Peacock Bass on the Fly

I met up with a fellow angler, Cameron Cushman and we fished Miami for Peacock Bass. We started out by fishing near a local canal system. Both of us were so excited when we saw some big fish right away. After a while of trying to entice the fish to take, we could not get them to fully commit. We decided to move to another area.

After arriving to the new area, we spotted bunch of fish and we knew our chances are good especially with the sun out. Cameron was stalking a few peacock near the high grass, as I turned over his fiberglass rod was bent. I quickly ran over to snap some photos of him and his beautiful peacock! With a great start, we were very confident that the fishing would only get better.

Cameron with his Peacock Bass.

After Cameron landed his fish, he wanted to put me onto some fish as well! I changed up my fly with a clouser pattern that he tied. We saw another fish near its bed, I took many casts at it from multiple angles before it fully slurped up the fly and my rod was bent. After landing my first peacock bass, now I understand why people go crazy about wanting to catch these fish. The peacock bass fought hard and their colors are extraordinary.

Cameron with his amazing photography skills took this action shot of my 1st peacock.

My first peacock bass! - Photo credit: Cameron Cushman

We decided to move towards to the beach to find more fish to entice with our flies. Cameron saw the same fish that his wife was fishing for before. I was working on another fish and it was going crazy in circles whenever my fly dropped onto its bed, after many attempts, it took the fly and it was on! Another beautiful peacock. Minutes later, Cameron tricked his peacock to munch on his fly. It was a another colorful fish! I found another aggressive peacock later, it certainly did not like any trespassers and the fish took my fly after it started sinking down near its bed.

What an awesome day of fishing for peacock. This is one species I can cross off my list but I will definitely will be going back to Miami for more. Learned a lot about sight fishing for Peacock Bass. big thanks to Cam!