Peacock Bass - Where To Find Them?

[FL_Sharpshooter]

Say I wanted to catch my first peacock bass, how far would I have to travel to ensure that I do? I live in Lehigh Acres, which is about 25 mins from Labelle and 35ish mins. from Ft. Myers. How far would I have to travel to see peas? Is there possibly a canal holding some farther south of me? I have not seen any out where I live, I don't think it's hot enough for them to survive.

[South FLA]

Far west Dade and Broward county has them, not sure about the west coast.

[evrgladesbasser]

I caught one about three weeks ago. It was my first one in the last two years, and it was in the aerojet canal which is like ten miles from Key Largo. Oh and it was tiny...

[SoFl-native]

Say I wanted to catch my first peacock bass, how far would I have to travel to ensure that I do? I live in Lehigh Acres, which is about 25 mins from Labelle and 35ish mins. from Ft. Myers. How far would I have to travel to see peas? Is there possibly a canal holding some farther south of me? I have not seen any out where I live, I don't think it's hot enough for them to survive.

If you want to make the trip... the c-100 in Dade county is a good bet.

[FL_Sharpshooter]

Seems like a lot of these areas are a good 2-1/2 hour drive away. What a bummer. What's the farthest north peacocks have been spotted?

[SoFl-native]

Spotty reports in Broward and isolated in PBC.

You can drive 1.5 hours and hope to get lucky with one or drive 2.5 hours and greatly improve your chances. The extra hour seems worth it to me.

C-100, Snapper Creek, or Airport lakes.

[GLADES]

I you want to catch peacocks, you have to make the trip to Miami.