating this is...
Keep up the good work; it'd be great if you write more about these unique experiences!
I added a picture of a huge piranha on my site. Check it out if you have time. The teeth are an inch and a half long, or more!!!
Lesabre500
@Lesabre500@xanga - Wowee! I just checked out the photo of that monster fish on your xanga and it's HUGE! I'm quite glad I didn't catch anything like that. Interesting blogs, btw!
My husband and I went to Brazil for our honeymoon and we did so many fun things in the Amazon like overnight camping out in the jungle, holding a sloth, visiting an amazonian tribe and hanging out with monkies. We were only able to catch small piranhas but we did eat lots of them as they were prepared by our ecolodge! My husband was even brave enough to dip himself in the Amazon River really really briefly!
I could never go Piranha fishing.
I watched a movie called "Piranha" when I was younger.
It was an old 1970s "horror" movie.
Scared the shit out of me.
@blingblingpiggy@xanga - wow, you did a lot of the things that i did! you should definitely share your stories with us! and you're right! your husband was quite brave, mine would have never even dipped a toe in those amazon waters!
I would love to share our stories! We love to travel and we love to travel to exotic locations!
That sounds amazing! I can't imagine what I would do if one of those things actually bit me though....how terrifying. It's definitely amazing to have tasted pirhana caught fresh from the Amazon with your own hands (or branch!)
Piranhas! OMG! great fun isn't it. How I wish I have a chance to go to Amazon. But when we were kids, my brother bought a small supposedly "Piranha" from an illegal fish shop, and we fed it with meat. But after a while it died.
I've only ever fished once, and I caught something! And then my boyfriend fell in to feed the fish. :P I'm not sure I would want to fish for piranhas, they sound kinda scary...and I don't like fish with lots of bones haha
Piranha fishing is awesome and really unorthodox! It was weird to splash the water to attract them.
I think that's discusting. Just to let you know pirhana's wouldn't attack you unless they were super hungry or you we're injured. People also sell pirhana teeth as jewelry etc. I just don't like the whole idea.
That's amazing. I would have freaked out and insisted on fishing from the shore, lol. I don't like boats. And I don't like pirhanas. Nor do I like leeches.
I would never go to the Amazon, though. I've watched too much Discovery Channel and read too much National Geographic for that. There are tons of nasties that live out there...
That sounds fun, though having seen what a piranha can do, I'd be kind of scared to do it myself :P