This website is great for sharing information so after a year of fishing for peacock bass I finally feel I have some worthy reports to share. My father and I took to the lake this past Sunday as he was visiting from the mainland and I wanted him to catch a peacock bass (or two). I knew from previous trips and reports that the tucs were schooling between the dam and boy scout island so that is where we headed. Since it was windy, the baitfish stayed deep and there was no schooling activity. Still, we trolled right down the middle of the lake (we fished from a small 8 ft pond prowler with a trolling motor) as we made our way to boy scout island. Along the way, my dad caught one that weighed about 2 pounds on a small rapala-type lure. Once we got to our desire areas we tried crankbait, spinnerbaits and live minnows to no avail. We bumped into Bill, who was searching the shallows for early spawners, but the few that he saw were skittish and ignored his flyrod offerings. Around 2 pm I heard a splash near the shoreline and knew a tuc had just busted on a minnow. We proceeded to the area and caught 15 or so on live bait in a two hour period. The average weight was 2 pounds, but the final bite of the day was quite a monster. It hit a small tilapia on 6# test line and ended up pulling our little boat around for a bit before I landed it after a 10 minute fight. It was 22 inches long and I estimated it to be a good 6 pounds. Here is a picture of the big 'un (you can tell its size by comparing it to my hand):
Of course, we practice "catch and release" so another lucky angler can have a shot at him.
Here is pop with a peacock he caught trolling:
Dad also caught a nice largemouth bass mixed in the school of tucs. Surprisingly, it was in good health (unlike the scrappy summertime LMB) and it had no tag.
All in all, the day started slowly, but the action was pretty steady once we located a school. My recommendation is to just keep searching until you find them because it is a lot of fun when you get them going.
