Fly and Functional Peacock Bass Art
I had so much fun writing about Cliff Outdoors fly boxes adorned with roosterfish that I’ve continued to spend hours upon hours combing through Instagram looking for more. Not surprisingly, a great number of angling artists have used these perfect palettes to paint or draw their favorite species.
Many of them have chosen peacock bass at their subjects. That makes sense, because not only are they beautiful, colorful and individually distinctive, but also because they fight like hell on the long rod. On our first time to the Amazon in November 2011, seven of eight members of our traveling party used conventional tackle and while we caught all of the teen-class fish, the one fly angler amongst us caught nearly as many fish as any two or three of us combined. I remember coming back to the houseboat after one tough day of fishing when Hanna and I had struggled to total 12 or 15 peacocks, and his guide reported that he’d caught nearly 50.
Clearly the fly guys love peacocks for the same reason us conventional types do – they live in beautiful places, grow big and eat on top. They may just have better ways of expressing their admiration with art, like these Cliff Boxes:
Ty Hallock once again hits it out of the park with this remarkably lifelike speckled three bar.
Blue Mountain Drift has a bubbly three bar.
BMD also has a Paca, which reminds me of my 21-pounder.
Drebitko Design once again shows up with a street art inspired version.
Captain Tyler Beck of Florida offers something similar, yet distinctive.
And of course Jeff Currier, a trendsetter in painted Cliff Boxes and fishing travel, has one of his own.
Reel_Mfr offers up one that’s doesn’t show a complete profile, but there’s no doubt it’s an acu.
And finally Bentley Art of Florida, who produces tons of cool peacock art on hats, canvas, boards and other media, comes through with a splashed-out fish of our dreams.
We may not be serious fly anglers yet, but we’re half tempted to invest in one of these simply to display it.
Which one is your favorite?
