Hannon says that most of your typical flats fishing equipment should work just fine and, "with any kind of trailerable boat, decent tackle and reasonable fishing skills, you should do just fine." While personally preferring soft jerk baits or tube jigs, he insists that most of your saltwater lures ‑‑ Spoons, jigs, topwalkers, crank baits or twitch plugs‑‑ are very capable bass catchers. "But remember, you’re going to have to work them all very much slower." As for freshwater fishing destinations, anglers really won’t have to travel very far from wherever you live in Florida. For example, Pinellas County anglers have convenient access to Lake Seminole, where you can land some decent size bass, flipping worms in the reeds. There’s also Lake Tarpon near Palm Harbor; the Hillsborough River between 40th and 50th street in Tampa, and Bradenton ’s Manatee and Parrish Lakes. Hannon highly recommends a visit to the Tsala Apopka chain, near Floral City and Inverness. This should put you into heavy duty bass action. On the other side of the state, the Kissimmee Chain in Osceola County is red hot right now. The lake itself is undergoing a restoration drawdown, which has concentrated the bass in more accessible, tighter quarters. Okay, once you launch the boat, where do you go from there? "If it were me, I’d head for the northwest corner of the lake," says Hannon. " That’s where it’s protected from any of the recent cold fronts where the water temperature should be at least 4‑degrees warmer." Avoid areas that have been sprayed, and search out quiet, still canals, pockets or coves with good sand bottom, plenty of structure, and a wide variety of vegetation.
And don't overlook the panfish. There are many species that are fun and easy to catch -- that will prove to provide some very tasty dinners.
One very important pit stop on your venture into the world of freshwater fishing would be a visit to a bait store near any lake you plan on visiting. The folks who operate these shops are almost always happy to let you know what currently going on -- where to fish and how -- supplying you with the kind of bait that you'll need to assure that your day on the lake will be productive So why not forget about all those snook, reds and trout this one weekend? Go on, give bass fishing a shot. Who knows, you might actually get to like it!
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