The Spawn is on! This is the official start of the bass spawning season. Largemouth bass have feed up good the previous two months and have taken their place in the spawning areas to nest. Here in Florida we have a very great spawning season, starting in January and running into March and sometimes April. We have on rare occasion caught a bass from a bed as late as May!
This is our major spawn, as bass beds will be scattered all over our lakes in waters ranging from as shallow as a foot deep to sometimes twelve feet deep depending on the body of water you may be fishing on.
Wild shiners are usually the bait of choice, as bass will attack them if they get anywhere near the beds. Although wild shiners are not always required to catch these trophy bass, they can at times make things easier. Creature baits worked on beds holding bass can and will produce vicious strikes from big females, as they protect the nest. Numbers of bass caught will remain steady, but size will increase, as it is not uncommon to consistently catch bass from five to seven pounds on a daily basis, and here in Florida, especially during the spawn, any given cast can result in that trophy bass of ten pounds or more.
Lake Toho and Johns Lake are very well known for producing some amazing catches during the spawn, with five bass limits easily approaching 30 pounds during tournaments. This is probably one of our best and without a doubt one of the busiest months for bass fishing. So if your looking to fish, you may want to consider booking soon.
Bass fishing in Florida is usually great in the month of December. Bass are starting to feed up for the spawn. Cold fronts have started rolling through the state not only cooling off our air temperatures, but also our water temperatures. This will trigger bait fish, shad and wild shiners to bunch up, making the bass feeding frenzy some really exciting action to fish.
Spinner baits and blade baits, like the steel shad will also be very effective lures to use to catch schooling bass.
