Finally, A Trophy Peacock Bass

It took me three years of hard work and hot sweaty days on the water in Miami, but I finally got my 5 pound trophy Peacock Bass. This year I set aside three days, hoping that I could boat a trophy the first days and spend the rest of the time fishing other Florida waters. It didn't work quite that way. I did manage to catch 51 peacocks, but it wasn't until the afternoon of the second day that I landed the big one.

As usual, I recorded all of my caches on this trip and again they were consistent throughout the daytime hours, as shown in this plot of my catch rate.

I did notice that the waters of the Miami canals are now much cleaner than they were three years ago, with the bottom and many of the fish in clear view. BUT! I also observed that the Peacocks are getting smaller as the water is cleaned. 

I fished the everglades on the third day and made the same observation. Southern Florida has spent millions of dollars cleaning up the canals and the waters of the everglades, but the everglade bass were still biting in large quantities but the bass are smaller than I had ever before observed. This may be another example of my concern that there is a conflict between those who want clean waters and those who want to catch big fish.

Again this year I fished with my friend Chuck Westlake who guides these Florida waters.