The Peacock Bass

The royal peacock bass (Cichla intermedia) and the butterfly peacock bass (Cichla ocellaris) are the 2 most recognized and popular of this bass species. Prized by anglers around the world for not only their tenacious fighting abilities but also as table fare. These fish originated in the Amazon in South America but can be found in other places as well.

These bass will usually have 3 dark vertical stripes on each side with a tail that has a spot that looks like the eye on a peacocks tail. The can be a dark green on the upper back fading to a lighter green with bright orange or red along the belly and fins.

During the years 1984 to 1987, these fish were introduced to the warm waters of Florida right here in the United States. Currently only 2 counties have self-sustaining peacock bass stocks and they are the Miami-Dade and Broward Counties. The arrival of the peacock bass to these counties has brought in an estimated 5 million dollars annually in economic benefits.

If you are visiting the part of South Florida that has peacock bass, fish for them in the canals – they are everywhere. A few of them are Pompano Canal, Snake Creek Canal, Black Creek Canal and Snapper Canal. If you are new to the area, try hiring a guide, as this will help you to not only find a good location, but actually catch some of these good fighting fish. Prime time is during the daylight hours and look for them to be in shaded areas that offer some cover. They will attack most largemouth bass lures with the exception of the plastic worms.

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There’s nothing quite like the feeling you get when the bass are biting, and you finally manage to get one on the end of your line. This is true whether you get a largemouth bass, a smallmouth bass, a striped bass, or even a white bass.

If however, your bass fishing inclinations are more towards the smaller, feistier varieties of bass such as the smallmouth or the white bass, over the easier catch of the largemouth bass, you will find that you don’t have too much fear in the way of much competition.

Most new bass fisherman tend to favor the largemouth bass fishing grounds, and although they might hook a smallmouth or a white bass from time to time, they won’t necessarily concentrate all their efforts on these fish. It may be because most fisherman don’t know how to catch a white bass. I have always had success using a minnow rig for white bass – I know others who have had mixed results.

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Whether you are going striper, peacock bass, largemouth or smallmouth bass fishing, you’re going to need one of the bass fishing reels that is going to be able to handle the species of fish that you are after. Every bass fisherman has their favorite rod and reel to fish with and sometimes, it just takes time to find the right combination that feels right to you and can handle the fish.

When choosing a reel, there are basically 3 types and they are an open-faced spinning reel, a closed-faced or spincast reel and a baitcasting reel. Each one has it’s advantages and disadvantages. One of the first things you need to figure out is what kind of fish are you going after. If your answer is peacock bass, then a spin casting reel is not the one you would choose.

The open-faced spinning reel takes a little bit of practice to get used to, but once you have mastered the technique, you’ll love it! An open-faced spinning reel is ideal for light tackle fishing conditions like smallmouth bass fishing. Here you would use a lighter line weight like 2 – 4 pound test and a light to medium action rod. It is also good for heavier tackle that would take on stripers and snook. You would use a 10 – 20 pound test line for this. You can even use an open-face spinning reel for ultra-light fishing such as when you try for crappie. One of the disadvantages of this kind of reel is that after awhile, the line tends to form loops as it is cast and can become a real rat’s nest. To help prevent this, change your line often and in between fishing trips, keep the line wet.

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Fishing is hobby that is enjoyed by various people. These myriad numbers think of fishing as being a test between themselves and the fish. To prove their superiority over these kings of the water many artifices are employed. Among these will be fishing lures. Both the new breed and the antique fishing lures will be employed.

While the new fishing lures are designed to look sleek and reminiscent of live bait the antique fishing lures don’t have that particular look. In fact the general look of these olden fishing lures is that of stiffness and a partial look to the insects that they are trying to replicate. You will find that it is somewhat difficult to actually find and buy one of these antique fishing lures.

By keeping your eyes open for this information you can be assured that you will be able to participate in your favorite pastime without needing to worry about factors like reduced numbers of bass varieties. The antique fishing lures can reveal interesting information like where you can get the bass fishing.

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Is there anything in the world as relaxing as spending a day bass fishing

Probably not, or not so that I can think of anyway. Fishing for me is the best sport in the world, and the best of all the different types of fishing types available just happens to be, in my humble opinion anyway, bass fishing, or bassin’ as it is also fondly referred to!

Whatever you call it, there’s no denying that bass fishing, besides being a relaxing pursuit, is also an exhilarating one. It requires that you put your thinking caps on, and at the same time, you need to be able to take it easy and lay in wait for the fish to bite.

It’s a sport of many contradictions, as you would no doubt have guessed, but one thing is guaranteed, if you’ve never tried bass fishing before, you will either take to it like a fish to water (!), or you will look on it with loathing and distaste. It’s a “love-it or hate-it” kind of thing.

That said, there are many sides to bass fishing which you might not fully appreciate if you are only just beginning the bass fishing game. However, there is no denying that for sheer exhilaration and suspense, there’s nothing like getting a largemouth on the end of your line, and waiting to see who will come out the winner, you or the largemouth!

Which brings us to one point that you will want to look at while you are bass fishing, and that is whether you want to be a largemouth bass fisherman, or a smallmouth bass fisherman, or a striped bass fisherman, or – you get the drift, right? There’s nothing to say that you will need to be one or the other exclusively, but most bass fisherman have their favorite types of bass which they like to see on the end of their line.

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