Peacock Bass trip

[Capt Bob LeMay 0]

Earlier this week I was booked to fish out of Flamingo, a double boat trip with four anglers total, but on that day the weather was just awful - a combination of a strong cold front with high winds combined with a full moon tide (super high water, most of it very muddy from the high winds everywhere... ).  What to do... Capt Mark Giaccobba suggested we switch gears and head for freshwater canals locally targeting peacock bass and the other assorted freshwater types... His suggestion saved the day and we were going to be fishing the canals along Alligator Alley (I-75 between Ft. Lauderdale and Naples - but on the Lauderdale side only thirty miles to the west...).  

We got on the water just at dawn, ran a few miles to the west and found fish on a day when we'd have been skunked in the backcountry down at Flamingo...  My anglers caught and released peacocks, oscars and other cichlids, as well as a short nosed gar fish - all on clouser variants on 1/0 hooks mostly using 8wt rods... Here's a pic of our first peacock

 

Believe I'll have to do this more often.  If not for those many freshwater canals, I'd have had to cancel that day's trip...  Iv'e just gotten my first 5wt rod as well... When conditions allow it should turn any oscar or small peacock bass into a real battle... 

[skeet3t 0]

I had heard of guides who specialized in canal fishing. No boat, just fishing from the bank. One guide left his car windows down to prevent thieves breaking the glass to see what's inside. Good alternative for the day!

[Capt Bob LeMay 0]

The only one I ever knew about,  down here in paradise was (and is) Steve Kantner, who advertised his services as the "Land Captain".  A very skilled angler and guide I don't believe he's currently still guiding (but he's also a writer with many articles and a few books to his credit...  He specialized in covering as much of the Everglades as possible from the road with his car loaded with fly rods and anglers... I knew him years and years ago when we both fished off of local piers.  He's come a long way since then... When guiding he ranged all the way from Ft. Lauderdale to Naples, mostly working canals where there were bridges or dams to create feeding stations for both salt and freshwater species.  He was also known for figuring out a fly pattern for the monster triploid carp that were introduced into our canals years ago to assist in weed control (it was a fly tied to resemble a particular berry that trees along canals dropped each year to carp in the 20 to 30lb size range..). 

Of course my best stories usually end... "but I was a lot younger then"

[skeet3t 0]

The carp you are referring to is more than likely the grass carp. Free lining a wad of bread on a hook will work. One innovative fly angler noticed grass carp feeding along the bank. They were glomping down grass cuttings from the mower. He tied a fly to imitate the clumps of grass and caught them. One can use Easter basket grass for that. Dave Whitlock got into FFing for carp by tying a mulberry fly of purple deer hair and a green hair stem.