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Éverton Pires: My Journey in Fishing

Writer's picture: Everton PiresEverton Pires

First, the proposal to create this blog consists mainly in the narrative of experiences and daily activities related to my work as a professional fishing guide specializing in fly fishing (Fly Fishing), as well as sharing useful technical information acquired throughout the experiences lived in practice.


Starting by introducing me, for those who still do not know me, my name is Éverton Pires. Currently, in the year 2024 I am 33 years old, married and residing 13 years ago in the city of Recife, Pernambuco, which I had my first and unforgettable contact with my favorite fish, the Tarpon (megalops atlanticus), known in our region as Camurupim or Pema.


I work actively as a professional guide to sports fishing, being an Engineer of Fishing by university training (UFRPE), aquaviary by the Brazilian Navy and founder of the sports fishing operation Recife Tarpon.


The Origin of My Passion for Fishing

A primeira pescaria com 4 anos de idade em um pesque e pague

Born and raised in the interior of São Paulo, in the city of Campinas-SP, I had my first contacts with fishing already since small, around my 4 years old.


On a beautiful day, my father who had no habit of fishing, led me to a “Pesque & Pague” in São Paulo. Fishing with a hand wand and using a wand like bait, I remember until today that after feeling the excitement and adrenaline of capturing my first larger fish (a Pacu on the hand wand), I no longer stopped fishing until today, always seeking the improvement and evolution in the practice of this fantastic sport.

Pescando com minha mãe

Although my parents did not have the habit of practicing fishing themselves, they always liked to travel a lot, and since then, they always searched for places where I could perform such practice between a trip or weekend ride.


My sister says that for a few moments of our childhood, this custom came to the point of generating jealousy from her, since all of our tours and family trips began to include beaches, rivers, lakes, fishers and everything else that included water and fish so that I could fish.


Pescando com meu pai

Not only by the fact of capturing fish and fishing itself, but all of this movement has awakened me a feeling of deep gratitude for my parents have always sought and provided these trips, because far beyond fishing, we have always been traveling and passing through healthy environments, always wrapped by a lot of nature, allowing us to contemplate so many landscapes that remain recorded until today in memory.


We know that the vast majority of people started fishing by influence of the father or often of the grandfather. It is very common to ask me if any family member influenced me in fishing. As much as my father did not take liking for the fishing itself, he always gave me support and took me to fish, so I consider him the precursor of all this.


Still I wonder how I may have acquired such a passion for this sport, since still so small there was no one or something that I could observe and make awaken in me some interest in carrying out such activity.


In a way I think that could be in the blood. I could not meet my grandfather Rubens still in life in this passage through Earth, but knowing that he liked to fish, I believe that this taste for fishing may also have come through it as a form of genetic inheritance.


I also had a few uncles like Alex and Wladimir who liked to fish periodically, and so they took me along with my cousin to fish in rivers and lakes in the interior of São Paulo, further encouraging the practice of this leisure.


My First Fishing Equipment

Pescando no Círculo Militar de Campinas

I must have won my first battery and artificial lures (baitcasting) around my 11 years of age and then we joined in the Military Circle of Campinas, where I would practically go every day of bicycle after the lessons spend all afternoon fishing, often until dusk.


There I spent hours fishing traitors with artificial baits. Often as he traveled across the lake's entire shore by throwing the artificial baits, he left two other armed molinet sticks to fish other fish such as tambaquis and matrinxãs. At the end of the afternoon it was “of Law” to leave a waiting molinete stick on the stand with live baits to capture surubins (cacharas).


Over the years, I have been increasingly improving techniques and passing through the most diverse modalities and equipment. I consider that I have already fished from everything a little, from hand line, bamboo wand, passing by molinetes and reels until I arrive in the fly fishing mode (Fly Fishing), which is the modality that I have identified most, specialized and that more practical currently.


Awakening for Fly Fishing


My awakening by fly fishing was like the vast majority of people I know. The first time I saw some Fly scene was through the movie “Nothing is forever”. It was love at first sight. When I saw that line of Fly “bailing in the air” I soon felt the interest in knowing the sport. The adrenaline rushed by actor Brad Pitt down the river in search of his fish at the end of the line made me want to feel the same feeling.


Immediately I went to the nearest store of home (The Pirangueiro) and there was the famous “Martin Combo”, which is a very basic Fly equipment kit. Xandinho, the salesman and owner of the store, went to the sidewalk in front of the store and showed me some pitches. The same day I was already in the Military Circle club giving my first pitches.


At that time (2003), still with dialed internet, access to information related to fly fishing was very scarce and difficult to find here in Brazil. I was learning the way I could, being self-taught in the pitches and other techniques of the mode.


A lot I learned was through the Fly Fishing Brazil Forum (FFB), which promoted, in addition to tips and techniques, discussions, reports of fishing and fishing meetings of Fly fishermen from all over Brazil. It was during these meetings that I was able to connect with other fly fishermen and share experiences in the sport.


Many consider fly fishing as the “last stage” of sport fishing. In fact, this is the sport that fascinates me most since then and the one that I dedicate most. For a long time I have already fished exclusively from Fly, having left other modalities temporarily aside. Lately, I have fished with what gives me the most will at the moment, without restricting myself or limiting myself to the practice of a single and specific mode.


Following the Calling for Fishing


Over the years, my fascination with the practice of this sport has always been increasing so that after going through a frustrated experience of training as Technician in Mechatronics, acting in the area and not feeling that I was doing what I liked, I sought something that could satisfy me professionally.


In a Professions Guide, I learned of the existence of a University Course of Fishing Engineering. Since my favorite hobby is fishing, why not make it my earnest bread?


I did ENEM (2011) and was approved in the course of Fishing Engineering offered by the Federal Rural University of Pernambuco (UFRPE), in Recife-PE.


At that time there were few courses in Fishing Engineering in Brazil, much of them concentrated in the North and Northeast Region. As there was still the said course in the State of São Paulo, which I lived, my alternatives were between Toledo-PR, Manaus-AM, Fortaleza-CE and Recife-PE.


In March 2011, I then chose to study in Recife (UFRPE), mainly for being the pioneering Fishing Engineering course in Brazil, therefore, in theory, the most complete and developed course until then.


Luckily, or “irony of fate”, Recife has opened me unimaginable doors since then. At that time, my choice for this course was to work on fish farms and/or shrimps, coming one day to have my own crop farm. I came to work on some farms, internships and even with salmon cultivation abroad, but the destination reserved me another area of activity, which I still couldn't imagine acting.

Pescando tarpon de caiaque no Recife

The week I arrived in Recife to enroll in the Fishing Engineering Course I looked for someone who could take me fishing in the region. I contacted the “100” (Sergio Marchioni), which promptly took me to fish Caiaque in the River Capibaribe.


My first contact with the Tarpons on the Fly was unforgettable and it was love at first sight. Diverse amount of Tarpons caught in the popper in a rainy morning aboard a kayak made me want to delve deeper into the technique of this magnificent and highly sporting fish.


There I was from kayaking, every day whose tide was propitious, capturing tarpons on the fly aboard my kayaking on the River Capibaribe. It was a very simple and practical fishing. It often took the kayak, a set of FLY and 3 or 4 poppers in the pocket to spend the late afternoon fishing in the river, after college classes.


Experiences Fishing in Other Territories


In 2012 I managed to buy my first car and kayaking fishing began to expand to other rivers, exploring rivers and dams of the region, such as the Ipojuca River, Jaboatão River and the Two Unas Dam. All of this contributed to my formation and knowledge as a Guide to Sport Fishing that would come to happen more in front.


It was at that time that I also met Rafael Monteiro, creator of the @Tarpon_Brazil group, whom I owe much of my knowledge of fishing points and tarpons in the region.


In 2016, shortly after returning from an exchange experience in Ireland, promoted by the No Border Sciences Program, I spotted a Facebook ad where they were looking for a person who had knowledge in the FlyFishing mode and who knew how to speak fluent English.


I already with a good baggage of experience in the sport and with the English still “at the tip of the language”, recently arrived from a experience of more than 1 year abroad, applied and then did the interview for such vacancy.


" We see each other in the next season,” they told me at the end of the interview. This is how in August 2016 the doors opened for my professional career as a Sport Fishing Guide specializing in Fishing with Mosca. My first experience was driving on the River Marié, the River of Giants, through the company Untamed Angling.

Guia de Pesca

It was 5 months driving and consolidating my professional base in remote areas of the Amazon, taking foreigners to fish in a reserve area inserted in indigenous lands of the Alto Rio Negro Region.


The First Boat and Starting Recife Tarpon


When I returned from this experience, with some money in my pocket and a lot of disposition, I didn't think twice about buying a boat and start promoting Tarpons sport fishing in the city of Recife, in the state of Pernambuco.


At that time there was no one who acted as a fishing guide in the region. I always knew the size of the potential to develop this activity, but in the condition of a student, I lacked resources to acquire the necessary basics for the beginning of this activity, which would be a motorized vessel.


Thus, in 2016 I started Recife Tarpon, with the main aim of promoting and providing Brazilians with an urban fisheries of practical, efficient and affordable tarpons, since before it was necessary for the Brazilian public to disburse a good amount of dollars to fish tarpons in other countries.


From there, I was able to act during the low season periods in Recife (winter) as Specialized Guide to Fishing with Mosca in various destinations consecrated in the Amazon as the River Marié, Kendjam, Xingu, Roosevelt and Guariba, having some good Amazonian seasons as complementary baggage to my ongoing work of Esportiva Fishing in Pernambuco, Paraíba and the northeast region.


The years have passed since the foundation of Tarpon Recife and we have been consolidating ourselves as company and services offered. In 2018 I bought my second boat and in 2020 the third, thus increasing our fleet of vessels.


We are already in our 8th season, with 4 boats available. Celebrating 8 consecutive years of activity in Tarpons sport fishing in Pernambuco and region, always seeking new fishing destinations of tarpons and other sports fish, also increasing the number of professional guides specialized in the fishing of tarpons.


Regarding my previously mentioned Fishing Engineering course, I graduated in 2018 and I can say that I remain in Recife exclusively because of the tarpons and my professional choice as Fishing Guide, since my family continues to live in Campinas-SP and I could have returned after the completion of the course that led me to Recife.


The year is 2024 and my saga in search of new destinations and big tarpons in Brazil to offer customers from all over the world continues. These were some important milestones in my professional career and life trajectory that I share here on this blog.


Here, I will continually bring more in-depth and detailed content from many of these milestones in addition to various everyday experiences lived on board and in practice!


Stay connected!


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