Colorful Creatures
Posted on April 15th, 2009
*[Matt, since I missed grabbing a beer with you in NYC, I figured the least I could do is catch some fish on your flies.]
*[Matt, since I missed grabbing a beer with you in NYC, I figured the least I could do is catch some fish on your flies.]
Wal-Mart specials for $9. Pros: Protect from fire ants, sand spurs and assorted weird shit. Cons: None.
Tagged: down with brown, peacock bass
It’s a driving game. The suburban sprawl is such in Southeast Florida that it extends all the way out to the berm of the Everglades. Spliced through it all is an intricate maze of manmade lakes and ponds and freshwater ditches plugged into the main engineered drainage canal system. The entire system is rife with species that aren’t supposed to be there based on the natural order of things. Which is kind of fitting for a manufactured ecosystem gone awry. Peacocks, though, were introduced on purpose. Mostly to combat the proliferation of unwanted fishtank pets dumped into the system. They have thrived. I started fly fishing for peacocks 10 years ago almost by accident. My buddy ZB’s Dad had a place out west where …
This is what I’m looking at right now out of my hotel window. Not bad, but I should be looking into the prehistoric glowing eye of a night time tarpon. Plans get cancelled, beers get purchased, balconies get occupied. Plan B is in effect. Sneak off for a pre-work scramble after some freshwater invasives. Show up to the 10 A.M. bidness junket with fish slimed clothes; shake hands with a sandpaper thumb.
Tagged: boat show, Miami, peacock bass, snakeheads, tarpon
From a 2006 trip in Miami, messed with in PS. (Small Craft Advisories are on the local agenda, so I’m trying to think about fishing, at least.) I believe I finally lost that particular eat-me fly this season; the victim of a poorly tied knot.
Tagged: amateur photoshop hackery, eat me flies, Miami, peacock bass
I’m about to go striper fishing tonight in a cold November rain (no Axl ripoff intended) and thinking back on how enjoyable it was to sweat out the minerals just standing around doing nothing, then seeing this rooster, making a cast, and watching it destroy my fly and make hay into a drainage pipe, forcing me to flop on the ground with my rod completely underwater and hoping I didn’t lay on top of a fire ant nest or within five feet of a cottonmouth (water moccasin). Man I miss that.
A cold front and a surprising dearth of fishing time made it tough going on the ditch fishing, but it’s still worth getting a look at even one peacock bass. A rental car and a five-weight are all you need to gain access.
Next week brings me down to Florida, where I will attempt to impale your lip with one of my flies. You’ve been warned.
Tagged: dirty canals are beautiful, ditch fishing, pavon, peacock bass, tucanare
The thermometer in the rental car read 86 degrees at 7 in the morning, so I knew the canals were going to boil. So would anyone making the effort to walk them in search of fish. Peacocks like it hot, but I had a hard time getting anything but follows out of the bigger ones. A few little ones ripped the fly off its hinges. I had a surprise visit from this tiny bass at high noon. I also had several follows from always-elusive snakeheads, big ones, that did what they always do–patrol behind the fly until I run out of stripping room. Speaking of invasive species, I chased this iguana out of my parking space. The mud ducks would have none of it.…
Tagged: iguana, largemouth bass, mud ducks, peacock bass, snakehead