The Fly Fishing Adventure of a Lifetime Along the Amazon

Back in 2016, Colin Ambrose was an extremely busy man.

He had his hands more than full, running two restaurants — Estia’s Little Kitchen in Sag Harbor and Estia’s Back Porch Cafe in Darien, Connecticut — while also doing consulting work for another restaurant.

All he did at that time, he said, was “work and drive.”

Around that time, he had a casual conversation with an acquaintance that ended up being the catalyst for a new passion project.

He’d been asked what he wanted to do with his life. To which he replied, “All I really want to do is go fishing.”

Over the last few years, that’s exactly what he’s done.

Ambrose is the creator of the American Rivers Tour, a passion project that combines his love of food and cooking, hospitality and fly fishing. Starting in 2017, Ambrose began embarking on a series of fishing trips to rivers around the country, along with a group of fellow anglers and fly-fishing enthusiasts, accompanied by veteran fly fishermen and guides.

Each trip is documented in Ambrose’s own words, using photos and videos to tell the story.

He embarked on perhaps his most ambitious adventure to date at the end of last year, when he was part of a large group that fished — primarily for peacock bass — on the Amazon River in Brazil. The group went out with the charter boat company Amazon Spirit and fished in remote locations along the Nhamunda River, an offshoot of the Amazon.

A 20-minute documentary about the experience, airing on LTV this summer, gives insight into the trip, the people who went along, and what they encountered during the seven days and six nights they spent fishing along remote areas of the river — taking in the sights and sounds of the jungle, bursting with flora and fauna, and observing local rituals and customs.

The American Rivers Tour has become a way for Ambrose to find that elusive work-life balance. It also serves the dual purpose of allowing him to promote his businesses in a unique and fun way, he said.

The Amazon trip was organized by Brendan McCarthy of Urban Fly Guides, an experienced fly fisherman with expertise in saltwater fly fishing. McCarthy is also the owner of Northfork Ironworks and fabricates custom-built grills and barbecues — including some made for Estia’s.

Also along for the Amazon trip was Paul Dixon, considered one of the leading experts on saltwater fly fishing in the country. Dixon is the owner and operator of East Hampton-based To The Point Charters, which specializes in saltwater fly fishing on the East End of Long Island and in Key Largo, Florida.

McCarthy refers to Dixon as the “grand master” of fly fishing; both men served as experts on the trip. The rest of the group had varying levels of fly-fishing experience, but shared a deep love for the sport and a thirst for adventure.

Dixon’s son, Andrew Dixon, was part of the trip, as well as James Cooper, Gabriel Jimenez, Joe DiMenna, Bino Marcetti and Dan Vapnek.

Andrea Tese — the lone woman on the trip — is, like Ambrose, a restaurant owner. She runs The Minnow at Galley Ho and Legends, both in New Suffolk, and focuses on providing sustainable seafood.

While fly fishing was the main activity, it was just the tip of the iceberg when it came to the group’s motivation for making the trek to Brazil. What every member had in common, aside from a love of fishing, was a craving for adventure — and the trip quenched that thirst.

“It’s always been a dream of mine to see the Amazon,” Dixon said.

He’s traveled the world with a fishing rod in hand, catching fish in Idaho, the Seychelles, Montauk, the Florida Keys and everywhere in between. Sharing the adventure with his son, Andrew, a marine biology student at the University of Miami, made the experience even more meaningful, he said.

The main target of the trip was the peacock bass, a brilliantly colored fish known for being an ambush predator. Dixon said the fish, similar in some ways to both striped and largemouth bass, puts up a fight — making it a “worthy opponent.”

But there was far more to the trip than just the fishing.

“The fishing was so-so, which often happens,” Dixon said. “It was good, but nobody got a real huge fish. But the bird life and seeing all the toucans and parrots, and everything else in the river — that was great.”

It was also sobering, he added. The river was experiencing extreme drought conditions at the time, and Dixon said it was a stark reminder of how much the area — and the natural world in general — is in peril.

“I’ve been all over the world, and I tell my kids, go see this stuff now,” he said. “Europe will always be there, but the natural world is disappearing very quickly. You have to go see it and experience what nature gives us before it disappears.”

The only fish the group caught and did not release were piranhas, which are considered an invasive species. They also happen to cook up nicely. With experienced chefs like Ambrose and Tese on the journey — and the help of seasoned Amazon Spirit guides — the group enjoyed fresh and delicious local food throughout the trip.

It was McCarthy’s connections that made the Amazon expedition possible.

During the winter months, when he isn’t leading fishing expeditions, McCarthy focuses on his custom grill work. He built a barbecue for a Brazilian client living in San Francisco, who then told him about a charter boat he owned on the Amazon with his brother and cousins. The client extended an invitation. McCarthy accepted — and a year later, he brought the crew back for the trip in November 2024.

The art of fly fishing — which requires patience, precision and persistence — has been a unifying force for the group.

“If there’s a harder way to catch a fish, I’ve never heard of it,” McCarthy said. “Most people don’t ever get really good at it. It’s much more immersive in that you have to tie your own flies, and there’s a lot of shopping involved, a lot of expensive gear.”

McCarthy caught the bug in the early 1990s, on a camping trip in Yellowstone. One morning, he saw a man fly fishing and catching a fish on nearly every cast. He struck up a conversation, joined him for coffee by an open fire, and was introduced to the gear and the sport.

“From that very instant, I was like, I need to learn how to do that,” he said.

Over time, he gained the skills to become a guide and build a career from it.

“I like the challenge,” he said. “Mostly, I like the places it brings me.”

Like Dixon — and often with him — McCarthy has fished around the world: in the Seychelles, Cuba, Belize, Mexico, the Bahamas and more. But the Amazon represented a new kind of adventure.

The group arrived first in the city of Manaus, then took a one-hour flight to a smaller town where they met their guides from Amazon Spirit. Each day, they ventured out in smaller boats to fish, returning to lodge overnight on the larger mothership.

They fished along remote areas of the Nhamunda River, an offshoot of the Amazon. Dixon said the experience was unforgettable.

“Just going and finding something where nobody has been before — it’s really all about the adventure with friends, with like-minded people,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if you’re rich or poor; you share the same passion, and you want to try these places because we all know that the human impact around the world is growing quickly.”

That’s a big reason why Ambrose is so dedicated to documenting each trip, capturing photos and film to preserve and share the stories.

The Amazon was the latest in a long list of fishing adventures. Ambrose once rode his bike from Battery Park to Canada during the pandemic, fishing the Lake Champlain corridor along the way. He’s fished in Louisiana, Utah, Idaho, Michigan, Wisconsin, the Catskills and beyond — always documenting the journey.

“What really is fun is, every now and then, I find myself going back to them and reviewing the films and thinking about the adventures I had,” he said. “And I think there will be a moment in my life when that will ring true even more.”

For more information about the American Rivers Tour and the Amazon trip, visit americanriverstour.com.