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Locations / Tactics — 2 Comments
08
May 17

What I learned about fishing for Peacocks

Just a fun, fun fish to catch on a fly rod.

Southern Florida has a lot to offer, even to the business traveler on foot. Here’s what I learned about fishing for Peacocks around Ft. Lauderdale and Miami from just 4 short sessions.

  1. When you get to the pond/lake/canal you will see fish boiling out in the middle of wherever you are. Don’t cast at those. That’s not what you are looking for. Most (?) of those are not your targets. It seems VERY intuitive to cast at the boils, but they are false flags.
  2. The peacocks are along the shores. Don’t cast 90 degrees from the shoreline. Cast along the shoreline. Most of these places have drop-offs and shelves. That’s where the fish are.
  3. The strip that worked for me was a fast, fleeing baitfish type strip that slowed or even stopped at the shore-side of the drop-off.
  4. Fly selection is weighted, lead eye, baitfish type pattern. I had both clouser style and double bunny type flies work.
  5. Sometimes, you don’t even need to cast. You can, in essence, dab for peacocks and chiclids. If you spot them, you can just annoy them with your fly until they eat. I caught fish both doing that and casting like I suggest in #2.

Now, this is from just a few days and not that many fish. So, there may be exceptions to this and some of it may be flat-out wrong, but this was my experience and I bet this would work for you.

Bring that rod along.

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Locations — No Comments
07
May 17

Southern Florida… pretty darn fun

I had a conference to work in Ft. Lauderdale this last week and I packed just about as much fishing in as possible.

I got in late on Tuesday, set up my booth on Wednesday morning and then went fishing. I fished with Dr. John, a doc I have known for a couple years now who was also at the conference. We went out that Wed., looking for water, finding some, but more “No Fishing” signs than we really cared for.

I worked Wed. evening, manning the booth for a couple hours, talking specialized genetic testing for aHUS and ADAMTS-13 activity testing because that’s what I do in my job for the most part.

Thursday morning I fished with Dr. John again. That produced my first peacock bass. I went 1/2 and felt like I was starting to figure out where the fish were and how to present the fly (because the first few attempts were, basically, totally wrong).

On the board

After a couple hours of fishing I manned my booth from 10 AM to 8 PM and then, I went fishing. That was unproductive.

Friday morning I went out solo and managed two peacocks and one Mayan Cichlid (my first of that species), which was pretty. I worked from 10 to 4:30 in the booth and then took it down and got it sent back home.

My third Peacock of the trip.

Friday night Dr. John and I headed down to Biscayne Bay to fish with Capt. Patrick, trying to find some tarpon at night. We did see tarpon, we just didn’t catch any. I picked up one small jack, one of the many busting bait all around us when we pulled up. We had one good tarpon rolling just down current of the skiff which kept us on the water, throwing casts in vain until about 1:00 AM.

The weather had been rough that day and Patrick even suggested maybe we skip the trip, but Dr. John and I didn’t have anything better to do, so we went out anyway. We managed to hide a bit from the wind and it eventually calmed down to reasonable levels. We had fish to throw at and we were very well positioned. As I know all too well, Tarpon fishing in Florida is never a certainty. We were both very happy to be out on the water and glad we connected with Capt. Patrick. It was a good way to spend the evening. If I’m out there again, I’ll try to connect with him again.

Back up to Ft. Lauderdale. Got into bed about 2 with a 5:30 AM alarm set. Made the drive back down to Miami to fish with David, a fairly recent transplant, who showed me some of his water. That water produced a peacock and a chiclid and then I was off to the airport, on my way back West.

A Mayan on David’s water

Last fish of the trip.

What a trip.

This WASN’T a fishing trip. This was a work trip. I have been traveling more, but not fishing on almost any of those trips. This one provided some opportunities and I took full advantage. Just hoping to see more conferences in Miami/Ft. Lauderdale!

Thanks to Thomas Albury for some tips, and David for showing me some water and to Capt. Patrick for putting us in fish catching position.

Southern Florida, you get my blood pumping a little faster with your fishing. Thanks for being you.

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Locations — 2 Comments
05
May 17

Thanks Southern Florida

Oh, I think I like you Southern Florida. I think I like you a lot.

Two new species in the books.

My third Peacock of the trip.

My first chiclid. Pulled hard.

So much water down here… so many places to check out. I wonder how many years it would take to fish it all.

I’m working on very little sleep, but I’m enjoying the fishing.

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