Kalyn Hoggard | Monday, 30 June 2025
In what seems like another life, my wife and I went to school at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida. I would not say it was by accident that we landed in a tropical climate at a university next to the beach, but I will say that I vastly underestimated the fishing opportunities in South Florida. From tuna and snook to snakeheads and peacock bass there was always something to try for the first time or a favorite fish that was on the bite. It can be quite problematic for a true fishing nerd to satisfy all their fishing urges whilst also trying to get an education, have a good time, and sleep now and again. Looking back… Not sure how I managed.
Honestly, it would be impossible for me to go into great detail about the different species that caused me strife during my several years in South Florida. I absolutely love fishing for snook on the beach. I have said many times that if I had one fishing day left, that I would want to be walking the sand in South Florida casting at beach cruising snook. They fight hard, they chase flies to the sand, they like to eat, and you can cast at them on foot from the beach. In my opinion, targeting snook on the fly gets top marks, but that wasn’t the fish that I spent the most time chasing.
The bullseye snakehead, unfortunately for the native species, have a strong hold on certain areas of South Florida. You can quite literally rip frogs in the canals of the urban jungle behind a Dunkin’ and catch trophy sized snakes all year. Or at least, it was certainly possible when I lived there. Famous for their explosive eats and chases, the snakehead is a curious and beautiful creature that I genuinely enjoy chasing, but it still was not the fish that broke through the recreational angler boundary and pushed me into obsession.
The climate and conditions of the South Florida canals allow for a wide range of species to thrive, bloom in density, and sometimes, cause serious problems for the native species. It’s a story as old as time but amplified by good environmental conditions. The butterfly peacock bass was introduced by The Florida Wildlife Commission in the 80’s. They determined that the peacock bass would fit into the environment nicely and would be a profound way to combat other invasive species. I assume it had something to do with their ability to proliferate and their insatiable feeding behavior, but I am not educated on those details. It seems like their choice to introduce a non-native specie to combat other non-native invasive species was a success although that might seem like a strange conservation strategy.
Now, some 40 years later the peacock bass scene in South Florida is becoming a must do. Unfortunately, the main way in which the guides have clients catching these fish is by pitching live bait at them. This is an effective approach, but some anglers have found their way with various jerk baits. I really enjoyed throwing around Rapalas in the canals, but I found myself wondering if I could catch them on a fly…and that’s how I started to obsess over the most difficult way to fish for these beautiful creatures using micro streamers. I liked to use a 2 & ½ inch green and white clouser minnow, and I would vary the weight and size based on conditions. I typically threw it at them as a tandem streamer rig, but you can catch them in many other ways.
One of the ways that I liked to chase peacock was to walk the banks of the canals. If you walk the edge of the canals, you will notice that most of them will have a dense underwater weed edge that is maybe two feet wide and stretches from the bottom to the top of the water column. This densely weeded area was the perfect habitat for all the fry and baitfish to seek cover from the predators lurking in the canal. Interesting fun fact, when you walk down the edges of the canal the little glass minnows and everything else runs out from the cover to get away from the giant bird that was about to grab them. When this happened, the wolf packs of peacock bass would frenzy the vulnerable fish. I’m not sure if this would be considered a bait and switch, chumming, or some other morally reprehensible act, but as soon as I saw the peacocks chasing, I would slam my dueling minnows into the fray and set the hook. This method worked quite well but was still not as fun as throwing bigger bait pattern at the territorial monsters laid up waiting to ambush.
I got so involved with hunting peacocks that I got a certified scale and started using special leaders and tippets for IGFA records and so on. I spent some time on chasing the butterfly peacock records. I really wanted to smash the lighter weight tippet classes, or to break the state record all tackle. During this endeavor I would spend a lot of time on the same road as the IGFA Hall of Fame and headquarters. I thought I might be able to get someone to come down the street and weigh live fish for me so I could release a weight record fish instead of having to kill every fish that was close. It turns out that I got the opportunity to see if they would do it. I had a fish that was 9 and a half pounds on my scale which would take the line class, but it was close to the state record. When I called to see if they would send someone over to me they wouldn’t, but they did give me an option. They told me that I could go to the Bass Pro across the street from them and see if Bass Pro would let me leave a fish in one of their tanks in the back. If they would let me, then IGFA would find time to go over and weigh the fish. Then they would call me so I could get the fish and release back into the wilds.
That felt like a little over handling, and I was turned off by the weight records at that point anyway. I wanted the records, but I couldn’t bring myself to kill these fish that I had spent so much time on. It is awesome that they started up the catch and release length records. It is a fantastic way for fishers to chase the biggest fish of a particular species and go after an ego stroking piece of paper without killing so many of them along the way. I am personally guilty of ego stroking so I mean no ill will, but I call it what it is.
The top water eats, the jumps, the wolf pack behavior, the colors, the fight, and being able to do it on foot make the butterfly peacock one of the most fun species to target. Walking the city streets of South Florida listening to the screech of parrots but also forced into being aware of the dangers of gators and poverty builds the excitement. Hunting the magical peacock in the concrete tropics. I love it.