Peacock bass

I might have to go to Florida in June to visit family for a couple of days. I'm considering making the trip an extra day and driving 2 1/2 hours down to Miami to fish the peacocks there. My last trip, I went to Okeechobee and it was a bust when a cold front blew in and shut them down. Anyone fished the peacocks there? Was it worth it? Any guide recommendations?

I was there probably 7-8 years ago and took one day to drive around to a few bank fishing spots. I took a 2 piece rod in my golf bag with a reel in my carry on. In hindsight, I probably should have hired a guide. I did catch one peacock about 2.5 pounds that fought like a freight train. It was in Cutler Drain, I believe from Bill Sadowski Park? I've had two kids since then so my memory has been destroyed by the sleep deprivation.
Light fluorocarbon is a must and bright moving baits were the ticket. I caught my peacock on a small lucky craft pointer in Nishiki color. I had several other followers but the water was so clear they were super spooky. There are a ton of other crazy exotics swimming around like Midas cichlids and several species of tilapia. I'm glad I did it but would have loved to have caught more than one. Hope this helps and if you go, post up some pics!

We went with South Florida Bass Charters. Capt Bill is good and knows what he is doing. We used thread fin shad since the trip was primarily for the kids. Im sure he would do artificial if that's what you wanted. He is in Del Ray Beach area. We fished the canals and caught several peacocks, clownknife fish, and largemouth. Biggest peacock was around 4#. My son caught it. Fought really hard. My wife/daughter both caught a clownknife around 7#. Those fish are really cool. Jump like a tarpon and can swim backwards.

Probably a stupid question but do they catch them the same way in Florida with those giant top water plugs

The speckled peacock bass (Cichla temensis) is the bigger one that devour big top water plugs in South America. The butterfly peacock (Cichla ocellaris) was introduced in Florida and they are much smaller.

From videos I watched last night which went along with my experience from Okeechobee, it seems that guides in Florida want to use live bait for fishing. Okeechobee they liked big shiners and it looked like they were using minnows for the peacocks.

I didn’t realize there were different types of peacocks. It looks like a 4-5 pound one is huge in Florida. They did fight hard.

I did I few yrs ago I spent two days driving around Miami fishing canals you could get to on foot with nothing to show for it
Found a guide Rodger ??? I'll have to look up his info
Spent a half day with him in a boat and killed it.. probably caught 20+ fish most of which is behind peoples houses where you cant get to on foot best was about 6lbs but a lot of 4 and 5s
I would absolutely do it again

We went 4 years ago and fished 2 days with Alan Zaremba. I fished a fly rod and friend fished spinning. We caught 12 -15 each a day. Most around 3 lbs, biggest 5 lbs. I had one around 8 break me off in a shopping cart. Great fun! Went in January.

I was in Miami early part of January; fished with Capt Kirk Osborne for Peacock Bass in the Airport Lakes chain - he guides all over south Florida; https://bassonline.com/tag/capt-kirk-osborne/ . Boated 8 or so in a half-day of fishing...with a cold front hitting the night prior. Did use some top water and they were eat'n 'em up. Unlike the large mouth bass, the Peacock will hit the lure 4 or 5 times if the hook set doesn't go well the first time - - not that I had that issue or anything...I'm just saying this was the case of a friend. LOL. Fun fish to catch and pretty damn cool looking. I plan to hit 'em again and go after some of those large mouth out that way as well.

Cool. Thx. They are just such pretty fish I want to go catch a few.

I went November of 2018. We fished with Capt. Scott Rose and had a blast! My buddy and I boated 7 or 8 apiece up to 6lbs. I did have another in the 5-6lb range just absolutely manhandle me. We also caught Midas cichlid and even a tiger oscar. Everything fights really hard and it was a fun day. Scott told us about a great seafood place right down the road. Cobia tacos and beer were the perfect finish.

I had to look up Midas Cyclids. Sounds like it will be a fun trip from hearing you guy's experiences. Thanks for the info.