Son is doing a mission trip in the spring, living on a boat in the river and visiting villages for a week. He wants to take a rod to catch piranha and hopefully a peacock bass. Any suggestions on a reasonable collapsible rod and reel combo or any advice for him in general?

For starters he should fish the Rio Negro rather than the Amazon. When we went we took G-Loomis Escapes.
It is a three piece rod 6'9"12-20# 3/8-1 oz and a heavier version of the same rod. They came in a rod case. We used 30# braid on the lighter rod and 50# on the heavier one. I would carry on the rods. Some of the people on our flights down and back got their checked rod cases sawed into ruining their rods.. Get a reel with a good drag.

If you go with a guide you will cast a lot. Mid finger gloves are a must have......band aids don't last long and neither do the gloves. We fished hard eight days and I went thru three pair of gloves.

I would love to go back! You can PM me if you have any questions.

Thanks. Given he's really going for the mission work, he's going to do what he can. Your point on braided line is a good one, and that's much heavier than I imagined. Thanks.

Any chance he will be able to tack on a side trip to southern Brazil to go after golden dorado on the Parana River?

He should also look into fishing for arapaima in the Amazon.

Piranha will cut the braid. The guide would do a Bimini twist so you would have about 3' of double line. We caught a lot of fish. We doubled on peacocks from 10 to 22#. The guides kept records of what we caught. On the last afternoon my son got what our guide said was at least a 25#. It broke the double 30#.

Another option is toadfish travel rod. 3 piece rod with two mid sections and two tips so you can mix and match as needed for what you will be fishing for - comes in metal tube that you can carry on. I have used it in Fla and Alaska

Ive got several lures he can have (wood choppers, etc…) send me a pm and I'll get them shipped to you.

Wood choppers cast along shore and rip back to you w slight pause in between rips :this is the way

Don't hang arm in water releasing fish, can get ripped off by dolphin, shark, etc