The payara is a superb sport fish, it is combative and when they are active, they give a lot of hits. However, they are complicated to get out of the water.
Tighten the brake of the reel
When fishing for payara and other hard mouth species, I advise to tighten the brake of the reel very strongly to ensure the best of the strikes. Then, just after the strike and having cast, you must release the drag quickly, to avoid stalls and accompany the fish during rush.
Triple or single hooks?
I fished the first two days with treble hooks, as this is what is recommended by the guides... Being a firm believer in using single hooks on hard lures, from the third day onwards I switched to single hooks to see if this change increased the likelihood of a successful fight. In such a short period of time, I can't draw any conclusions, but I found that with the singles I held the fish longer and picked up less.
The wind
To return on this last day of fishing on the Orinoco, the morning does not give much. However, after the lunch, the wind rises and this becomes interesting. We arrive on a rock exposed to the wind on one of its banks. The water is tinted because of the waves and the stirred up sediments, this motivates me to fish this area well. Considering the color of the water, I abandon my white lure used the other days, for a fluorescent yellow lure.
The current is not too high in this area, I also abandon the fast animations and bring the lure in a more moderate way. Thus, I still have a few misses, but I manage to get out several payaras to conclude this day.
The payara
Payara fishing is a very visual fishing, the reading of the water surface is very important. This reminds me of fishing for asp in the Loire i find that the payara behaves in the same way. It is a very good swimmer, who takes the time to follow and analyze the lure.
I tried the same strategy I used when fishing for asp, which is to bring in very quickly. This seems to trigger the big subjects, but causes a lot of misses.
I loved this first part of the stay on the Orinoco. The fishing is very interesting.
After these four days spent fishing the Orinoco, a very beautiful river that deserves to be discovered, we went to the Rio Tomo, this time to fish for peacock bass!
