Bustin Bass in Venezuela

Photos by Joe Richard

 

 

Josh Dickinson heads downhill to the Boat, for another shot at peacock bass.

 

Here's a healthy fish: This one weighed about 15 pounds.

 

Piranha have savage teeth, a true carnivore that demands respect.

 

A wide assortment of craft were used by Venezuela's Carun Bass Club, and these guys certainly knew how to drag peacock bass out of flooded timber. Any boat with an electric motor was certainly welcome and effective here on Lake Coromoto.

 

Crew getting ready for another sortie, after another sumptuous South American steak for lunch. Whoa! Does it get any better than this? At left is Jose Malagon, who practices medicine in Tennessee but takes groups of anglers to Lake Coromoto and Venezuela's interior. He can be reached at truchin@aol.com

 

Scrappie schoolie brought aboard, with one of perhaps 20 different lures successfully used.

 

Weighing a real hawg before release.

 

Pit stop while traveling through the Andes mountains, on the way to Merida. The temperature slowly dropped, as the cars climbed higher, perhaps 10,000 feet that day.

 

Another schoolie about to be released.

 

One of the guys collected photographs of local wildlife, and here waits for a hummingbird to return.

 

Charles Hammontree releases another fish, Using his “wood-chopper” wooden plugs.

 

This jig-and-stinger fly combo nailed a number of peacock bass.