Fishing C.B. Smith Park near Fort Lauderdale, Florida- Part 1

A few weeks ago I was fortunate enough to head down to Florida for some fishing and fun with my girlfriend Wendy, her son Collin, Wendy’s mom Sharon, and her stepdad Mark.  One thing we were all excited about was the prospect of doing some fishing.  My goal was to catch a peacock bass because as far as I know, you can only catch these beauties in Florida and South America.  I would have settled for just seeing a peacock or even just catching a fish in Florida.  I’ve caught fish in Missouri, Canada, Colorado, and Arkansas but never in Florida.  I brought Wendy’s Echo 5 weight for smaller flies and my Echo 6 weight for slinging bigger meat.  While we were there, Collin purchased six foot telescopic Zebco spinning rod as well.  As far as flies go, I brought some small jigs & indicators, wooly buggers, and streamers.  Collin picked up some number 7 Rapala X-Raps and some ¼ ounce Rooster Tails.  All of this info will come into play later.

Before we arrived in Florida, I did some research.  I heard that canals were the best to try but we didn’t have a boat and I didn’t want to learn about trespassing law in Florida.  I also read that getting a guide was the best bet too, but I didn’t have the money for that.  So that narrowed down things to public water.  Upon investigation, I found out there were plenty of public places to catch peacocks.  I found about 4 parks near where we were staying in Fort Lauderdale, but I’ll be honest, I didn’t have high hopes.  I thought I would pick up a fish here and there but knew my limited time would make catching a peacock difficult.

We decided to hit T.Y. Park first.  It had a pier and some fishable shoreline that looked promising.  While I was rigging my rod, Collin came running up to me telling me that he spotted a peacock near the pier.  I was optimistic but skeptical.  Collin is fairly new to fishing and I wasn’t sure he would be able to tell the difference between a peacock and a largemouth. 

You can only imagine my surprise when I walked over to the dock and found not one but three peacocks patrolling the area.  They seemed to be hanging out near cover in deeper water but in casting distance.  We all took turns throwing at them with in-line spinners, mini jigs, X-Raps, zonkers, and clousers.  The only thing that they seemed interested in at all were the clousers, but even then, they wouldn’t bite.  They finally dispersed and we were forced to find a new spot. 

About fifty yards away I found another spot that looked a whole lot like the other spot.  Everyone else decided to take a break in the shade.  It was getting hot and I didn’t blame them but I really wanted a Florida fish…any Florida fish.  I tied on a conehead Madonna with a chartreuse body/tail and a natural deer hair collar.  I didn’t have a good reason for picking this other than it was smaller and had some good action to it. 

Right when I arrived at the new spot, I immediately saw fish.  The water was a little murky so I couldn’t tell what they were, but to be honest, I really didn’t care.  I made a couple of casts and they were definitely interested in my fly.  It kind of reminded me of fish looking over a fly at Bennett Spring or Roaring River.  They were so interested in the lure, you just knew that one of them was going to slip up and make a mistake.  On my fourth or fifth cast, a fish absolutely smashed my fly on the drop and I was hooked up.  I had no idea what I had hooked but it put up a nice fight and made a solid run.  I eventually got it to the bank but had absolutely no idea what it was.  I grabbed the line and hoisted the critter out of the water while I ran back to the group like a little kid.  After we snapped some pictures and let the little guy go, I used the Internet to identify the fish as a tilapia.  I gotta say, I was pretty pumped to catch not only a Florida fish, but also a new species on a fly rod.

The rest of the group followed me back to the same spot.  I was anxious for them catch some fish too.  We started pounding the water pretty hard with all kinds of flies and lures in hopes that we could duplicate my catch.  I spotted some fish out of Wendy’s casting range so I made a few casts for her.  On her fourth cast, I saw a fish dart out of the shadows and destroy her conehead Madonna.  When she got it to shore I recognized it as a largemouth bass and she was all smiles.

We made some more casts but the fish seemed to spook and head to other water.  It also looked like rain was headed our way and the group decided to call it quits.  However, before that could happen, we ran into some really nice locals that had been watching us catch our fish.  I guess it appeared obvious that we were excited tourists that wanted to catch some fish.  We started talking and they started to tell us about a spot that only the locals knew about.  To say I was excited would be a gross understatement.  They told us there was a lake at Brian Piccolo (yes, Brian Piccolo as in the guy from Brian’s Song) that had big largemouth and peacock bass.  We all got in the truck and headed to Brian Piccolo Park.