tapajós river — itaituba
Clear river with rock beds, home to peacock bass, trairão and payara. Base in Itaituba, on the Transamazon highway.
The Tapajós has green, transparent water, rapids, rocky beds and white sand beaches. Above Itaituba the waterfalls start and the landscape changes: more rock, more current and more fighting fish. Peacock bass on the banks and eddies, trairão around logs and rocks, payara and bicuda in the current, matrinxã over the rock beds. Fishing is casting, with surface and mid-water lures, and jigs in the rapids. The tributaries offer the best fishing but require an operator who knows the access routes.
best season
Low water, August to December. Clear, low water exposes rocky beds and sandbanks.
Local rules: Region with the Amazon National Park, national forests and Munduruku indigenous lands upriver: fish only where permitted and with authorization. Illegal gold mining (garimpo) affects stretches of the river. Check local rules.
- getting there
- Itaituba airport, with flights from Belém and Santarém. By land, BR-230 (Transamazon) and BR-163. Upriver, only by boat or charter flight.
- facilities
- Hotels in town, fishing inns and live-aboard boats upriver, local guides and boatmen.
- basin
- Amazon
tip
Trairão hits a noisy surface lure near logs. Use a steel or thick fluorocarbon leader: their teeth cut.
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Each card shows the day's index (0 to 100) and, below it, a strip with the index for each hour, from 0h to 23h. from poor to excellent.
what you can catch here
sources and references
Access, facilities and season information changes: check with the lodge, a local guide or the city hall before you travel.