Florida Freshwater Fishing

Freshwater fishing in Florida is a time proven recreational enjoyment and for some people, a supplemental food source. I grew up a poor boy and fishing was a necessary process to supplement our meager diets. If you didn't catch anything then you often had little or nothing to eat that day so learning how to fish for food taught me some good methods. Most fishing nowadays is based on hyper marketing products or tournament fishing and I always am amazed at how much junk and methods that are social media hyped. 

My dad ran a fish camp in central Florida for a couple of decades starting in the 20's and we also managed one for a few years on the Clermont chain of lakes. I was guiding people when I was 11 years old as we rented 14 foot stumpknocker style fiberglass boats with 5hp Johnson outboards. On weekends I'd make 2 excursions a day as well as cleaning, fueling and maintaining the boats and fishing gear. Our main clientele were retired people from up north that just wanted to have a good time. We would keep a few of the caught fish and then clean and cook them along with some grits, tomatoes with okra and cornbread, something these sort of people had never experienced. Needless to say my old ma could put a smile on their face and they always came back for more.

There are 2 main categories for freshwater fishing in Florida and that is trophy fishing and supplemental food fishing. Also, there are still a few people like myself that fishes for the peace and relaxation that it brings. I don't keep anything other than an occasional few for some friends that love to eat fresh fish but are unable to fish any longer. 

In the last 30 or so years trophy fishing has become a big deal in Florida with bass fishing being the big draw. As an old cracker raised fishing, I laugh at the 6 figure boats, electronics and multi thousand dollar rod/reel rigs these guys use to catch a bass. On a bad day, I can catch more bass in a few hours than these guys catch the whole tournament. So why don't I pro fish, you may ask? Simple, I don't like the process and how the emphasis is on money with little regards for the environment or local fisherman. All the equipment in the world can't make up for 60 years of experience plus the whole fun process of fishing is exploring and unexpected hookups...not GPS'ing to a honey hole at 90mph and use visible fish electronic detection.

We're going to divide fishing into 4 categories, bass, bream, specks (or crappie for the northerners) and catfish. These are by far the biggest fished for types so we'll divide them up and break them down.

Largemouth/Florida Bass

Most people don't realize that Florida has 2 main bass species, Largemouth and Florida bass. This is excerpted directly from the Florida FWC (Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission).

Florida bass has now been designated a separate species from largemouth bass. Florida bass and largemouth bass will be considered within the same species for regulations since they are visually indistinguishable.

Why was this name change made? Genetics studies confirmed what many anglers and biologists have believed for a long time – Florida bass are special! Recent research at Yale University using advanced genetic analysis has determined Florida bass to be its own species. The research also identified the range of Florida bass to be larger than once believed, including not only Florida, but also parts of Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina.

As these 2 types can't be distinguished from each other visibly we're simply going to refer to them both as 'bass' to avoid any confusion. Regulations for bass fishing are the same for both species so no worries there.

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BREAM

Bream fishing covers a lot of different types. Bream is what most southerners call small panfish and can include the most common such as bluegills, shellcrackers, redbellies, warmouths or stumpknockers. Based on your location and family you may call a stumpknocker a warmouth, a bluegill a shellcracker or any of a dozen different personal names. In the end, we just called them fish...as that was all that mattered.

Bream fishing is the easiest type of fishing as you don't need heavy, expensive tackle and they can be caught pretty much any place there is water. A lake, pond, canal, river, ditch, culvert or swamp are all habitats for bream. A simple cane pole with a small hook with pretty much any type of bait ranging from worms to bread. Crickets and grasshoppers work very well and are easy to catch yourself. If you're squeamish about live bait just pinch of a tiny piece of bread, roll it between your fingers for a bit until it compacts into a ball then thread it on the hook. 

Bream are very agressive and will attack anything that hits the water. I've caught bream 3 inches long on a 4 inch topwater plug.