The peacock bass is a popular target for the traveling angler, with many anglers traveling to the rainforests of South America to chase this fish in their natural environment.
Due to accidental introduction, these fish can now be found in other areas, like the warm water regions of North America (in particular Florida) and Asia. It has even been reported that these fish are being caught in Australia.
Due to the species spreading, the number of anglers explicitly targeting these fish in areas like Florida is increasing.
There is a wide variety of artificial lures that will work well for peacock bass, and many of these lures might be baits that you are familiar with for other species.
Topwater Lures
The Heddon Zara Spook is a classic topwater lure that always gets the job done when peacock bass fishing.
It's been around for almost 100 years now, first hitting the fishing world in 1939, and the fact that it's still an angler favorite goes to show how effective it can be.
The Zara Spook comes in a few different sizes, one of which is around 8 inches, but the one you will want to use for peacock bass is the 4.5" version.
Giving the Zara Spook small taps while creating slack in-between taps will make the bait zig and zag in the water like a fish swimming on the surface; this is also known as a walk-the-dog style of topwater lure.
Even though it's been around forever, the Zara spook of today has gotten a serious facelift in terms of color patterns, and these topwater plugs feature some stellar paint jobs.
Throw this thing around the shallow cover and hang on!
Many anglers in the fishing world love buzzbaits, and they are an incredibly versatile topwater lure that can work through the thickest of cover and slop.
The Tri-wing by Strike King is a unique design and features three blades on the prop instead of the standard two-blade design.
The triple-blade design allows you to retrieve the bait at slower speeds compared to standard buzzbaits while displacing a large amount of water and having that great squeaking sound.
The Tri-wing comes with high-quality replaceable silicone skirts and three ever-popular colors to choose from, including chartreuse, black and blue, and glitter white.
Crankbaits and Jerkbaits
The Rattlin' Rap is another lure that is an angler favorite and does a great job at triggering hard fighting peacock bass to strike with its' tight and rapid wobbling action.
The bait is also very loud thanks to the internal rattles that Rapala builds into the crankbait. This rattle also calls to fish far and wide and is particularly effective in water with low clarity.
Since the bait is made by the world-renowned lure manufacturer Rapala, you have more colors to choose from than you can shake a stick at.
Coming from Brazil, a Mecca for butterfly peacock bass fishing, the Borboleta Perversa twitch lure has an action that screams eat me.
Straight retrieves with rapid rod taps will give this lure a crazy and erratic action that convincingly mimics a fleeing baitfish.
Abrupt hard taps coupled with pauses imitate a wounded or stressed baitfish and lead to explosive reaction strikes.
There is no lip on these lures, and the lure comes with two single hooks instead of treble hooks. This hook arrangement is advantageous when fishing in the heavy cover areas that peacock bass prefers.
Truscend is one of the new kids on the fishing block, but their paddle tail swimbaits have become incredibly popular and have some pretty cool features.
The hook on the Truscend swimbait is a double hook design with two sets of treble hooks, and Truscend has incorporated a small magnet to keep the hook in place while in use, with both points of the double hook sitting in the optimum position for hooking.
The paddle tail action on this lure is nothing to shake a stick at, and it looks pretty good, with what appears to be a good combination of wobble and kick.
Swimbaits
The jointed swimbaits by Truscend are just as effective as their paddle tail brothers in the right conditions, and there's a variety of designs in this jointed lure lineup.
There are both lipped and lipless swimbait offerings, and for peacock bass and the heavy cover areas you would be fishing, I would recommend the lipless style lures over the lipped, but at the end of the day, that's a decision for you to make.
The body styles of these lures also vary from shad shapes, panfish shapes, and a few other shapes, some of which even come with lifelike bristletails.
The color patterns of these lures are great, with many of the lures featuring ultra-realistic photo finishes.
Jigs like the Kmucutie bucktail jig are great for fishing super tight areas and thick cover where other bait simply can't go.
Fishing directly in this tight cover is typically necessary if the fish are less active, and with a bucktail jig you can route them out.
The jigs feature a 5/0 stainless steel hook, and all of the bucktail jigs are hand-tied and look very lifelike in the water, which is a great attractant for any peacock bass.
Jigs and Tubes
Swim jigs are awesome baits to fish for peacock bass in heavy cover due to being virtually weed and snag-proof.
6th Sense swim jigs are about as good as they come in terms of a high-quality swim jigs.
The jigs have an ultra-realistic head, lifelike eyes, and some amazing color patterns with premium silicone skirting.
The head design of the Divine swim jig has a keel weight system that gives the bait a secondary swimming action and allows for skipping the jig under covers like branches, trees, and docks.
The amount of awesome color patterns available from 6th Sense is impressive and are some of the best-looking silicone-skirted jigs I have seen.
Thow on a paddle tail swimbait trailer or a curly tail trailer to the screw-on keeper and hang on.
Flies
Fly fishing is a popular and effective way to target peacock bass in South Florida and Brazil, and Latin America. We’ve gone with two topwater flies, but you can also catch peacocks with large streamers too.
The Dahlberg diver is a great fly to use when fishing for peacock bass.
Running on top of the water and just below the surface, the Dahlberg diver will come alive when stripping the lure through the water.
The Dahlberg diver simulates one of the favorite meals of peacock bass, a frog, and these will also work great for a wide variety of other predatory species.
The bass popper by wild water does a great job and throwing water around on the surface, and the popper also casts well on the fly.
The popper itself is made from lightweight balsa wood. They feature super durable paint jobs that look pretty awesome and come in various sizes.
Final Thoughts on Best Lures for Peacock Bass
Peacock bass put up a serious fight and are well known for explosive strikes, especially on topwater. The fish just looks cool, and when you combine all these attributes, it’s no surprise that the fish has been growing rapidly in popularity among anglers.
