I was always told that the only wasted day fishing is a day that you did not take the time to slow down a little bit to enjoy the world around you that God created and to learn something. If I could ever pass along any advice to other fishermen, that would be it. You do not always catch big fish or a lot of fish and some days you do not catch any fish at all. That is fishing though and anyone that spends time on the water will agree. Today was a learning experience for me and the clients.
Our day of fishing in the Florida everglades was not slow so I do not want to come off that way…as a matter of fact it was just the opposite. However it was definately not the normal Florida everglades bass fishing experience. I was out with Emilio, his father and one of their buddies. The guys were from Cancun, Mexico a leisure destination for travelers worldwide. They are here visiting South Florida for the upcoming Nascar races in Homestead and wanted to get away for a half day of South Florida bass fishing. We were fishing with live shiners for largemouth bass and had live shiner rigs on with a float about 2 feet above the hook. I had a peacock rig from a trip the other day already set to go so I gave it to Emilio and on the first cast he landed about a 1 pound Florida peacock bass. We have caught small ones in the everglades before so I thought nothing of it so we gave each other a high five on the young man's first peacock bass and I put on a new shiner for him. Well a few minutes went buy and again the little guys rod was bent over and that fish was a little bigger. Well after the third peacock bass which was almost 3 pounds I was dumbfounded! Emilios dad and buddy were like "can we get a rig like that?"so I just put all 3 of the guys on peacock rigs, which is a live shiner free-lined with a bb sized weight 18 inches above a #2 Mustad kahle hook. The little weight gets the shiner down deep and makes it tired faster hence easier for the fish to eat. The shape of the kahle hook helps to not gut hook the fish. We stayed on one hole and ended up catching 8 or 9 peacocks up to about 4 pounds.
Their friends were fishing in two other boats and we had a big fish bet ($10) going between the boats so we kept our best ones that you can see above in the livewell so we could get this picture. The boys were having so much fun catching the peacocks that we just ran down the L-67 went into the flats for some pictures and then ran right back to the peacock hole. I think that we ended up with around 15 peacocks landed for the day and few that got away. Not too bad for these first time bass fishermen! The moral of the story is I learned something that is very valuable today about fishing in the everglades and will be able to put it to use on future guide trips as well as in fishing tournaments. Do yourself a favor and slow down next time you are on the water just enough to learn something and to enjoy the beauty of the world around you.
Tight Lines!
If you would like to book a Florida bass fishing trip with us or would like more information on bass fishing in South FLorida then please email us at booking@bassmasterguideserice.com or call toll free at (888) 8-GLADES or (877) FLA-PKOK. You may also visit our website at www.bassmasterguideservice.com
