[familyguy6007]

A friend and I wanted to challenge our fishing skills by attempting some new species in Florida (we live in PA and NJ). We flew to Miami and immediately drove our rental to Iggie's Bait & Tackle to grab some flouro leader and live shiners. We drove around from spot to spot fishing in the middle of the city in the canals, ponds, and lakes for peacock bass or anything else that was biting. ON THE VERY FIRST CAST of the day, my buddy hooks up with a beautiful peacock using a hard plastic bait. A few spots later I hook up with my first, second, and third peacock. There were some smaller fish around, but the only other type of fish I managed to hook was a 28 inch gar that broke off when my dumb friend grabbed the line instead of the fish when attempting to land it. (I am not bitter at all about this ) It was alot of fun, but very hard work to locate the bass because it was impossible to sight cast them with the winds HOWLING from 15-25 mph.

The weirdest thing about fishing these canals was that there was NO ONE else in any of the spots we fished. Unlike NJ, there was zero competition for getting to the fish first. The best thing was every freshwater fish we caught was within 15 min of the airport. I cannot wait to go back. Shout out to sandwashslugger for advice on targeting these awesome game fish!

 

[sandwashslugger]

Glad to see you got on some. And for the gar your buddy should be glad he didn't grab it, they're solid muscle with armor plating and they smell like absolute shhh

 

[familyguy6007]

Thanks Dave! As to your comment, my buddy smells like shhh anyway so it wouldn't have made a difference, and I was bitter about him losing my tarpon in Flamingo earlier where he did the same thing (grabbed the line instead of the damn fish).

 

[sandwashslugger]

Thanks Dave! As to your comment, my buddy smells like shhh anyway so it wouldn't have made a difference, and I was bitter about him losing my tarpon in Flamingo earlier where he did the same thing (grabbed the line instead of the damn fish).

Tarpon are definitely intimidating to grab, especially if you don't know exactly where the hook is. Theyre just a giant minnow, but they can wreck havoc on your bare hands

 

[aquasport190]

Is public access common at these canals?

 

[sandwashslugger]

Depends which canals you're talking about. There are a ton of houses on the canals in Miami making most parts unfishable, plus sketchy neighborhoods. Broward isn't quite as bad, palm beach county has good access. Google earth is your friend

 

[reefman]

Access is tricky around venice also. Believe it or not, I have access, and so does everyone else, to a few nice ponds in north port that I hardly see any one fishing. They have some bass and plenty of tilapia. Like sand said, google earth is your friend, parking is the key. Using a bike is easier to get around also. Park at a church lot or something then hit it with the bike.

 

[familyguy6007]

Are you talking by boat or by land? I drove to all of these spots and just parked on a side street. I used google maps to spot 10 or so locations just in case they were already being fished , or not available when I fished.

Is public access common at these canals?

 

[aquasport190]

I was talking land access. If we wanted to just try and hour or so.

 

[familyguy6007]

Yes, you might have to look at the spots on googlemaps to see where to park at some spots. I found life around the School of Clinical Research USA, Sonia's Seafood, and South Miami-Date Cultural Arts Center. A beginner's warning would be to approach areas slowly by foot so you don't scare a group of iguanas into the water which spooked all of the fish at multiple spots when I tried.