Fishing for Piranhas in the Amazon River in Peru

As part of our adventure in the Peruvian Amazon we had the opportunity to go piranha fishing. Neither of us was particularily skilled at catching piraña - especially compared to our two guides who caught many. Come find out if we were successful or not catching them ourselves.
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Fishing for Piranhas in the Amazon River in Peru Travel Video Transcript:
So it is 9 AM and we're back on the water and it is a beautiful morning to be out. We're going to try and spot some wildlife. Oh!
So Sam? Are you hoping to spot anything in particular today? Yes, I would like to see that bird we saw this morning for breakfast. We didn't film it but it was a beautiful brown bird with like huge wings and it looked a little bit like an eagle.
We found something.
So we went out for a little excursion this morning and we've been traveling upstream and now we've arrived at a prime location to fish piranhas. So Sam, how are you feeling about that? I'm feeling good because you're going to stick your fingers in and they're going to bite them, right? What? Just kidding we actually have fishing rods.
So first up we are emptying our boat because there is a little too much water in it. And we wouldn't want to sink when there is piranhas in the water now would we Sam? No, we would not.
So over there is the bait. We're just getting that ready to put on the hook.
Bait for the piranhas. And there is the bait. I don't want to use my fingers. Hahahaha.
This is the way how to hook the bait. You make it a double hook. A double hook. Just like that. Throw it in the water.
So we are going to use this small fish. Ah! To feed the piranha. Oh my gosh.
Almost, almost.
It was there.
I heard the bite.
You want to try and splash the water. That is the way how to attract the piranha. Splash the water to call the piraña. Come over!
Okay, so I'm going to try my hand at fishing for piranha. I've got the bait here. Right here. Let's do this. I'm scared. So lure it over. Lure it over Audrey. Jerk it up and down. Splash it around.
Up and down, splash it around. Do you feel anything? No. Not yet? We're still trying to get them to come over.
Is that a piraña? No it is a sardine. Freshwater sardine. It ate it.
False alarm. False alarm.
I feel a tug. No, they just ate half of the fish. They ate half of the fish. Yeah, oh no. Hahahaha.
Look at that. Our first piranha.
Jeez, they're ugly.
I would not want to be bitten by one of those. What do you think Audrey? That is scary. It looks like something out of a horror movie. Look at those things. Sharp as heck.
We got one. Andres got one. Let's see it? Look at it. That is a big one. A big one. That is way bigger than the other one. Wow. Oh, maybe I have one too. Oh no. Never mind.
I haven't had any luck so far so we're letting Sam try his hand once again.
Oh, another! Piraña number three.
This one can reach like this size. Like big. Holy crap. That is huge. How many years? How many years would it take to get that big? In five years.
Oh. Oh. It's a branch. Oh yeah. Expert branch fisher over here. Expert branch fisher. No piranhas so far just branches.
You got one! You got one! Show it to us. I finally caught one. It was a big one too. Film it. Oh there it is.
It was probably my 20th attempt and I was not going to give up until I got one. There it is. There it is. Congratulations. There is dinner. There is dinner.
You never gave up and finally got one. Now we are going to see its teeth.
So mission accomplished. Time to head back for lunch but we're going to be having these for dinner. So that is pretty exciting.
It is wet! It's wet!
Okay, so this morning we went fishing for piranha and now we are having it for dinner.
And that is the big one I caught. Yeah, Sam got the big one. The grande.
There doesn't appear to be a whole lot of meat there. No, there is not.
As a tip if you're going to try your hand at fishing for piraña in the Amazon be sure to be patient because it took us nearly 20 attempts to finally make our first catch. The piranha are really skilled at just biting the bait and not getting hooked.
This is part of our Travel in Peru video series showcasing Peruvian food, Peruvian culture and Peruvian cuisine.
Music in this video courtesy of Audio Network