Peacock Bass among the World’s Top Freshwater Fighters

Peacock bass are among the world’s best freshwater sport fish. These aggressive predators fight hard when hooked, providing an incredible battle. Due to their aggressiveness they willingly take artificial lures. Spinners, spoons, bucktail jigs and those big noisy topwater lures are some of the best. They’re fly anglers' favorite freshwater game-fish too.

They are not true bass, but are members of the Cichlidae family. They are so called in English, probably, because their body-shape is bass-like and their beautiful colors like the peacock.

Distribution

These cichlids are native to the Amazon River of S. America. They can be found in great abundant in tropical countries like Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and some parts of the U. S. like Florida, Hawaii and Guam.

Numbering more than a dozen species the most common are the Speckled and the Butterfly Peacock Bass species.

And all known species of these cichlids have a prominent black spot surrounded with a golden ring on the tail fin. Adult males have a pronounced hump on their foreheads.

Characteristics

Speckled Peacock Bass have 3 black-color bars on their bodies with dark blotches on the opercula. These features are very distinctive on larger fish. There’re also light or rather pale spots found on the head, dorsal and caudal fins. The result of these features is a speckled appearance.

Like all others of this species they’ve brilliant colors. Along the back they’ve darker green and black while along the sides they’re yellow to golden and lighter green. The anal, pelvic and the lower part of the caudal fins are reddish in color. Running horizontally over the length of their bodies are 4-6 rows of light-colored spots.

Of all the species, this species is the biggest. They can grow to more than 3 ft in length. The all-tackle world record of this species is a 27 lbs. fish from Brazil.

Butterfly Peacock Bass have great variation in color, some anglers say that they’re the most colorful plus beautiful of them all. They’re also the most plentiful amongst the species. Generally, they’re yellowish-green with 3 distinctively dark blotches along the lateral midsection on either side of the body. The iris of the eye is deep red.

The average size of this species is 2-5 lbs. The current all-tackle world record is 12 lbs, 9 ozs from Venezuela.

As for eating quality they’re not among the best. Asian’s anglers seldom bring them to the table. But some countries in S. America rate them highly. Maybe they’ve better recipes for them. Anyway, the flesh is white and they’re not bony. Try them out when you caught them, personally of course, and find out how they taste-like.

to top of page: Peacock Bass among the World’s Top Freshwater Fighters

Freshwater Fishing

Home

Custom Search