5/12 Trip South For Peacock Bass

I gave Carlos the day off from school so we could fish (he's worked very hard this year, a good kid overall, not just fishin). He decided he wanted to head south to try to get his first Peacock bass. Got down to Lake Ida Canal about 0830 or so. Hit the bridge where I got my 3 peas a few months ago. Carlos worked his cb, I tried a xrap, mirrordine (kinda looks like a shiner), a swimbait and we had shiners in the bullpen as a last resort. Carlos got two largemouth, one about 1 and the other close to 2 lbs but no peas.

Drove 10 minutes to our next spot at El Rio Trail. We could see a few peas cruising at this spot and started working the area.

I landed a couple of Mayan Cichlids but no peas. Carlos spots some fish and throws on them. Nice fish comes up out of the depths and swipes at the bait. Fish on! Carlos lands a nice 3 lb male for his first! Follows that up with another smaller female. Me I get another cichlid. Awesome, I'm ecstatic. After about an hour, the bite dies off here and we move again.

We head to the canal running out of the southern part of lake Ida right up against some train tracks. Oh yeah, there they are! We are on a steep, dirt and rock bank. Carlos casts up against the rocks and then loses his footing and goes down hard. Not close to going in but he ends up with scrapes and a bruised bum. Hurt him pretty good (every boy needs a few scars, builds memories) so he sits there a minute to recover. Luckily, his bait remained in the strike zone. He felt a little tickle on his line and suddenly the scrapes and bruises weren't hurting anymore. Fish on! Lands another nice 2.5 lb pea. Me, I get another Cichlid and a tiny bass not much bigger than my shiner. Yay me.

I give the bait a rest and tie-on the xrap. Then we see a big pea swimming by. Nice one, easily the biggest of the day. Cast out in front, jerk-jerk and he's on. Fish's head just barely breaks the surface and he throws the hook. *&#@(*$(****@&#!! Sum Beach!! I did manage to salvage my day somewhat by getting a small pea a little later.

Was time to head back by now. Despite my own frustrations, we had a great day. The mission was to get Carlos on his first peacock bass and he got three quality peas (he says 4 but I don't remember the fourth lol) and I think 3 bass. I got 4 cichlids, 1 pea, 2 bass and lost the two biggest fish of the day.