BIENVENIDO A MIAMI / P-CACK

Had some fun fishing for what I would call smallies x 10 = Peacock bass and Snook.  Lost a lot more than we landed but definitely a great way to mix it up after some rough times out on the lake.  Didn't experiment too much with baits relying on a classic Rebel Pop-R - something with some silver or a green back seemed to be the best bet - and a Rapala X-Rap 6 and 8 (same color rules apply).        

I haven’t had much boat experience fishing for Peacocks while living in Florida – this making really the second time we’ve really put the hammer down and gotten species focused for them - and I was amazed how much the summer patterns we picked up were analogous to smallmouth behavior this time of year.  Bites in the canals were all related to current and transitionary cover (a chunk rock bank to sand for example).  The canal fish were definitely more moody as well, clicking on and off throughout the day and completely shutting down in areas with large water clarity changes.  On the main lake it was like being back up north – every better bite had something to do with offshore structure.  We located a couple rock piles as well as a sunken boat in 7-8’ of water and the rainbow sided bulldogs were there - often times in groups of 2 or 3.  Crazy how smallie-like they behave!

Awesome couple of days took some tweaking to accommodate the masses of 1”-1 1/2” bait swimming around but once we got our presentations ironed out it was on.  We approached everything with 7’ M and MH spinning tackle spooled up with 15-20lbs braid (no leaders) – biggest mod we made (something we should have figured out way earlier) came on the final day  when we bumped up to heavy gauge #4 trebles.  Landing percentages went way up and we didn’t have to baby the fish as much – just let the drag and the rod tip do the work.  Got a bunch of video – most of it heartbreaking but cool all the same!