Boatless Fishing Forum, Reports, Info

Hi! I'm Mark,a flyfisher from California. I generally fish for largemouth bass, on top when possible but I'll fish streamers if need be. I will be in the Hollywood area of Florida in early December, I was thinking about giving the canals in the area a shot for Peacocks. My daughter tells me I will be canoeing on the Peace river above Arcadia for a couple of days, then heading down to Long Key to fish around some piers there. I've never caught any thing out of the salt on a flyrod. I would appreciate any info you folks could give me on these areas; species,flies, areas to fish, etc, etc. I've been doing a bit of research & reading the threads here so I'll be tying up some Clousers. I'll be fishing a 7wt. rod. Thanks!

For the peacocks any canals west of 441 should be fine. Make sure you are moving the fly as fast as possible, seriously. I prefer streamers with orange, charteuse and pink, no weight or very lightly weighted. The peas really like surface structure, cultverts, ect.
As far as your trip to the Keys, I would stop at the Miami fly shop and pick yourself us some of their recommendations.

West of 441 is not gonna cut it. For peas you're going to need to go way out west. orange canal (that runs beside griffin road) west of flamingo road holds some decent numbers of peacocks and is fly fishable. Honestly though, the bite is going to suck real hard in December. Water temps are too low.

We have some decent largemouth fishing if you want to try that.

If you want to do salt on fly your options are really limited. It's hard to cast a fly off a crowded pier. For guaranteed action you should just get a guide to take you out. Go catch a tarpon on fly in the keys; that's almost a guaranteed bite down there.

If you can't get a guide, try for Spanish Macks off the beach in palm beach county. Find the birds/bait and you will find the fish. Or if you are going down to the keys fly fish the roadside flats for bonefish - a big bone on a 7 wt will be a fight you won't forget for a long time. Anne's beach has a nice flat that you can wade. You can look up patterns, tides and techniques easily online.

Good luck.

Hey, thanks! I appreciate the input, not quite sure how much fishing I'll actually do but this info will give me something to think about.

I thought the peacocks might slow down but they still gotta eat. Maybe smaller flies or a slower retrieve? Last time out a spent a couple of days at Macks fish camp. I did pretty good with the Largemouth on topwater stuff. Are there Peacocks in there? This time I'll be spending a couple of days on the Peace, I'm sure I'll catch something.

Can't quite bring myself to hire a guide...maybe some time in the future. Didn't really think casting from a bridge would be feasible. Thought maybe from shore but having never been there before I don't know.

I'll let you know how I do. Happy Thanksgiving!

Mark61.5 wrote:Hey, thanks! I appreciate the input, not quite sure how much fishing I'll actually do but this info will give me something to think about.

I thought the peacocks might slow down but they still gotta eat. Maybe smaller flies or a slower retrieve? Last time out a spent a couple of days at Macks fish camp. I did pretty good with the Largemouth on topwater stuff. Are there Peacocks in there? This time I'll be spending a couple of days on the Peace, I'm sure I'll catch something.

Can't quite bring myself to hire a guide...maybe some time in the future. Didn't really think casting from a bridge would be feasible. Thought maybe from shore but having never been there before I don't know.

I'll let you know how I do. Happy Thanksgiving!

hey there!! I fly fish for peacocks all the time and lately the bite has been a bit slow due to the cold, however I had a good day last saturday because I caught 10 peacocks and 3 largemouths, so they are still active in some locations, if you want I wouldnt mind meeting you and helping you catch a peacock, I know locations where they can be caught.

Chris, very generous offer & it is greatly appreciated. I'm not sure we can make it work. The only reason for me being in Florida is to visit my daughter & her hubby. The 2 weekends I'm there are already accounted for, as are the days on either side of those weekends. I know she is planning on taking a day or two off midweek as well so I'm unsure as to what days the wife & I will be left to fend for ourselves.

I read your thread on peacocks & found it very informative. I'm not dead set on catching peacocks, only on catching fish. The peacocks & snakeheads caught my eye because they're decent sized fish & they're unavailable to me here in California.

If you are going to Long Key, there are flats right off the north (east) part of the campground where you can wade to your heart's content. In December, fish will come onto the flat later in the afternoon after the water temps have warmed up. Temp will be the main driver of bonefish movement. Use a merkin type crab in tan mixed with some green, tied with chartreuse thread, bout the size of a quarter. Good luck

Thanks for the info! I was born & raised on Long Island NY, spend a lot of time clamming, barefoot on shallow water mudflats. I'm 40 years removed from that now & the rays, which NY doesn't have, make me more than a little nervous. Yeah, I've read some wading articles, move slow, feet on the bottom, be aware of the tide, etc. Some say they've never had a problem, others say they've been hit several times & it's just the price of doing business. Still it is pretty tempting but I'll have to give it some thought. Florida sure seems to have more than it's share of nasty critters.

Mark61.5 wrote:

I read your thread on peacocks & found it very informative.

thank you for the kind words on my article

I'm back in California after 2 weeks in Florida. Didn't do as much fishing as I had hoped. I had 2 30 minute casting sessions at a man made lake in Pembrooke Pines casting a diving minnow got 2 hits...no fish.

I spent a day fishing the canal along Orange west of Flamingo. Although I hooked & lost something early in the day on a top water I caught my first pea 10:05 on a yellow, red & green clouser. My best producer was a white, pink & grey clouser with pearl flash. Someone had mentioned pink here but I decided to add a grey back as well so I could use it here as a rainbow trout imitation. Fishing the canal banks was kinda tough as the banks are steep.and without a stripping basket the line would get tangled in the ground cover. A small tarp or sheet would have eliminated this. Anyway I caught 5 peas between 15 & 11 inches...lost 12 to 15 more. All in all a pretty fun day.

The info given here was spot on & greatly appreciated. Thanks again & Happy Holidays!

nice!!! Ive caught quite a few myself even during the bad cold front