Brazil

Brazil is the home of the peacock bass — tucunaré in Portuguese — the most aggressive freshwater fish on earth. The Rio Negro drainage and its black-water tributaries in the western Amazon produce the world's largest peacock bass, with true trophies over 20 pounds caught each season by serious anglers willing to live on mothership vessels for a week at a time.

Mothership operations on the Rio Negro are the gold standard — Acute Angling, Peacock Bass Anglers Inc, Amazon Peacock Safari. Vessels relocate nightly to the day's water; anglers fish from guided bass boats targeting lagoons and river mouths. September–February is dry season and the prime window. The Pantanal (Brazil's tropical wetland) holds world-class golden dorado plus peacock bass, piranha, and payara; the Rio Cuiabá and Rio São Lourenço systems are the core destinations there.

Manaus (MAO) is the gateway for Amazon trips; Cuiabá (CGB) or Campo Grande (CGR) for the Pantanal. Brazil is not a tourist-infrastructure destination — outfitters handle all in-country logistics including river permits and indigenous-territory access (required for the upper Rio Negro).