I've been watching a lot of peacock fishin on tv and it looked to me like it was all topwater, they make special topwater lures just for peacocks because they will tear up normal stuff. The guys I saw were all using heavy bass gear with 80# braided lines. Using this they caught bass as big as they get (world record is 27 1/2 lbs. I hope your friend gets some, they look like a ton of fun and absolutely exploded on the topwater.
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wish i was fishin the umpqua