About Us

Let Peacock Bass Adventures help you plan the
peacock bass adventure of a lifetime!

Peacock Bass Adventures co-founders Gary Laden and Wayne Hockmeyer do not obtain their information about the destinations they represent for their clients by reading slick brochures or watching a videos. They've fished extensively throughout the Amazon and Orinoco watersheds of South America for 20 years and have accumulated more than 55 trips to Brazil and South America in search of trophy peacock bass.  They have a personal relationship with the lodge owners, managers and guides and get detailed briefings on almost a daily basis regarding weather and fishing conditions. 

Gary Laden

With over 50 cumulative fishing trips to South America, author of the book "The Complete Guide to Peacock Bass," Gary Laden is without question one of the most knowledgeable experts in the world when it comes to peacock bass and the great rivers of South America. Gary has had the fortunate pleasure to introduce former United States presidents George Bush and Jimmy Carter and their friends and families to peacock bass fishing.  Gary has also introduced such angling legends as Flip Pallot, Babe Winkelman and Trevor Gowdy to peacock bass fishing.   

He is a talented author, lecturer and teacher. He currently is a world record holder for both the International Game Fish Association and the National Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame. His most memorable accomplishment as far as peacock bass fishing is concerned is landing a 15 lb speckled peacock on 4-lb line using no leader.

Wayne Hockmeyer

Wayne Hockmeyer has spent his entire life in the outdoors, starting as a licensed commercial float plane pilot and flying instructor in Canada in the late sixties. In 1976 he founded Northern Outdoors, a company that specialized in providing guided outdoor recreation trips in the State of Maine. During the next 25 years, Northern Outdoors became one of the largest wilderness outfitters in the world.

In the early nineties Wayne entered tournament fishing contests in Maine and Eastern Canada. Looking for an edge against other competitors, Wayne began experimenting with a new concept for a fishing lure. The lure was the Banjo Minnow, which led to his great success as a winning tournament fisherman and eventually to a very successful TV infomercial.

Instead of hiring a commercial film crew, Wayne choose to get the fishing footage himself and traveled all over the United States, Canada, Central America, the Caribbean and South America to demonstrate the effectiveness of the Banjo Minnow to catch all species of fish. His travels to capture exciting footage brought him in contact with a very large number of fishing outfitters and exotic locations. As a hunting and fishing outfitter himself, Wayne knew that all outfitters promise outstanding fishing and great service; but what you get is not always what is promised. Sometimes its just not a very good location (few fish), sometimes the management and/or guides just don’t care, sometimes the weather or conditions just go against your trip. There is nothing worse than to plan a trip a long time in advance, take time off, travel long distances, anticipate success and then none of your dream comes true. However, as Wayne says, “It happens all the time”.

As the staff at Northern Outdoors grew to over 125 full and part time people and 30,000 plus guests a year, Wayne spent more and more time in the office than guiding on the water and in the woods. For Wayne personally, his outdoor company had become an indoor business. In 2003, Wayne sold his interest in Northern Outdoors and moved to Florida with the idea of fishing more and working less.

In 2004 Wayne was invited to fish for peacock bass in South America by Dr. Gary Laden, a man who had taken over 50 trips for peacock bass on many different tropical rivers with many different outfitters. He promised Wayne outstanding fishing and a clean well-run operation. Wayne just wanted to prove the Banjo Minnow would be an outstanding peacock lure and be able to shoot footage for a new infomercial to prove it. The result of that trip was the formation of a partnership between Gary and Wayne called Peacock Bass Adventures, a company to promote and sell the best peacock bass fishing in the world.

“The trip was absolutely one of the best fishing trips in my life. The Peacock Bass itself exceeded all my expectations, the guides worked as hard or harder than any guides I had ever fished with, the location was exotic and beautiful, the accommodations and food was everything a remote location could provide. I was hooked. I grew up fishing for largemouth and smallmouth bass; the South American Peacock is just a super sized, super aggressive, harder fighting edition, not to mention, a far more colorful fish than it’s northern relatives. You expect to catch at least a 10-pounder everyday and are disappointed if you don’t catch one nearer to 20lbs. Not only do I want to promote this wonderful fish, but I want to return as a host, taking other fisherman to the best of the best outfitter lodges who operate on remote jungle rivers and to be honest, I love to prove to fellow anglers that the Banjo Minnow, in water with reasonable visibility, will out fish any other type of lure they have in their tackle box.

To me, Peacock Bass Fishing Adventures is more of a hobby and a passion than a business, it is a part of my life, a passport to some of the best fishing on the planet. Hosting trips is a pleasure to me, not work, and showing up at the same lodge with you is my guarantee that I believe the promises made by Peacock Bass Fishing Adventures.

For more information about the Banjo Minnow and Wayne Hockmeyer visit:

• www.banjominnow.com

• www.captainoutdoors.com
  

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