Monster Peacocks

[Garbo]

very nice.

[Homer47]

Nice fish! I went to visit my brother in the late 80's. not long after they first started stocking peacocks. He lived on Westwood Lakes and it was full of them, although they were mostly smallish. Had a blast with them on a #6 fly outfit, using small popping bugs. Went back again right after Andrew to work with a construction company, and took advantage of the opportunity to find more places to fish for peacocks. Got a street map of Miami and started checking out all the canals in the SW section. A lot of them were empty, but I found a few hot spots that always seemed to produce fish when I would head ther after work. Caught a lot of other types of fish as well, besides the usual bream and largemouth. Got some oscars, some pacu(looks like a bluegill on steroids0 and a few other fish I could not identify. Right at my brothers boat ramp, there was a peacock on a spawning bed that I teased into biting one day. It wasn't hungry, but it would grab the fly and spit it away from the nest so fast that it was hard to react in time. I did this a few times and finally hooked her by setting the hook as soon as I saw her open her mouth to grab the fly. She gave a pretty good fight and I released her after a few minutes. She was a little disturbed and didn't go back to her bed, but hid in the grass for a little while. While she was gone from the nest, the bream moved in and started eating her eggs. I felt terrible about that and was relieved when she finally went back to guarding her bed. I don't think I will do that again, even if the fish is as big as she was.

[FreeFlyFree]

If you find a pair in a bed, you can just catch one, and the other won't even move. then release them back again. I'm glad not so many people actually targets them. at least on private ponds.

you know what they say...tresspass for peacock bass

[LeeH]

Not exactly what I would call a monster Peacock bass

No they are not the 20lb+ fish that can be caught in Brazil or even Panama but they are Very Nice Sized Peacocks for South Florida, Congrats Kahmad Nice catch!

[native1]

huge peacock dude good to see the big peas still around. They are a blast on fly

[tarpon41]

To me they are monsters of dade county...why anybody would risk malaria, yellow fever, serious dengue, amoeba dysentery...and just the sh..ts without the benefit of ones gastroentre and colos...to catchon the fly a big cro magnon bass not to mention 5 to 7 large in cost is the essence of Veblen when a walk on the wide side of dade county gets you 10

[wellcraft]

Nice peacocks

How big was the big one?

[kahmad]

Hard to say didn't have a scale. I would say between 5 and 7 pounds is A reasonable estimate.

[wellcraft]

Real nice on fly

[SUPER D]

Looks like fun, will have to try them some time.