It was a hot summer day. The birds were flying, crickets chirping, and the shuttle sound of running water. I was in the Amazon chasing a monster piraiba, a monster catfish said to be capable of attacking and eating a man. They can grow to be the length of twelve feet. Around the Amazon, the piraiba is considered to be a source of food.
Some people say the piraiba is a sacred fish that can even steal your soul. Something that runs through your mind when you're fishing for them, even though being from America makes you think it’s all folk tale. The native people to the Amazon will aware that the legends are true, however.
I have one week to catch a mighty piraiba. The first day out, nothing but some peacock bass. The second day, not a single thing. It is suddenly the fourth day and still no monster piraiba. The night before I had something very big on but it wasn’t until I fell asleep that it decided to take my bait.
My guide began to grow impatient with what he calls “newborn fishing skills,” referring to my fishing skills. He tells me of a place about a one day walk from our current location. He speaks of this area being known for monster piraiba. In one story, he talks about a little boy going down to the water to play. He was only in water 2 feet deep. His mother was up at the house and heard screaming from down at the river. She arrived to see a stirring of blood and water where her son was, never to be seen again.
This story definitely makes me have second thoughts, but wanting one of these giants, makes me want to explore further. We walk on a terrifying hike to our next location. But when we arrive to where we’re supposed to cross the river, it has become flooded from the storms. This means we will have to set for the night.
When we arrive there the next day, I must join a religious ceremony where a native prays for me to wish me on a safe journey. I see why there's some big fish here. We camp out the first night in hope of catching one. I pull in a small one. Just by holding this fish I can tell what power they could have when they become goliaths. We wait for three more hours but caught nothing else. We head to camp in hope of the next day.
The next morning we couldn't go out. The Amazon rain had completely washed out everything. My guide told me I must wait for the water level to lower. So we hang out at the camp and I get to know more of the local culture. We do an ancient rain dance in hope of the rain to stop. It clears out later that day. We head out to our spot at about 5:00 p.m. I know that this is prime feeding time for the piraiba.
We arrive to the spot from the camp in an hour and a half. The water was even muddier than before and I knew I might have trouble getting a monster piraiba. And before I knew it, I had hooked into a monster. When we pulled it in, it was eleven feet five inches long and weighing in at 450 pounds, a record for this area. I was put in as a local legend and had many taken pictures of me and the fish. The fish’s mount is now hanging in one of the most important fishing warehouses there.