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Excitement in the Amazon
The World's Greatest Gamefish swims in South American waters
by Larry Larsen
 The peacock bass by nature is aggressive and its personality is downright
belligerent. It is a fish so powerful that it can destroy tackle, straighten hooks and tear the hardware right out of hardwood and plastic baits. The fiercest
fighting fish in the world will smash and mangle lures, even break them apart, and then give you the battle of your life.
It is impossible to exaggerate the strike and fight of this colorful gamefish. The larger it gets, in contradistinction to its North American cousins, the better it
fights. The fish almost always jumps the second they are hooked, and after ahead-shaking leap or two, they make an incredible run. Even a four- or
five-pounder can wear a person out, and they probably grow to over 30 pounds!
In a long, straight run, the aerial acrobat weighing over 15 pounds can rip
40-pound test line from a heavy-duty 3:1 ratio casting reel with the drag clamped down tight. The trophy-size peacock can easily break 20- to 30-pound test monofilament or straighten out a 3X
heavy-strength hook in one of its initial charges or when it sees the boat and senses doom.
What makes an angler whose favorite fish is the musky, smallmouth bass, striper, or giant largemouth
dream of another species? What would make a snook or tarpon guide give up on them to chase after a freshwater species? It's the fish that is head and shoulders above all the others in this world: the peacock
bass. Imagine a 12-Megaton hydrogen bomb going off below your topwater plug or giant popper.
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9<#;VE  There is no such thing as a pot-bellied peacock bass. Its splashy colors make it virtually impossibl*l
.< sneak up on i forage, so if it can't catch the food5i=deijkt3Qgiant peacock is just as quick as a smaller fish ...and a lot more powerful.
The fighting ability of the peacock puts them at the head of the class. Pound for pound, it is the toughest-fightinv8qeshwzn gamefish in the
I world. With the exceptivr#tEthe tuna family, the peaco`u(wsi3'I?PU[ieve, is the top battler in global waters of any salinity. When you
consider the jumping ability, the power, the attitude and the excitement generated by large peacock bass, no other fish even comes close.TheI~Geadl.}nge
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<These fish originate and thrive in the same South American waters of two dreaded species: the
piranha and the powerful payara. The blood-hungry piranha grow ?~eive |oix pounds and the devilish saber-too,ed payara maxes out at over
&'<nteh:koakSVn hold its own where these and other hellacious predators live has to be tough. Peacock bass are among the 1,800 other species that have been cataloged from the Amazon home waters.
Fortunatelyb*ke rai The peacock is not really a "bass" at all. F
ke tw.ush similar in
R stature and sporting qualities atb<{ etically far apart. Wvm=fe{|hct @hich has attained documented weights in excess of 26 pounds, is called bass because it strongly resembles a largemouth in general size
and shape. However, it is actually the largest American member of the cichlid f&7oy ofhohes which also includes the guapote Prainbow bass"), oscar, and tilapia, amii{<ny others.
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While conducting 9search on the fish for my book, "Peacoel<^ s Explosions," I found out#j`|b nwbrz== are 1,400 species of the cichlid family in the world and 250 to 300 in South America. The family is to tropical waters as the sunfish family, which includes
the black basses, is to tempe*f frefkaters of North America. Some b logists believe that the two were deripbx< om a common ancestor, a prfvanbohvd lS\Cwater perch.General Description
Once you see the fish, you'll understand why it is called a peacock bass by most North Americans.
The peacock bass Ɗ,jves z*xoe8?hn?FXR beautiful plume of a peacock's tail. Hence the name,
"peacock bass." The distinctive gold-embroidered circular black halo spot on all peacock bass tails reminds some more of the savage eye of a jungle cat.
< The prominent "false eye" on the tail is actually a deceptiv*brgethn predators. Most all fish have
black efn%D their heads, and some have#{~rzv{'pwKC^cally one or two ways to "misguide" an attack to the eye area from predators. One common evolution is the eye spot near the rear
of the fish. Another is color patterns that obscure the eye or detract from its,lminem2 The peacock bass has both a f se eye on the tail, and vivid and irrex~iJ< color patterns on the head-"JO(
?' ? The rainbow-like coloration of the peacock bass is striking; the colors rival many saltwater coral reef fish. It generally has a dark
greenish-black or bronze back and 2jght fhe belly with rear underside that rans from golden to mellow yellow or lighk+fC/rtreuse to pink or blood reg0.stsj$'Ik^Xrmally has a main body
background area of green, yellow, burnished gold or dark black hues and irregular broad and dusky black vertical bars along its sides.
Gill cover~wail `(=6th~del_Q hues that widely vary from bronze to bright orange to pink to crimson red to a greenish yellow.
The pectoral fins are not colored. Colors on the lower gill plate, however, can be vivid. Black splotchesT# .< (patterned like r dom ink spots) abound on the gill covemx% ear the eye) of the speckleg>xxwcu|l.9\RDp; Dorsal fins may be a translucent aquamarine or bluish-gray, as can be the top half of the tail fin.
Add to the above their always striking scarlet or blood red (iris) eyes that stare you do~then f
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Let's Play The Namz+BJ#e
#>(=6 :?' ?^Usp; Several species within the genus Cichla are commonly referred to as peacock bass. Some biologists,
literature and/or tour operators contend that there are five distinct species of the colorful peacor#othe}
three o[four, and still others say there could?i`nin fact, a dozen species.&namx&6Otz'bv]\Xgist, in fact, reportedly
claims there are perhaps two dozen species of peacock. Exactly how many species of the colorful peacock there really are depends on which biologist you speak with.
~# (~sp; The common Engsh name, peacock bass, is derived by ArnwB-ans from the common Spanish#pips,:
? "pavon" (which means peacock). "Pavon" is derived from "pavo real." In Venezuela, the pavon is the
national fish of the country. The fish is also called "tucunare" (from a Tupi Inچ?m/Por{iese dialect, pronounced "too-coon-ary") in Brazilian, Panamanian and Hawaivjk 9aters, and "lukanani" in Guzf|6w{kbrl ==
 &asp; The fish, as I found out in numerojx%_ios ' ? similar to largemouth in many ways. They have similar habits and habitat preferences and are caught on similar lures. The ways they are less similar
makes them even more exciting. ;z arezigher, meaner and slightly bigger.&nb|
; They feed only during daylight hours1-kI=p; As a schooler, peacocks blm={ohz'lvYUthe saltwater dolphin.
Most fish roam in schools, but the peacock bass is known for roaming in gangs. The peacock bass is something of a thug. A hooked fish triggers
D~# .< the others in the school to sear0 and destroy prey of their own. Tm}ing a hooked fish in the watfl(hxtss'a?AUTond one nearby is hooked will prolong the excitement.
I call it the "World's Greatest Gamefish" because it is attracted to cover, strikes topwater lures regularly, jumps when hooked, never giv~vp a < battle, isq
owerful enough to tax angler skills an|(hckle, breaks line and lures f{tzy6?oalQphysical appearance that looks exciting, and obtains an average size of 15 to 25 pounds (a very respectful weight).
Editor's Note: This article is a partial excerpt from the book,
"Peacock Bass Explosions". The longer
book chapt ~`onta`www.peacockbassassociation.coqEONT>!"
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