Edited by: Kenneth Reaves
Reviewed by: Michael DarmontLast Update:
The Rundown
Best For Most Anglers: Sea Striker PE34W6 Popeye Bucktail Jigs (Click to View)
“Bucktail jigs are a great way to mimic the small darting minnows that peacock bass love to feed on. This one from SeaStriker is the perfect size and with minor improvements can be the absolute top peacock bass lure.”
Best Premium Option: Borboleta Perversa Subsurface Twitch Bait (Click to View)
“The Borboletta Perversa is a Brazillian manufactured lure specifically made for peacock bass. It’s got a ridiculously erratic action and is made to be retrieved as fast as you humanly can.”
Best Budget Option: Yo-Zuri Crystal 3D Minnow Floating Lure (Click to View)
“The Yo-Zuri Crystal 3D Minnow may be thought of as a saltwater lure but boy does it work on peacock bass.”
Peacock bass is a beautiful and aggressive game fish mostly targeted in Florida, Panama, and Brazil. Famous for their aggressive feeding habits, voracious appetite, and sometimes even toothy neighbors, if you want to successfully target peacock bass you’re going to need the right lures.
Durability is important because of how hard peacock bass hit your lure and since it will need to stand up to the piranha and other toothy fish inhabiting the South and Central American waters the peacock bass live in. You also want a fast-moving, twitchy-action lure with simple retrieval.
There are tons of lures on the market for catching bass, but not everything is effective or a good die to use for peacock bass fishing. We’ve put together this shortlist so you can make an informed choice in purchasing lures for peacock bass.
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Table of Contents
Best Peacock Bass Lures of 2021
Here’s our shortlist of the best lures for peacock bass:
- Best For Most Anglers: Sea Striker PE34W6 Popeye Bucktail Jigs
- Best Premium Option: Borboleta Perversa Subsurface Twitch Bait
- Best Budget Option: Yo-Zuri Crystal 3D Minnow Floating Lure
- Best Topwater: Heddon Baby Torpedo
- Best Soft Plastic: TRUSCEND Fishing Lures, Shad Soft Swimbaits
Sea Striker PE34W6 Popeye Bucktail Jigs
Best Overall: The ultimate minnow mimic and a reliably fantastic peacock bass lure.
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KEY FEATURES
- Huge casting distance
- Easy to keep from tangling around the structure
- Potentially outfishes other lures
Bucktail jigs are a great way to mimic the small darting minnows that peacock bass love to feed on. This one from Sea Striker is the perfect size, and with minor improvements can be the absolute top peacock bass lure. It’s a perfect choice for any fishermen, whether you’re fishing the Amazon or South Florida.
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Lure Details
Go for a 1⁄2 ounce lure in white when picking your jig. It’s also recommended to further enhance your lure by extending the length from 3 to 6 inches by adding another 3-inch section of hair. It increases the profile size of your lure and makes it harder for peacock bass to resist. Take a short length of 150-pound monofilament and tie a 3-inch bunch of hair to the end of it, then attach it to the jig head’s hook to achieve the perfect peacock bass lure.
Best Ways to Use It
A quick jerking retrieve is going to work best. You can pull in a straight line and cover a lot of water if you like, or try to add in some side-to-side action. Don’t be afraid to pull it over subsurface logs and rocks, as the upwards-facing hook will have a hard time getting snagged on any structure.
Borboleta Perversa Subsurface Twitch Bait
Best Premium Option: Erratic darting and rolling motion that peacock bass love.
Check Price on Amazon
KEY FEATURES
- Superstrong hooks that won’t need to be swapped out
- A ridiculous amount of action
- The faster the retrieve the more erratic the lure behavior.
The Borboleta Perversa Subsurface Twitch Bait is a Brazillian manufactured lure specifically made for peacock bass. It’s got a ridiculously erratic action and is made to be retrieved as fast as you humanly can. Overall, it’s a great peacock bass lure that will consistently catch fish and stand up to brutal strikes from toothy fish.
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Lure Details
The 4-inch lure has a balanced weight and can cast considerable distances. The hard body is incredibly durable and holds up against toothy fresh and saltwater fish. The trebles are extra strong and you shouldn’t have to worry about replacing them as well.
Best Ways to Use It
The faster retrieval the better with this lure. You’ll definitely want to focus less on technique and more on the speed with this one. You can use it in Amazonian waters without fear of toothy fish, but it can also be an effective saltwater twitch bait as well, making it a great choice for fishermen who do both.
Yo-Zuri Crystal 3D Minnow Floating Lure
Best Budget Option: Brilliant flash and luster with a swift dating action to entice the peacocks.
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KEY FEATURES
- Brilliantly flashing internal foil
- Flashes even when scratched up
- Quick, darting action and fast retrieval rate
The Yo-Zuri Crystal 3D Minnow may be thought of as a saltwater lure but boy does it work on peacock bass. The floating lure dives a bit on retrieval to reach subsurface levels peacock bass prefer to feed in, has a darting action, and can be worked in a number of ways. This is a great option for any fishermen but especially those wanting to mix up their retrieval to maximize their time.
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Lure Details
Crystal minnows are clear with an internal foil that provides their pattern and flash. This means that even if the lure is scratched up, it’ll still shine brilliantly underwater. The 4 ⅜ inch version is the best choice for peacock bass. The hooks on this lure are also incredibly strong but can be changed out easily with a set of split ring pliers.
Best Ways to Use It
This lure is versatile in its retrieval, in that you can work it a few ways. A walk-the-dog action does really well at mimicking a wounded baitfish on the surface, while a straight or side-to-side retrieval gives you a very responsive dating action.
Heddon Baby Torpedo
Best Topwater: Huge amounts of noise and power in a tiny package.
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KEY FEATURES
- Dual hook design is great for snagging bass
- The back propeller churns up water and makes a great wake
- Classic walk-the-dog action
Typically, topwater lures aren’t the best option for peacock bass, but they can be used if they’re your go-to. The Heddon Baby Torpedo is going to be your best bet with its classic action, a huge amount of noise, and ideal weight for lighter lines. When it comes to topwater lures for huge peacock bass, you can’t find a better lure out there.
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Lure Details
The lure makes a ton of noise on the surface mimicking baitfish and frogs as it churns up the water. It has a dual hook setup and propeller tail that give it both durability and a classic action. At 4.5 inches, it’s the perfect size for peacock bass to target.
Best Ways to Use It
The best option here is a classic walk-the-dog action. If you’re well versed in the technique try to speed it up a bit to help entice peacocks, but focus more on technique than the raw speed with this lure.
TRUSCEND Fishing Lures, Shad Soft Swimbaits
Best Soft Plastic: Highly effective peacock bass lure, when you can get away with it.
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KEY FEATURES
- Live bait mimic with a soft body
- Pre-rigged and ready to fish
- Biodegradable in case you lose the lure
Peacock bass loves soft plastics that aren’t worms, and they do really well at catching the fish. The problem is that the toothy neighbors like piranha absolutely tear up and bite through soft plastics, making them an expensive choice and a waste of a lure in the Amazon. If you are fishing in Florida or there aren’t piranha in the area, then these swimbaits from TRUSCEND are an excellent peacock bass lure.
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Lure Details
These swimbaits are really good at mimicking live bait, which is peacock bass’ preferred food. The soft bodies are biodegradable, so if the lure is bitten off or you lose it, it’ll decay without interfering with the environment too much. The extra-sharp double hook gives you two points of contact when the fish strikes, helping your chances of snagging the fish properly.
Best Ways to Use It
Work the lure quickly with quick rod twitches and fast retrieval. Make sure you give it time to sink and don’t go too fast as to skirt it across the surface. Fish it around subsurface logs, rock piles, and underneath overhanging trees where the water is shaded to help find the big peacock bass.
Questions & Answers
Why not use live bait?
Peacock bass typically swallows live baits whole before the hook is set, resulting in a lot of gut and gill hooks. Since most peacock bass caught are released, this is a huge problem. For the most part, people aren’t eating the fish and choose to release them, but the survival rate for gut and gill hooked fish is incredibly low. This has led to live bait being banned in many peacock bass fisheries.
Why are topwaters generally not used?
Most peacock basses feed subsurface and won’t eat or take lures at the surface. In reality, only 5% of peacock bass feed on the surface, with 95% preferring to feed lower in the water column. Big bass will take baits off the surface, but with numbers like that topwaters are just simply less effective than other types of lures.