The best season to catch the Speckled Peacock Bass is the dry season with the best months being July and August as many lagoons have been isolated.

Sun Worshipers

The Speckled Peacock Bass is not active at night and can be found sleeping at night in the shallows. Unlike smallmouth bass, largemouth bass and other North American Bass, the Speckled Peacock Bass love the sunshine and it is essential to their lives and reproduction. The sun heats their eggs and helps them grow and increases their metabolism. When the sun is up at its highest in the sky, peacocks are most active and very hungry and this is the best time to hunt them. During the high heat of the summer, when the sun is out, the Speckled Peacock Bass can be found moving to deeper water to stay cool.

When the sky is overcast, they become lethargic and difficult to entice. Night fishing for peacocks is a waste of time as they sleep during the night in the shallows.

Night fishing is not recommended, but a complete waste of time. The Peacock bass species is the only species that are adverse to night fishing.

All other freshwater bass are more active night feeders especially in the early morning and late evening both before and after the sun has set.

Are They Really Bass?

With so many fundamental differences between the Speckled Peacock Bass and all other fresh water bass species, many wonder how it was called a bass to begin with.

The Speckled Peacock, Butterfly Peacock and the Royal Peacock are not bass and come from a completely different family. When the Butterfly Peacock Bass was introduced to Florida, the Americans decided to change its original name, the Pavon, to bass. The argument followed that with a name like Pavon, no American will want to catch it so they decided to name it to Bass.

This explains why the peacocks cannot stand cold water, preferring very warm water in the high 70°Fs to low 80°Fs/21°C+ to 27°C+. The only thing they have in common with bass is the fight that they put up.

Best Times and Seasons

The best season to catch the Speckled Peacock Bass is the dry season with the best months being July and August as many lagoons have been isolated and much of the water from the rainy season has emptied making angling much easier.

As the speckled peacock bass prefers sunlight to become active, the best hours are between 11h00 and 17h00.

Angling Techniques

Obviously we don’t have any night techniques as Speckled Peacock Bass are not active at night, but we can cover the basics that apply to every season.

1) Pick a strong rod that can put up with heavy lures being dragged across the surface time after time and that can survive a long fight with a lunker.

2) Your reel must be heavy duty along with the rod, having strong gears and a smooth drag.

3) Loosen your drag and tighten it up after setting the hook.

4) Use lures that reproduce the vibrations of a wounded fish.

5) Don’t get hung up over colours as most of the Amazon river basis is very murky and visibility is poor.