I was thankfully able to get out of the awful cold Virginia was experiencing not so long ago. It was so cold every creek and most rivers completely froze over and we had 6 inches or more solid ice in the yard. I was fortunate enough to get away for 8 days to Brazil for my ninth trip with Nomadic Waters. I did feel bad to leave my wife and kiddo at home in that cold mess since I was going to be wearing shorts and flip flops for the next 8 days. Thankfully everything at home was good, no power loss or anything breaking while I was gone. This was my sixth trip to the RiO Negro the largest tributary to the Amazon river and the 5th largest river in the world by volume. The Rio Negro is wide river but not open water it is full of islands, lakes, and braids. My 9 anglers this trip had a great experience even though it was the toughest fishing I have experienced personally in all the trips I have done. I guess thats pretty good luck out of 9 trips I have only had one slower than normal fishing trip. I've been very lucky with my hosted trips to hit the low water time frame and have incredible fishing but this trip we hit high water which pushes the fish deep in the flooded timber. Everyone caught fish and had a great time but numbers were much lower than past trips because of the high water. My anglers had battles with the double digit peacock bass this river is known for but most of the bass won the battle. Our largest fish was 15 pounds landed by a first time to the jungle angler! I will be returning to Brazil likely Fall of 2027 but have not set my dates yet.
Far as fishing at home before the cold and snow, trout fishing was the norm in the low and clear water. Got out two days before the big snow with a good client to get her first musky. I wish they were all that easy, she hooked up and landed her first musky in the first hour of being on the water. After the celebration and photos taken we left and went brook trout fishing. Since all the snow had melted and it has warmed up we are looking good with water flows thankfully. Decent amount of rain lately and more in the forecast should get us out of the drought. Starting in the next few days I'll start guiding pre spawn smallmouth along with trout trips through the month of March. I'm currently booked up til May 20 at this moment and my Summer is starting to have trips on the books each month. If you are wanting to get out for the Summer smallmouth bass seasons don't wait to long, by the end of May I will start getting pretty filled in.
