South Florida Peacock Bass & Largemouth Bass

[peacock08]

This week we were in the Miami area of South Florida fishing small canals for peacock bass. I had Scott & Steven Eynon out for about 6 hours and we boated 16 peacock bass. While we were out a young guy came by and asked us to take a picture of this giant largemouth he landed. He also didn't have a scale so we were able to get a good weight on this beauty for him. She weighed in at a little over 10 lbs. For more information on the only place in the continental U.S. to catch butterfly Peacock Bass e-mail me at floridafishing@bellsouth.net or click the signature links below.

[BWS OutDoors]

Nice fish and are these canals filled with both species of bass? Looks like fun if ever in that area...

[allingeneral]

Here are a couple of links that explain the introduction of Peacock Bass to Florida waters (1984 Dade and Broward counties) and it also goes on to give a little insight into the cohabitation of Largemouth and Peacock bass. A couple of specifics that I took from these links:

- Peacock bass are predatorial and are more aggressive than Largemouth. Where a Largemouth will ambush prey, Peacocks actually chase their prey down. This results in many anglers reporting catching 4 or 5 peacocks to every one largemouth.
- Peacocks don't like saltwater, so they will not migrate outside the canals and waterways into which tye were introduced.
- Peacocks will not survive in water temps below 60 degrees fahrenheit

That's enough for now..I don't want to completely spoil the links.. give them a quick read

Explanation of the species and habitat
http://www.floridaconservation.org/Fish ... ml#peacock

This seems to have been written several years ago, but certainly still applies.
http://www.floridaconservation.org/Fish ... 8-pea.html

[BWS OutDoors]

Thanks for the links and sounds like a blast catching these fish...