AMAZON & PANTANAL FISHING MAP

Fishing Hot Spots

Two of the world's great freshwater fishing regions: the black-water Rio Negro from Manaus up to Barcelos and Santa Isabel, the Balbina reservoir and the Araguaia River for peacock bass, and the Pantanal wetlands from Cáceres to Corumbá and Porto Murtinho for pintado, pacu and dourado. Tap any star or dot to see what it is and what to fish there.

More map layers

Fishing & access

Marine chart layers

Parks & rules

Data rule: River stars are the nearest point on the Natural Earth river centerline to the town, and the Pantanal towns are OpenStreetMap town centers; these are general positions, not pinpoints, and each star says so. Launches come from OpenStreetMap, and the parks, reserves and Indigenous lands come from the World Database on Protected Areas. Biological reserves, ecological stations and Indigenous lands, closed to outside fishing, are shown in solid red; parks and reserves where fishing follows their own rules are shown in dashed red. Every star shows its source when you tap it. BigJoe does not invent coordinates. The exact sources used on this map are listed under Map sources & checks below.
Select a Fishing Hot Spot on the map or from the list below.
★ Fishing Hot SpotBoat rampMarinaWreckObstructionRock (yellow = awash)Coral / rock bottomCanyonWeather/tide stationNo-fishing zone (solid red)Protected area, fishing with rules (dashed red)

Safety: these are planning references. Use current official charts, weather and marine alerts and proper safety equipment before heading out.

Lake guides for this map

Month-by-month patterns, fish, ramps and rules for each water:

📘 Rio Negro Peacock Bass (Barcelos, Amazonas)📘 The Pantanal, Brazil

All fishing guides →

Fishing Hot Spots by area

River towns, reservoirs and Pantanal ports. Tap one to fly to it on the map.

Peacock bass and the world's biggest wetland

The Rio Negro is the home of the giant peacock bass (tucunaré açu), the hardest-hitting freshwater fish many anglers will ever catch. Most trips run from Manaus and Barcelos on mothership boats or lodges in the dry season, and nearly all of it is catch-and-release.

Far to the south, the Pantanal is the world's largest tropical wetland, with pintado and cachara catfish, pacu, piranha and dourado in rivers full of caimans, giant otters and jaguars.

Rules: Brazil requires an amateur fishing license, the Pantanal rivers close during the spawning season (piracema), and Indigenous lands and strict reserves are closed to outside anglers unless you have the right permits.

BigJoe’s gear for Amazon & Pantanal (Brazil)

What BigJoe would bring to fish these waters.

Rod7 ft medium-heavy spinning rodShop on Amazon ↗Reel5000 sealed saltwater spinning reelShop on Amazon ↗Line30 lb braidShop on Amazon ↗TrollingSkirted trolling lures for mahi & wahooShop on Amazon ↗Jigs1 oz bucktail jigs for the reefShop on Amazon ↗RigSnapper bottom rigsShop on Amazon ↗TopwaterSaltwater poppers for jacks & barracudaShop on Amazon ↗SunglassesPolarized fishing sunglassesShop on Amazon ↗

As an Amazon Associate, BigJoe earns from qualifying purchases. It costs you nothing extra and helps keep these maps free.

Species GuidesFish found in these waters.Weather & TidesCheck the ocean before you go.All Hot Spots mapsThe Caribbean, the U.S., Canada, South America and the Pacific.

Map sources & checks

Coverage
Amazon & Pantanal (Brazil). Mapped features come from public datasets and can be incomplete or out of date: a missing reef, ramp or wreck does not mean it is not there.
Map data
Hot spots
11 hot spots, each with its own source (tap any star to see it): point on a Natural Earth river or lake line (general location) (5), OpenStreetMap/Nominatim named place (general position, not a pinpoint) (5), OpenStreetMap mapped feature (1).
Protected areas
27 protected areas from the official list above, drawn in dashed red. Fishing rules inside them are set by the managing agency; check with them before you fish.
Chart layers (Charts button)
GEBCO ocean depth and OpenSeaMap buoys, lights and markers. GEBCO and OpenSeaMap are useful references, not official navigation charts.
Weather & tides
See Weather & Tides for this area: Open-Meteo weather and marine models. Tides here are estimated from a global sea-level model, not official tide tables.
Dates
This page last updated October 15, 2026. Each dataset keeps its own retrieval date, shown above.

⚠️ Planning reference only, not for navigation. Use current official charts, weather and marine alerts, and proper safety gear before heading out.

See something wrong or missing? Tell us and we will check it against the source.