Peacock Bass More Vicious Than Expected "The fish made two long runs and jumped twice before being landed." By Chester Moore, Jr. I've seen Venezuela's Lake Guri on television. I've watched anglers like Jimmy Houston and Roland Martin catch peacock bass dozens of times and I've always been impressed with the vigor in which they seem to slam artificial bait. But not until I actually caught one myself did I realize just how powerful and vicious these fish really are. On the first day of my trip I was working a custom topwater plug called a Pop-N-Run along a grassy shoreline. The water was as smooth as glass and just looked like a good place to get a blow up. And it was. When I worked the plug past a submerged log I got a hit that displaced as much water as the big redfish that roam the coastal marshes of Texas. It turned out to be an 8-pound royal peacock bass that was hell-bent on not getting landed. The fish made two long runs and jumped twice before being landed. I was hooked on this peacock bass stuff immediately. A few minutes later Susan Mundy of New Mexico who was fishing in the boat in front of me caught a 10-pounder on a Rapala. Before this trip Mundy had only caught perch and small rainbow trout and seemed quite impressed with the peacock. She was not the same after the experience. Our trip was five days long and there was a lot of water to cover and many fish to be caught. I must've been jinxed because for three of those five days, I never caught a fish to top the first one I caught. There were plenty of small peacocks to keep me from getting bored, but the quest for a large fish was what brought me to South America in the first place. On the fourth day I decided to fish with a Zara Spook and stick with it. My guide for the day said the plug was a good choice and should catch some big fish. The morning was filled with plenty of action with peacocks up to 4-pounds hitting the plug left and right. Then the afternoon came and the fish seemed to shut off until we hit a flats area. My first cast yielded a hit from what I assumed was a small peacock. The second cast produced nothing, but the third cast proved quite different. As soon as the plug hit the water, there was a tiny boil behind it. I assumed it was a small peacock, but decided to play it cool anyway. Instead of continuing to "walk the dog" with the bait I let it sit in place and twitched it slightly. On the second twitch it looked as if a grenade exploded under the bait. It was a big peacock! The fish peeled the 50-pound test Power Braid line off of the reel like it was nothing and then it seemed to give up. The fish was coming in like there was no fish on the line and then it saw the boat! At this point the big fish made two impressive jumps and ran around the other side of the point. It took out a good 30 yards of line and made a distant jump. I was beginning to get nervous. Jumping fish are nice to see and all, but they're also easy to lose. When fish are jumping they're often trying to spit the hook. I was praying this wouldn't happen to me. Finally I got the fish within netting range and watched it run out a few more yards. Sensing the fish would head for some nearby brush, I put the pressure on the fish and brought it to the boat. To say I was happy would be an understatement. The fish was a twelve-pounder and would prove to be my biggest peacock bass of the trip. All was well with the world or at least in my little corner of it. Lake Guri is not widely known as a producer of huge peacock bass. There are three different species here; the royal, tiger and butterfly. There are some legitimate monster-sized royals there, but the average big fish is in the 10- to 12-pound range. And don't think for a second, peacocks of this size aren't a worthy catch. They're brutal fighters and are especially exciting to catch on a topwater plug. Let me put it this way, the blowup of a big speckled trout or an average largemouth bass compared to a big peacock bass is like comparing Godzilla to Tweety Bird. Which one do you think is more intimidating? On the last day of our trip we ended up at a small boat dock. One of the villagers approached us with a huge peacock bass in hand. He said he caught it while fishing with a hand line by the dock. Bill Skinner, the man responsible for booking the trip, grabbed a digital scale and weighed the fish. It weighed 23 pounds, 4 ounces. That's only three pounds shy of the world record and this fish had been out of water for several hours. It probably weighed at least 24 pounds when it was first caught. It may have weighed even more. As we all gathered around the big fish it was easy to see there was a mix of reverence and envy among the group. The reverence was for the beauty of the fish and the envy was that we didn't get to fight and catch it. That would've been truly awesome. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Millis ini terselengara berkat dukungan PT. KreatifNet - The WebDesign Company http://www.kreatif.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Website mancing-l at http://www.MancingL.com --> Fishing information, online chat, forum discusion, clasifiedads, etc MancingL Archive at http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] ** Save Bandwidth... potong berita yang tidak perlu **
