My friend ZB calls them tucanare. Whatever its nickname, this one fell to a green and white super hair bendback fished on a 6wt with a 15-lb fluorocarbon shock tippet. One cool thing about these fish is that as a general rule they DON’T hit soft plastics, so the largemouth bass guys don’t wear them out.
Tagged: Butterfly peacock bass, fishing, Florida, Fly Fishing
(Ballyhoo image courtesy of Fishcraze.com) The ballyhoo has a second purpose: projectile missile. We used to catch them with bits of oatmeal on little gold hooks for bait on my buddy BQ’s 25-foot Mako, and one time our friend ZB said something onboard BQ didn’t like so he turned and threw a hoo at ZB’s head like he was aiming for triple 20s. They had to pull the bill out of his scalp with a pair of pliers.
UPDATE (April 2012): This is a personal weblog post about trying to catch a snakehead with a fly, not an endorsement of snakeheads. They are an invasive species that should not be in the waters of South Florida. That said, they are in the waters of South Florida, the same waters where I like to chase peacock bass and largemouth bass. My understanding is that you are supposed to kill a snakehead if you catch it, and that the FWC is promoting their edibility in hopes people will cull them for eating. Here is what the FWC says about what to do with a snakehead or any other non-native species you catch. And here is one more FWC link, describing the habits and edibility of the snakehead. Everything else…
Tagged: Florida, Fly Fishing, snakehead
