Lake Ida Peacock Bass

 Yesterday I had the pleasure of taking out Eddie Krovits of North Andover, MA. Eddie was in town for a short time and wanted to try his luck at the hard fighting peacock bass. I met Eddie at the ramp in Lake Ida park, shortly after launching the boat we went in search of the mighty peacock bass. Boy, oh boy, did we find the fish today. Eddie boated 18 fish in a short 4 hour period, and all the fish where 2 to 4 pounds. It was really a great trip for Eddie.

I am looking forword to fishing with Eddie in March once again.

Till next time tight lines and good fishing….
From Staff Writer Capt Tony Masiello (tonym@bassonline.com)
BassOnline.com / 888-829-BASS

I wanted to drop a quick note – I fished last Thursday on Lake Ida w/ Tony for 1/2 a day – we caught many peacock bass & Tony was awesome.  I would highly recommend his services to any prospective clients – he truly knows his stuff & he he is a great guy.
 
I own & run a service based company back in Boston & I know how hard it it to find good people & you folks have a great guide in Tony.  Also, your whole operation was run very smoothly & a pleasure to do business with, I will defiantly be back to do it again (hopefully soon).
 
Thanks for everything,
Eddie K.

————————————————————————————————————

We look forward to fishing we you again!

Till next time tight lines and good fishing….
From Bass Online Staff Writer
BassOnline.com / 888-829-BASS

Peacock Bass in South Florida

Today we had out Mike McLeod’s group of friends from North and South Carolina. Mike and his friends are a group of 8 or 9 that love the outdoors, fishing and hunting. They stayed up by the Lake Okeechobee area so they would be convenient to duck and hog hunting as well as the fishing.

Originally when they called, the group was looking to maybe fish Okeechobee, but after a short while on the phone and telling them all about the Peacock bass and all of the wildlife in the Everglades. They then

started planning a few more trips, including a peacock bass trip and Everglades fishing trip.

The plan was, each day a different group of guys would fish a different location. So, we started with fishing for peacock bass in the Miami area at a hidden little lake, as we call it “the honey hole.” As most of the customers look when we go to Miami. A little unsure of what to expect, so they all just went with the flow. We explained that the water temp needed to raise a bit as the sunrises over head, we tried to ensure them that the peacock bass would bite slow at first and slowly get better. With that look on there faces, like I told them “you should have been here yesterday.” We explained that this time of the year the peacock bass group up and that once we found one we would then fine, two, three and so on.

Lone behold that’s almost exactly how it happen, with two boats out today we had a lot of lines in the water. Our boat was the first to yell “fish on,” I heard it come from the rear of the boat and before I could look back we had one on up front a double. Lone behold the group of fish we were looking for, I quickly spin the boat around and proceeded to catch one after another.

We called the other boat over to get into the action, they started catching a few also. These fish were not schooling fish, but good size 3, 4 and 5lb peacock bass. We decided to move off these fish for a moment and let them rest, and started to troll some live bait, that’s when the big bite happen. From the center of the boat, straight to the back, out to the open water and up for everyone to see a 15lb Tarpon. Yes, I did say, tarpon!

We ended up fighting this fish for around 20 minutes, a great job of fighting this fish done by all. With, 20lb braid and a 10lb Mono leader I never thought this would happen. But as you can see by the picture it was awesome!

We ended up moving around throughout the day, catching several fish in the 5lb range. We ended the day with a flurry and great pictures and about 50 peacock bass between us. The boys are back tomorrow for adventure in the Everglades!

What great bunch of guys, old college buddies and really good friends!

I hope to see the guys again in the near future.

Till next time tight lines and good fishing….

From Staff Writer Capt Todd Kersey (todd@bassonline.com) BassOnline.com / 888-829-BASS

 Today my good friend and fishing partner Don and I, fished Lake “P”, the canal and a short stretch of the river downstream from the canal. We started out on the lower canal and worked out onto and down river. We threw soft plastics as well as a couple of crank baits. The water was fairly clear, and with the lack of rainfall recently, there was almost no current. Water temps were in the high 60′s in this area. We saw very little surface action in this area and marked very few fish once we left the canal. We fished several back slews and main edges and had very little success. We saw no evidence of spawning or pre spawn in these areas.

Around 1:30 we motored up to the lake, which was laid down like a mirror by the way, and went over to the east side of the lake. We motored up the east side, fished and scouted a few coves. The water temps here were almost in the 70 degree range and we started to see some fanning evidence in the shallows, although we didn’t see any active beds yet, but they were definitely “testing” the bottom in these areas.

We then motored up to the northeast end of the lake and tried to go up the little cut that joins up with Little Jones Creek. Here we seen definite signs of bedding but no active beds yet.  Sadly after going up the cut for about ½ a mile the path was blocked by a downed tree, so we had to come back out.

We then motored up to Big Jones and in the back bay, before the creek narrows, we found a few bass chasing Threadfin Shad. The area was littered with big gators so we didn’t linger and disturb the big guys, and it was time to head for the ramp.

While the fishing wasn’t that great today, the weather and the lake were absolutely beautiful.  We were mainly on a scouting mission to find spawning areas and we did find quite a few. So hopefully in a couple of weeks we will be “tearing em up.”

This post is a little wordy, but I had a lot to cover today. I’ll try to keep it more to the point from here on in. I appreciate good feedback, and if you want a fishing report from one of these areas, or just some general information on this great sport, I’ll be glad to help you. So please drop me a line. Good Fishin Mates.

Till next time, tight lines….
From Staff Writer Skee (skee@bassonline.com)
BassOnline.com / 888-829-BASS