These ex mining ponds have become home to a huge diversity of freshwater fish especially mayan cichlid (Ikan belang) which occur in plague numbers. The prime target for casters who come from around the country and sometimes even from overseas is the Peacock Bass. A fish which fighting abilities are legendary and sought after. Peacock Bass can dominate a pond easily due to its exponential reproductive ability which starts at an early age and vicarious appetite.
This fish was first introduced as an aquarium fish in the early 1990's before anglers found its potential as a game fish and released it into lakes and ponds. One of first places peacock bass was introduced are the lakes near Holiday Villa, Subang. There was a study in 1997 in a local university regarding this fish species.
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This picture shows a sizeable peacock bass The setup which I normally use to fish for peacock bass is Rod = Berkley Cherrywood 1-6lbs Reel= Tokushima 500 Line = Nanofil 8lbs Leader= Cap Ayam 20lbs |
The reason for using an overpowered leader is because some of the places are steep so there will be a need to pull the fish up. As for lure selection the most frequently used are 2 inch Berkley grub and Bakau Ironman brand spoon 12 gram. Being a student one has to use the resources he has and not go for expensive lures since I am new in lure fishing and cant loose lures frequently. Hahaha.
Peacock bass will attack anything that moves most of the time. But there are certain unexplainable cases in which the fish refuse to bite even if the lure is in front of it. One of these cases are during spawning time when the peacock bass is in parental mode. They might either attack your lure as soon as it hits the water or completely ignore your lure. The cause of this phenomena is unknown. In the picture below we can see a huge peacock bass which attacked a 15 gram spoon. The size of the peacock bass below is smaller than my handphone.
Peacock bass will attack anything that moves most of the time. But there are certain unexplainable cases in which the fish refuse to bite even if the lure is in front of it. One of these cases are during spawning time when the peacock bass is in parental mode. They might either attack your lure as soon as it hits the water or completely ignore your lure. The cause of this phenomena is unknown. In the picture below we can see a huge peacock bass which attacked a 15 gram spoon. The size of the peacock bass below is smaller than my handphone.
If there is a group of peacock bass in a specific area when the weather is hot that means that group will be in that area as that is its territory. This is how we know the "lubuk" of the peacock bass. Once the are detected then we can start to fish them. The best time in my opinion is after rain or late evening. Avoid fishing when there are sightings of monitor lizards or otters. Fish do not bite in a 15 minutes interval when there pass through.
Once a Peacock Bass is hooked others will follow behind it in the sense of food. If you can cast your lure in front of the peacock bass right behind that follows you will have 90% chances of a bite. In every group of peacock bass there will be many small sized ones and big ones beneath. Sinking lures are preferred for the big sized peacock bass.
Once a peacock bass is caught and released it may emit panic hormones back to the school of fish and make them move from the strike zone. For catch and release anglers a method to avoid this problems are
Once a peacock bass is caught and released it may emit panic hormones back to the school of fish and make them move from the strike zone. For catch and release anglers a method to avoid this problems are
- To keep every fish caught tied to a stringer and then release all back after the fishing session.
- Release the fish in a different angle where it may not return to the school. But the method above is more efficient.
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| Picture shows a 47cm Peacock Bass caught on a spoon. It attacked the spoon when it was sinking. This shows that the big specimens are always below the school |
Peacock bass is relatively easy fish to catch but hard to locate. It is advisable to spend more time finding for the fish rather than fishing the fish. Peacock bass are predator fish which means they consume at least 25% of their body weight on a daily basis. In the second part I will cover on techniques in lure and live bait fishing to hook up peacock bass as well as the tips and tricks from many sources.
An article by Sathaprakash
