Florida and Deep South bassin

[VAfishin4me]

I was just curious to hear from you Floridians and others who live down there about the fishing. Do the bass bite the same there all year round? Is spawn time different? I live in Virginia, so I still fish in the winter, but the fishing is much slower and obviously different baits are needed. I guess I am basically asking what types of seasonal fishing patterns do you guys see there?

[central_fl_fishin]

For me it depends on where I go.  On the shallower lakes I catch them pretty much the same way all year.  On the St. Johns and some of the deeper lakes I switch up to diving cranks and jigs.  Spinners seem to work for me year round down here too.  Fishing in the dense pads seems to be more of a summer/springtime producer as well.

[SirSnookalot]

In south Florida the bass bite is slower in the summer, they are really turning on right now.  Works great, summer is good inshore fishing in the ocean or ICW and slows down about now to do some bass & peacock fishing.  My line is in the water year round.

[Shane Procell]

IMO. Florida bass fishing is best broken up in regions. Each region is different. I fish the as far south as you can get(very tropical). My fishing success has a lot to do with the water levels. Sept and Oct we get a lot of water coming from the the kissimmee valley through lake okeechobee pushing bass out onto the sawgrass flats and into the cypress heads. The bass are difficult to find unless you are in an airboat. Nov through feb can be pretty good but a few good cold fronts can knock a bite down pretty quick or kill it all together. Bassing March through August are world class! I'am sure other regions like lake okeechobee are different.

[Catt]

Eastern Texas Western Louisiana depending on severity of frontal conditions

Mid January February: Pre-spawn

Late February Early May: Spawn

[salmicropterus]

IMO. Florida bass fishing is best broken up in regions. Each region is different. I fish the as far south as you can get(very tropical). My fishing success has a lot to do with the water levels. Sept and Oct we get a lot of water coming from the the kissimmee valley through lake okeechobee pushing bass out onto the sawgrass flats and into the cypress heads. The bass are difficult to find unless you are in an airboat. Nov through feb can be pretty good but a few good cold fronts can knock a bite down pretty quick or kill it all together. Bassing March through August are world class! I'am sure other regions like lake okeechobee are different.

I couldn't agree more. My area is Toho south to the Everglades. The fish are moving based on water level. For example, the water at Okeechobee has come down about a foot since its peak in September. Already fish that were in 2' of water then and back in the grass, some of them have moved out due to the water getting too skinny and that will continue as the water comes down more. Before that, in April, May and June earlier this year before the lake came up, they were in open water and outer grass edges. Same with the Eveglades and what we call the "flats" or marsh areas-water level is very important. The other big thing is  the pre, the  spawn and the  post. However, and a big however, is that most of the bass come up in stages so they are not ever "all" on the beds or in pre or post spawn patterns.  Some are already on the beds down south and at "O" but there will be cadres coming up over as much a time as the next 4-5 months, thus from Nov to April or even May, there is some percentage of fish simultaneously in  the pre, the spawn and the post spawn periods. That is one of the things that can make fishing here difficult (maybe just for me LOL)-they are more difficult to pattern as they can be almost anywhere at any time.

[RoLo]

Between the Panhandle and the Keys, the state of Florida spans a distance of about 400 miles.

For this reason, I normally specify central Florida when making a Florida-related post, which lies in the subtropical zone.

Similar to New Jersey where we used to live, the bass fishing in central Florida undergoes ALL the seasonal periods.

Mother Nature took care of the climatic differences ions ago, when she created northern-strain and Florida-strain bass.

Northern-strain bass respond more negatively to the summer doldrums, while Florida-strain bass

perform extremely well in water between 75 and 85 degrees. On the contrary, Florida-strain bass (and the intergrades in Florida)

respond more negatively to cold fronts. We've lived in Florida since 1998, and in our experience the slowest bass fishing of the year

is during the winter, especially the months of December and January.

Due to Florida's moderate climate, the transition between pre-spawn, spawn and post-spawn is obscure and undefined.

Happily, this causes a generous overlap in the three spawning phases, as a result, the "trophy season" in central Florida

lasts about three months. It normally extends from around New Years Day to around April Fools Day (Jan Feb Mar).

While the average size of bass tends to decline after April 1st, the hottest fishing of the year is about to begin.

In our experience, the months of April and May provide the best bass fishing activity in central Florida,

and this year it didn't slow down until June 20th. In addition, the April/May post-spawn period

usually provides the best topwater bite of the year, followed by another topwater bite in fall.

So when ya cum'n down?

Roger

[ABLE2DISABLE1]

I personally start looking in late November to first of June.The rule of thumb is Feb to April pre, spawn post as well; but different areas as the big O to north Florida are extremely different in the seasonal spawning periods of bass.Not counting on different cycles through out Florida.Their are several females that will spawn 2-3 even 4 times into a given season. Early spawn, late spawn, it depends on the body of water ,location ,temperature ,and weather conditions in the place you are fishing.

[Raul]

Uhhhhhh, you Texan and Floridans from my point of view are ....... up north  :-?

But I agree, summer is not the best time for bassin, down here it rains all summer long and when it don 't rain it 's sunny, muggy and purty darn HOT !  , lakes turn into either mud or pea soup.

Best seasons are very late winter-early spring ( spawn in late feb Feb/March ) and fall, winter fishing is good but nowhere near those two seasons.

[WRB]

Between the Panhandle and the Keys, the state of Florida spans a distance of about 400 miles.

For this reason, I normally specify central Florida when making a Florida-related post, which lies in the subtropical zone.

Similar to New Jersey where we used to live, the bass fishing in central Florida undergoes ALL the seasonal periods.

Mother Nature took care of the climatic differences ions ago, when she created northern-strain and Florida-strain bass.

Northern-strain bass respond more negatively to the summer doldrums, while Florida-strain bass

perform extremely well in water between 75 and 85 degrees. On the contrary, Florida-strain bass (and the intergrades in Florida)

respond more negatively to cold fronts. We've lived in Florida since 1998, and in our experience the slowest bass fishing of the year

is during the winter, especially the months of December and January.

Due to Florida's moderate climate, the transition between pre-spawn, spawn and post-spawn is obscure and undefined.

Happily, this causes a generous overlap in the three spawning phases, as a result, the "trophy season" in central Florida

lasts about three months. It normally extends from around New Years Day to around April Fools Day (Jan Feb Mar).

While the average size of bass tends to decline after April 1st, the hottest fishing of the year is about to begin.

In our experience, the months of April and May provide the best bass fishing activity in central Florida,

and this year it didn't slow down until June 20th. In addition, the April/May post-spawn period

usually provides the best topwater bite of the year, followed by another topwater bite in fall.

So when ya cum'n down?

Roger

It's sounds like SoCal is very similar to central FL. CA is nearly 1,000 miles north to south and like FL the climate varies significantly at point conception, about the middle of the state where the southern Humboldt current meets the Alaskan current.

The FLMB have been planted throughout the state, so we have a mix of NLMB, FLMB, spotted bass and smallmouths. The largemouths preferring warmer water areas, the spots and smallmouth tend to prefer cooler water by a few degrees.

Cold fronts, the bass tend to go deeper to avoid the affects, with the exception of the delta area, where they go into cover.

It's been my experience bass are bass everywhere and adjust to the available prey and ecosystems.

WRB

[etommy28]

personally i speed up in the spring and fall. but another major issue we run in to is fronts effect the bite so bad on the shallow body of waters. I fish the st johns a lot. i move deeper when some thing happens with the weather or tempature. I believe you dont have to change what you do, but i do.