As cold fronts become more frequent and sweep across much of the country, anglers increasingly begin thinking about traveling south for a few days of fishing. In the eastern part of the country, fishermen’s thoughts commonly turn to Florida and the Sunshine State’s big-bass-filled waters.
Hundreds of lakes throughout the Florida are loaded with bass, and fishing stays great throughout the winter because of the mild climate. Florida bass can be fickle, and even mild fronts will affect the fishing; however, an angler can catch fish on a Smithwick Devil’s Horse on Christmas day if conditions are good (which they often are.)
An added appeal, of course, is that bass grow to heavyweight proportions in Florida. With native Florida-strain fish, shiner-rich waters and a year-round growing season, virtually any lake in the Sunshine State is prone to produce at least an occasional double-digit weight largemouth.
The biggest challenge about fishing Florida lakes is that everything looks like it should hold bass. A 10,000-acre is apt to average 5 feet in depth and have vegetation from shore to shore.
Many lakes lack significant bottom structure to define hotpots and are bounded with broad bands of cypress or cattails.
Finding fish typically doesn’t begin with studying lake maps. Instead, anglers simply begin fishing, working quickly and covering a lot of water, whether by skimming a YUM BuzzFrog or BOOYAH Swim'n Jig over grass or swimming a Heddon Swim’n Image through open water.
When a bass does hit or reveals itself by busting baitfish, it’s time to slow down. Florida bass commonly congregate, so where there is one, there may be many. A veteran angler will broaden his arsenal at this point, working edges with a Devil’s Horse, bouncing a Texas-rigged YUM Ribbontail along the bottom or punching a Wooly Hawgcraw into a mat of thick vegetation.
Florida fishing also calls for a lot of pitchin’ and flippin’, both to pockets in cattail banks and into holes in grass mats, and anglers commonly have to do their searching with a flippin’ stick. Finding concentrations of fish in endless-seeming mats calls for making short accurate pitches to targeted spots and keeping the boat moving.
Good mat punchers are highly skilled at picking out distinctions in massive blankets of vegetation. They spot holes, points and thin and thick spots that invite pitches, and they pick out the things that set apart the spots that produce bass, which might be a combination of two types of grass, slightly greener areas or thin spots caused by an extra foot of depth.
Florida days sometimes start slowly because anglers have to do a lot of searching. However, once they locate a few groups of fish and/or figure out the specific types of spots the most bass are using, the action can be sizzling, which is inviting as winter sets in over most of the nation.
For information on some of the best fishing in Florida, call the Kissimmee Convention and Visitors Bureau at (800) 831-1844 or check out www.floridakiss.com.