This
is a picture of black piranhas. This is the most common species in the northern
part of Brazil. There is a lot of myth surrounding the piranha. They are not the
ferocious man eating fish the they are made out to be. I lived, swam and
bathed in amazon rivers for over six years, and I never once was bitten by a
piranha while doing so. I have stood waist deep in the water and caught piranha
on a bare hook five feet away, just as fast as I could throw my line in.
Just
the site of the teeth of the piranha is what has caused the myth surrounding
them. I myself have lost small pieces of my fingers to some piranhas, because I
was careless when I took them off my hook. I have caught piranha as large as ten
pounds before. Piranha are very good to eat and a lot of fun to catch, you just
have to be really careful taking them off the hook. Piranhas are not the only
fish in Amazon rivers that have teeth. Almost most all scale fish have a mouth
full of teeth. Some are even more terrifying the those of the piranha.
To the left you see two beautiful peacock bass. These babies are the hardest fighting fish you will ever have on your line. The biggest one I have caught was 30 inches long. They are also one of the only fish besides the catfish that don't have a mouth full of teeth.
Not all things that live in the water are fish. Alligators are a common site in the Amazon jungle. This eight foot alligator came right up on to shore next to our camp. I have seen Amazon alligators of enormous sizes in my travels in the Amazon jungle.
