THE ULTIMATE ANGLING BUCKET LIST

With the stingrays it seems, the jury is
still out. I've caught them in the foothills
of the Andes a good three thousand
miles or more upriver from the sea, so
there is no way that particular species
retains any measure of saltwater
component to its life cycle.
Clearly, either evolution or rapid within
population adaptation has taken place
there, as demonstrated can happen with
land locked populations of bull shark
trapped by dam building in Australia,
which are known to be reproducing
satisfactorily, despite having no return
access route back to the sea.
Phill Williams, freshwater Stingray
Lake Nicaragua sharks are also bull
sharks which have accessed freshwater where they have carried out fatal attacks. Now it seems the
worlds genuine worst man eater has evolved, adapted, call it what you will, to occupy that indistinct
grey area between saline and fresh. So maybe we should be adding bull shark to the list of potential
freshwater targets too.
The big stingrays caught on rod and line with weights up to five hundred pounds and more in the Bang
Pakong and Mae Klong Rivers of Thailand, plus some of the adjacent rivers in the Thailand, Cambodia
and Vietnam area, from a scientific perspective it seems, also currently sit in that no man's land between
completely saline and freshwater life styles.
Research is still ongoing to try to resolve the issue, though I would be surprised if runs back in to
saltwater do not form part of their as yet to be fully documented life cycle, due to the close proximity
of where in those rivers they prefer to live in relation to the coast.
None the less, a fish I was more than happy to target myself, then had to pull back from due to the
timing of my first visit to Thailand, which unfortunately happened to coincide with the height of the
rainy season, filling the rivers up with highly coloured water and floating debris, making fishing them
for anything impossible.
Prior to fishing Thailand, and without
researching things properly, I decided
to go for a true freshwater
thoroughbred by visiting the Amazon
and fishing for arapaima. Bad decision.
As there is already a complete account
of my time in the Amazon in the Part,
suffice to say here that targeting big
wild fish in those parts is both a
daunting as well as a potentially
dangerous task, as scary encounters
with bats after dark, electric eels, and a
hunting puma all suggest. On top of
this, the area is so incredibly vast and
for the most part barely accessible.
Arapaima
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