When my guide for the week, Raphael Valenzuela, looked at the Luhr-Jensen "Wood Chopper" that I proudly removed from my tackle box, he shook his head and pointing to my lure he declared, "This is a problem".

This is a 12-pound male with the classic hump on top of his head.

After my thorough research, I was not mentally prepared to be rebuffed, upon pulling out what I was sure was the best lure to use. Baffled, I watched as he produced a Leatherman and promptly removed the front propeller. After reassembling it, he tied it onto my waiting Ripcord, and handed it back with words of approval and encouragement, "no problem now".

I wasn't too happy about having my fine, new lure altered, however, after a few retrievals under his tutelage, I realized why the front propeller was a problem - with this particular technique. When fishing for peacocks, the more noise you make the better it works. Violent jerks of the lure produce tremendous amounts of splashing, which in turn produce explosive surface strikes in short order. When you pull the Wood Chopper hard, it sometimes overruns the line, which becomes entangled in the front hook. With the standard front propeller in place, it would have taken excessive amounts of time to keep it untangled. As it was, on the average of one-in-ten casts, the lure had to be adjusted for hooks that became ensnarled with each other, or the line. The trade-off for the extra work, was some very exciting surface action.

Read the entire article on Peacock Bass, Tactics and Strategy.