Peacock Bass in South Miami

The school year had ended, and so before I left for the summer, my friend Ethan Wenger invited me and a few others to his place in Pinecrest to hang out. His house happens to be on a canal, and he had told me about the fishing there is to be done there. Naturally, I packed up the car with some fishing rods with hopes of getting into some good action. I'd only fished the South Florida canals a few times, and had only caught a Peacock Bass once. I know that they are good fighters and show off beautiful coloration, so I was excited to pursue them and whatever else would bite. As soon as I got there, Wenger and I checked out the backyard with some rods to see if there were any fish out there before sunset and leaving for dinner. All we had for bait was bread, but that proved to be enough. While we were casting out the bread, a big, bright reddish-orange Midas Cichlid came out of nowhere. It took Wenger's bait, and he quickly reeled it in. A very solid fish, and a new type of species for me. Like other Cichlids, it is a non-native species that can be found throughout the South Florida canal system. That being said, as anglers we'll take the opportunity to see this cool looking fish up close. After a release and a little more fishing, we left for dinner and planned to take a canoe out early the next morning in pursuit of Peacock Bass.

May 7th

May 8th:

Early the next morning, Wenger and I woke up and drove to Kendall Bait and Tackle (picking up some bagels along the way as well). I brought my bait bucket so that we could get a couple dozen live shiners - perfect bait fish for the Peacocks. I forgot some of my gear, so we also bought a few hooks and headed back to the house. Before we set out on the kayak, Wenger and I started fishing the bank, freelancing live shiners that we hooked through the mouth. We looked for any Peacock Bass that were cruising the bank, and I relatively quickly saw one in front of me. I casted the shiner out around it, keeping a finger on the line to keep it from going too far, and the Peacock Bass bit it aggressively. It put up a good fight, and I brought in the first fish of the day. It was great to be on the board and to once again catch such a beautiful fish. With such a good start, we knew it would be a good day. Shortly after, Wenger also hooked up on a nice bull Peacock on the shore as well. Peacock Bass are technically species of cichlids, not bass - thus the males are known to have a hump on their heads.

After a bit, we were ready to take out the canoe and see if we could catch any other Peacocks down the bank of the C-100 canal By then Adam Chopp, a good friend with whom I hadn't fished since 2013, came out and wanted to come fishing. We loaded up the canoe with the bait bucket, the tackle, some towels, the rods, and some paddles, and set off. We drifted along as we were paddling, casting our treelined shiners in front of us to parts of the bank that looked like they might hold some fish. Adam's bait got eaten pretty soon into the trip, and he reeled in a solid fish. The trip continued like that, with one of us hooking up every 10-15 minutes or so, with some dry spells as the day got hotter. There were some times, though, where we would even double up with two bites at once. We kept going until we reached a low bridge at a wider part of the canal, under which were a ton of spider webs. We decided at this point that it was time to head back, after about 2 hours on the water. We left on the canoe at about 10 and got back at around 12:30.  Overall, it was a very enjoyable day on the water hanging out and catching some very fun fish. We had aimed to catch around 4 on the canoe but we ended up catching about 8. I was glad to finally be able to fish on the canals Wenger had told me so much about, and to fish with Chopp again after so long. I'm looking forward to the next time.

 

 

 

 

Boca Raton Intercoastal

I spent the weekend at my friend Max's place since he was hosting a party at his house on the intercoastal in Boca Raton. While we are good friends and have bonded over our interest in fishing, we hadn't quite had a chance to fish together until now. Most of the fishing this weekend took place on Saturday, although I tried at first on Friday Night as well. Here's how it went down:

Friday, May 4th

After driving up to Boca and getting dinner with Max and some others, I was excited to test out the docks behind his house in the intercostal since I knew it had underwater lights which would attract fish. As soon as we got back from a great time at the restaurant, I picked up a rod, tied on a lure, and started casting. I saw Snook all around, weaving in between the lights. However, as much as I tried to bring it past their faces, they did not often chase it. Sometimes the lure would not stay in range long enough, sometimes it would go too close to the surface, and sometimes the fish would simply not go for it. That being said, it wasn't impossible. I managed to get three or four bumps from Snook that would instinctively hit the lure without taking a big bite. It was frustrating, but after a couple hours of fishing the dock at night, I figured I'd have to try again another day. The elusive Snook were so close yet so far.

Saturday, May 5th

While setting up for the party to be had at night, I took a break to fish on the docks during the day. I went with my friend Jacob Maskin to a bait and tackle shop in the morning first to pick up some live bait and ask about good lures to use for the Snook and whatever else might bite on the docks. They recommended a bucktail jig which I picked up too, and we went back to the house to start fishing. Most of the fishing we did on the dock today was just for fun to see whatever would bite. The sun was shining and there was a cool breeze - a great day to be on the water. The fish were there in full force around all the rocks and structure, and we could see them through the clear water. We used the live shrimp, and soon after dropping it, I gave the rod to Maskin who caught a nice Yellowfin Mojarra. A cool fish to start off the day. The more we fished, we caught a Blue Striped Grunt, 4 puffer fish, 2 Mangrove Snappers, and as we fished by some bricks Max had laid down underwater to create a sort of reef, we also caught a Dog Snapper. Towards the end of our time fishing in the daytime there was a Barracuda that came and kept stealing our bait. We tried different things, including a steel leader I had, but it wasn't quite enough to keep the Barracuda from darting in and grabbing the bait off the hook before we could set the hook. Regardless, it was a cool sight to see.

   

We ran out of live shrimp since we were having a lot of fun fishing for the snappers and Barracudas, which was unfortunate since I was hoping to use some at night for Snook. By the time I was gonna go to get more shrimp, the party was starting and I didn't have the chance to. That being said, once I was drunk enough and the water was calling to me, I slipped out to get my rod from the car and tied on a jig to drop by the dock. Clearly the call of the fish didn't just come for me, as when people started to notice I was fishing on the dock, a small crowd started to form around. I was casting and retrieving the jig while bouncing out along the bottom. The Snook I was hoping to catch did not bite. As I was jigging, my friends and I were talking about how much we prefer live bait to lures - however, coincidentally, just as I said "yeah, artificials suck" while bouncing the jig, I got a hit. I reeled in a solid Bluestriped Grunt, which got some applause from people in the pool. It was a pretty funny situation. Soon after I gave my rod to people who wanted to take a few casts. No more fish were caught that night, but it was a good time as I went back into the party, satisfied with having caught one.

 

Sunday, May 6th

After a great night before, waking up on Sunday morning was a little eery. The house needed some cleanup, but after that I had to step outside on another sunny morning to use my jig and get some more practice. Harrison followed me out there, and so did another friend, Alex Slintak. I showed Harrison, eager to learn how to do this kind of fishing, how to jig, and just as I gave him the rod, he jigged it and a fish bit! He reeled in a nice Lane Snapper, the same kind of fish we had seen prevalently when we'd fished in Naples. After that I gave the rod to Slintak, who had never caught a fish before. He saw how we had jerked the rod to jig it and he did the same. Soon he hooked up and reeled in a Sailor's Choice! Those fish were a great way to end the weekend.