Peacock Bass Fishing in Florida

New Peacock Bass Fishing Pro Admin.

Hey!!! I just wanted to let you guys know that Gabe Sanchez will be takeing over the admin responsabalities for the blog… very soon. I just need a little time to meet with him & show him everything. Meantime I will be running it in the same slim downed fassion I have been doing for the past two months.

Thats it, have a great day.

Mitch Bennett

PeacockSlayer Report from Palm Beach

I could not wait until SundaY, so I went out on my boat today Saturday January 23rd 2010. Man it was depressing!!!! I drove around on my boat for nearly 6 hours,I was mainly scouting for dead peacocks. I found 12 dead peacocks 8 of them over 15 inches and 7 under 12. I saw Thousands,Yes,Thousands of dead Oscars and Tilapias, and about 40 Skife fish,some well over 25 inches, monsters!! I had no idea there were SO MANY Oscars,which are very harmful to the native species,just like tilapias are. The Oscars took the brunt of the kill for sure,followed by Tilapias,Frog fish and knife fish, in my Area,the Peacocks suffered but not as bad as the Oscars and the tilapias. I had never seen so many dead fish Everywhere I went I concentrated on the deep canal,that has 23+ feet drop offs,and it did not matter,it was flooded with Dead Fish. The huge peacock I caught under my bridge,got killed as well,along with the Huge one I had seen on a canal with a brood,I wanted Mitch to catch it,but sorry bro, seems like the cold weather beat you to it I found her dead,in the same place I had spotted her twice before the fronts came through. Right now it is difficult to fish,due to the awful dead fish smell. The only fish active right now seemed to be the bass and the florida sunshine stripped bass,even them are hanging out away from the shorelines,where THOUSANDS of Tropical fish are floating dead. I honestly think the Peacocks took a hit, but it should not be as bad as the rest of the fish that perished. And though they may not be as abundant as they were in 2009, 2010 should be a recovery year,due to their accelerated growth rate. I recon 2011 should be a solid year once again,we will have to wait and see how strong they come back this spring,the survivors WILL pass on their genes to their broods,and since this was one of the coldest 10 straight days we’d had in over 20 years,hopefully peacocks won’t see another 10 days like that in quite sometime,and if they do,hopefully they are better adapted for it. Should I catch I peacock in the coming weeks,I will let you guys know,for now,it’s back to bass fishing,which should be nice. I caught a 7 pounder today ,I would have preferred a 10 inch peacock over it though . That’s it for now fellow Peacock Fishermen,let’s all hope for a good spring!!

I’ll be damned if I am left with fishing for Large Mouths!!!

When you find live Peacocks let us know. They are still out there… somewhere.

15 reasons why this is the worst year for Peacock Bass

Earlier today I started writing this long drawn out statement about what I saw today. Honestly, this is one of those times I really cant put all the right words together & come up with a witty little catch phrase to wrap it up & tie it off with a pretty little bow. Today was my first day out in several weeks, instead of fishing I was scouting & counting. I’m not going to tell you how many dead Peacock Bass I saw today, I gave up counting.  Here are 15 reasons why this is going to be the worst year for Peacock Bass in South Florida in at least 10 years.

What else is there to say really:-(

Anyone want a blog with nothing left to talk about?

Tags: Peacock Bass, South Florida

Bad News Guys

1/9/2010- Well today ! and my girlfriend went out for an hour today fishing the Canal heading West out of lake Ida to see if we could get some peacocks and I wanted to see first hand what this cold weather has brought. To my dismay all we saw to today was 3 peacock belly up and Igunas hiding under rocks in the water because it is so cold. The worst news is that the 2 coldest days are to come and I can only hope that a couple hundred survive in deep water some how. 2000 had a bad freeze and they bounced back so I can only hope that they bounce back again.

Will the Peacock Bass survive this Winter?

If you are an avid Peacock Bass fisherman then you have probably been watching the weather very closely this winter. Peacock Bass cannot tolerate water temperatures below 60F or salinity greater than 18 ppt. Their native range lies within the Amazon River basin of South America. This is a part of the world that is warm nearly all year long.

I was very pleased through the first half of this winter season. It seemed that the cold weather would never come. As many of you have experienced I was still catching Peacocks in mid December. The bite wasn’t great but it was still there.

Today I awoke to a nightmare. The temperature is in the low 30’s. The previous 3 or 4 days have been very cold as well. This is it. This is the nock to the Peacock Bass population that I have been dreading. After so many days of cold weather the temperature is dropping drastically in the water. The winds have been whipping which also assists in the decline in overall water temperature.

As many of you already know many of the Dade / Broward canal systems & lakes are man made and are very deep. These systems offer the Peacock Bass some protection. South Florida sits on top of an underground fresh water aquifer. This aquifer has warm fresh water that seeps up into the canals & lakes offering the Peacock Bass the warmth it needs to survive the winter & the depth needed to get down and away from the colder waters on top.

Unfortunately not all of the Peacock Bass habitat in South Florida has this built in security. Many of these same canals connect to shallower lakes & smaller bodies of water. For the Peacock Bass in these waters I am fairly sure that today just may be their last.

We are going to loose a lot of fish but the strong will survive. In a couple of months they will be breeding once again & the mighty Peacock Bass will find its way back into the smaller systems. Stronger genes means stronger fish! Spring is just around the corner & I cant wait!!!!

Tags: Amazon River, cold weather, Peacock Bass, South America, South Florida, water temperatures, winter

Will I ever fish again – LOL

I am off this coming Tuesday & Wednesday. I thought I was going to contact a couple of you guys & hit the water but now it looks like the cold winter has arrived:-(

The Peacock Bass are going to have to wait @ least another week for me to kick their asses!

Tags: Peacock Bass

Updateing on Tuesday!!!

Happy New Year Everyone. Sorry I have fallen behind some on the updates & such. December was a crazy bussy month for me. This coming Tuesday I will get caught up on all the email & posts…

Thanks for your patience!
Mitch Bennett

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!

Mitchatar the Peacock Bass Slayer!!!

Mitchatar the Peacock Bass Slayer!!!

I did this just for fun. I decided to play with photoshop a little. Anyway, you can check out some more cool pics that other people have made @ the “Official Avatar Movie” page on Facebook.

South Florida Peacock Bass Fishing

Tags: Florida Peacock Bass, Peacock Bass Fishing, Peacock Bass Fishing in Florida