Submitted by Roger Kimble (ip 64.217.227.249)

Date Fished: 10/16/2003
Water Clarity: 4 feet or greater

Went fishing for Peacock Bass while in Kauai, Hawaii. A dream of mine for a long time. Fished with pro guide Tom Christy, veteran bass angler who fishes tournaments on the Mainland too. We went to a local mountain lake of about 3 acres in size. Caught 4 black bass while waiting for the sun to get high and 'trigger' the Peacock's. It is the Peacock's dormant time of year so my chances were real slim of getting one. We used live bait (baby Peacock's) on a very small hook, no weight, and tossed them into a small creek channel on the upper end of the small lake. We were in a Jon boat that we actually slid down a long bank to get into the water and then we trolled to the other end and beached it. After about 2 hours I finally got a bite and nailed a Peacock bass. They are VERY strong fighters and are much thicker than a black bass. I caught it on spinning tackle with 12 lb. line. The bass weighed 5+ lbs. but fought more like an 8-9 lb. largemouth. Once I got it up to shallow water I could see the vivid colors of the Peacock and we finally got him to the boat. Got some good pic's of it and realeased it back to grow up. Tom told me there were 6 species of Peacock Bass and the kind they have on the island of Kauai are called "Butterfly Peacock's". The world record (according to him) is just over 10 pounds. He said he was surprised that this fish still had all of the vivid colors and the spot on its tail as they get a silver-ish color when the go into their dormant state. Another week later and I would not have gotten that fish as they go to deep water and stay there for the Hawaiian winter. Water temperatures are their biggest enemy, and if it gets very cool they will begin to die off. Amazing that I even got so see one let along catch it and get pictures of it. So, if you are going to Hawaii, you should try this Peacock bass fishing. It was alot of fun once I got hooked up. One more life-long dream has been realized for me.

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