Going Guideless in a Strange Land
My First Peacock Bass
by Jay Capachi
On my recent vacation I added a peacock bass to my species list of catch
and release victims. It remains my only example of this fish so this article
doesn't come from a master Tucunare fisher, so keep that in mind when you plan
your peacock bass expedition. I got all of my advice from the internet, Jeremy
the bell boy and some lady on the phone at Tropical Fishing Tackle who said I'd
be the only one at the lake fishing for them. I had read that people take turns
at the fishing stations at the reservoir and I was worried that I would be
having combat fishing with the locals. It turned out that she was right and the
folks I saw were one man walking his dog and another man pumping up his Walmart
lifeboat with his two sons in the three days I was fishing there. The reservoir
is 5 miles up from the Highway and the only trick is that it has 2 driveways
with locked gates and a spray paint sign that says "keep out" and no other
signs. I drove back and forth for 2 hours until a local looking person told me
that this was the place and it is ok to park in front of the gates and go in. He
said there was a sign that fell down a couple of years before and it hadn't been
put back up yet. I had brought some experimental poppers and wooly buggers and my 8 weight 4
piece homemade rod that fits in my suitcase diagonally. Most of my shirts had to
be folded triangularly like American flags to fit in the case alongside my rod.
I waded halfway around the little lake and it was like a swamp with submerged
trees and jungle like surroundings. One spot was what I imagine quicksand is
like and I sank quickly to my mid thighs in the smelly ooze. I had expected that
it might be like that so I already was hanging on to a tree limb and gradually
worked free. Other spots were easier and there were no leeches like I had once
encountered in a nearby stream. There, I swam for 5 minutes in 1977 and emerged
from the water with about 6 small leeches on my body. I splashed around with my poppers for an hour the first morning with no
takers, but finally saw my first peacock bass. It was a pair swimming through
some brown water with about 4 feet of visibility. I cast the popper at them with
no response to my creation. I saw another peacock bass about 5 feet from shore
to my left and crept towards it. It was stationed by a basketball-sized cloud of
green algae and was hidden most of the time from me. I put on a gold cone-head
black wooly bugger with a green polar flash tail and started dangling it in
front of the fish. It was interested. It took the fly in its mouth 5 different
times. I got the hook slightly into it twice, but it came off immediately. The
other times it spit out the fly instantly and I didn't feel anything. I was
staring at the fish right in front of me the whole time since it had moved a few
inches away from the algae cloud. When I tried to present the fly as if the
wooly bugger was a little shy or intimidated by the fish, the fish would notice
the fly, but do nothing. Then I had this idea that he would bite if it got mad.
So I gave the wooly bugger some attitude by twitching it 2 or 3 inches at a time
trying to bump the fish right in its face and it got mad real fast and gulped in
the fly in anger. I set the hook and it was in the upper lip really firmly. The
fish zoomed back and forth about 10 feet each way several times. It had good
speed and power. It didn't break the water surface however. I got it out and
took its picture right away on the ground and took another with my right hand
pointing the camera at me and the fish and put it back in the water. The other days, I saw more tucunare and had one good bite, but didn't catch
any more. I had a tilapia on once for a minute and I caught a little black bass
twice. It grabbed a 4 inch green plastic lizard I was using in 6 inch deep
water. When I let it go, I cast the lizard to the rest of the group of about 6
bass and the same one rushed from my feet where I had released it and ate the
lizard again I hope I get another crack at peacock bass. Next time I want to take more
minnow imitations to try and maybe some nymphs. 
