I finally got the bass hook fly to work. This male peacock whacked it at a new ditch I scouted out this morning.
At one spot I fished the largemouth had baitfish ballled up on the surface and were slashing through like striped bass on a Montauk blitz. I had to chase the busts on foot but managed to get a fly in once in a while.
The bass hook bendback in the upper lip.
Tagged: Fly Fishing, largemouth bass, peacock bass
thats a strange looking fly, how does it work? Do you have a close up of it dry.
Cheers
What about that big lump on the first fish – looks like you conked him on the noggin with that first cast..
Looks like a nice productive pattern, do you have a shot of it before the bass got to it? Nice slabs.
No, I never did a still shot of it. I’m going to tie a few more this week now that I know it works, so maybe I’ll snap a pic.
The fly worked well as a baitfish/streamer pattern where you want to go with a weed guard or with a traditional bendback. I could cast it into lily pads and around structure and it never snagged, which was my goal after I first heard of people using bass hooks for bendbacks on http://www.fliesandfinssouth.com
It’s a basic “eat me” pattern on a bass hook; I tied white, chartreuse, and green super hair, and one strip of flash, to the shank with mono thread, added some eyes and epoxied the head. I would love to see what could happen in the hands of someone who is a real tyer.
KBarton, the lump is because I’m a big practitioner of club and release. Actually, the male peacock bass develop that bump right before spawning season, though I want to note that I did not pull that fish off a bed. At least where I was, they hadn’t started bedding yet.
You know, I’ve been watching you pull these things out of ditches for a little while now. Are Peacocks really that crazily wide-spread down there? That’s kind of awesome, kind of scary.
Hey Matt,
They thrive only in Southeast Florida, particularly in Dade County with some pockets in Broward County. They really can’t stand when the water temperature dips below 65 degrees, so they are pretty well contained to that area. And they haven’t expanded into the Everglades. Sometimes during the hot months they push north and west but the first cold snap either kills them off or sends them back to warmer waters.
The State of Florida introduced them into the southeast freshwater canal system in 1984 as a way of controlling all the other invasive species people dumped into the canals from their aquariums–particularly tilapia–and they have absolutely thrived in that setting. They stopped stocking in 1987 so it’s now a well-established self-sustaining population.
The State introduced only the butterfly peacock bass, with most of the fish in the 3-6 pound range and the biggest growing to about 10 pounds or so. They’re not the giant 20-25 pound black barred or “grande” peacocks you see guys battling on all the adventure fishing shows in the Amazon. The canals couldn’t sustain the giants.
The good thing is they haven’t pushed out largemouth bass. I often catch decent bass in the same waters.
The coolest thing about them is the speed with which they charge your fly. Sometimes you cannot strip fast enough. They absolutely blast it.
It was suggested 2 me by Brain @ Docsflies.com to find cone-head bend-back flies 4 fresh-water Large-mouth. I am looking 4 sinking weedless flies 2 pursue fresh-water Large-mouth Bass @ a fishery that consists mostly of dikes. The dikes hav very weedy bottom; where the Bass lurk. I hav tried traditional weedless mono flies and still am picking up a lot of aquatic vegetation.
Do U hav anyone 2 suggest that I may buy from 4 my interests?
Luden
Reno, NV