Fishing Brian Piccolo Park near Fort Lauderdale, Florida- Part 2

On the way to the local, “secret” honey hole, we ran into a massive South Florida midday thunderstorm.  We got some snacks and waited it out in a parking lot near the lake.  It slowly passed and we all made our way down to the water only to find that this dock the locals told us about was about 4 feet wide and 12 feet long.  It certainly wasn’t big enough for three people with fly rods and a young man with a spinning rod.  It is also important to note that we ran into a “You’re in Gator Country” sign on the way.  Our excited quickly waned but Wendy and I were of the opinion that we should go ahead and give it a shot since we were there anyway. 

I spotted some fish that seemed to be rolling like tarpon, but they were WAY out of casting range and I didn’t expect them to come close to the dock.  I made some casts to the cover and structure that was near the dock but didn’t get so much as a sniff.  I was about ready to call it quits since it was starting to rain again, people were waiting in the truck, and the thought of being eaten by a Florida gator did not interest me in the least.  It was also about the same time that Wendy spotted a peacock between the dock and the bank.

She pointed it out to me and I agreed that it was indeed a peacock.  She had been using her son’s spinning rod with an X-Rap and decided to see if the fish was interested.  It was too close to cast towards so she would run the lure towards it and away from it to try and get it to bite. 

The fish didn’t spook and seemed moderately interested but just wouldn’t bite.  That’s when I had two thoughts come to mind.  One was that they guy at the Bass Pro (where we bought our licenses) told us that you could tick a peacock off to the point it would bite.  It might not even be hungry, but would hit a lure just out of sheer crankiness.  The second thought was that I had encountered this very thing before.  I went fishing in Canada about 15 years ago and was caught how to catch pike that would follow lures to the boat.  If you would run your lure in a figure eight motion repeatedly in front of the fish enough, it would just sometimes bite out of frustration.  I decided to employ this tactic and I’ll be darned if the peacock didn’t hit on about the fourth figure eight.

I was in shock for a moment and didn’t really know what to do.  I had a peacock on the end of my line and was in disbelief.  It wasn’t until Wendy squealed “you got him, you got him” that I snapped out of it and realized that I needed to fight the fish and keep it on the line.  The critter fought pretty hard!  It didn’t make any large runs or swim erratically, but you could feel the power on each dive to the bottom of the lake that it attempted.  He eventually tired and came to the surface.  While I was pumped to put my hands on an actual peacock bass, I was hesitant. 

Least importantly, I didn’t want to get hooked by one of the two treble hooks that the lure had.  Most importantly, I remembered the gator sign.  Everything happened really fast but the idea of a fish flopping around on the surface of the water and acting like a gator call really started to spook me.  After building up some courage, which took a few seconds, I quickly reached down and grabbed my prize.  I had my peacock in my hands and was as excited as a little kid!  Wendy literally jumped up and down clapping with excitement and I did a goofy looking dance.  Wendy and I ran the fish back to the truck that folks were waiting in and snapped a few pictures.  I dropped the fish back in the water gently but wasn’t about to try to revive it or nurse it back to health.  Remember, there was probably a 14 foot gator under the dock ready to eat an arm for lunch and a leg for dessert.  It swam off and I was glad because I REALLY didn’t want to kill such a pretty and so special. 

We fished a little longer but didn’t get anything to bite.  I was still on cloud nine and so happy that I caught my peacock when Wendy informed me that it wouldn’t have been possible without her son’s rod, her eyes, and ultimately, her generosity.  I thanked her profusely and still do to this day.  If you’re reading this Wendy, just know that while I know I will never hear the end of this…it was worth it!