Miami Peacock Bass Fishing
Fishing The Cutler Drain Canal
The Cutler Drain Canal (C-100 series) is made up of four sections (C-100, C-100A, C-100B, and C-100C), and includes 13.5 miles of navigable waters in southern Miami-Dade County between the cities of Kendall and Cutler Ridge. These canals were constructed in the mid-1900s by cutting into the coral rock substrate with large machines. The canals have near vertical edges, range in width from 30 to more than 80 feet, and average about 12 feet deep (except for C-100B which averages about five feet deep). The C-100A has two five-acre, sand-bottomed lakes that are 10 feet deep. This canal system has many forks, bends, and is lined with beautiful homes and parks making it an attractive and relaxing place to fish.
Cutler Drain Canal provides excellent fishing for butterfly peacock. Fallen trees, canal intersections, sharp bends, and dead ends are generally productive areas for catching most species of fish. Shoreline vegetation, rip-rap areas, residential seawalls, and shady areas associated with bridges and culverts also provide excellent places to fish. If there is a strong current in the main canal, spend more time fishing lateral canals and other areas that offer refuge from the current (e.g., cut-outs, bridge pilings, and the downstream side of spillways).
Fishing for butterfly peacock is best from March through May, but they are caught consistently throughout the year. Butterfly peacock feed only during daylight and normally close to shore, although schooling peacocks sometimes feed aggressively in open water. Butterfly peacock are abundant, average 13.9 inches (1.6 pounds), 23% of the harvestable fish are greater than 15 inches, and biologists have measured and released peacocks larger than 20 inches in this system.
Most butterfly peacock are caught on live bait or fast moving artificial lures and flies that imitate small fish. Cutler Drain Canal and other area canals receive a great deal of fishing pressure so we encourage anglers to release most, if not all of the butterfly peacock, largemouth bass, and snook they catch
Miami Peacock Bass
