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Suwannee Bass (and more) on the
Wakulla River
Editor's
note: Native Floridian Bill Bell went fishing on the Wakulla River
south of Tallahassee in early April of 2003. Here is his account of
the trip.
Though not native to the Wakulla River, the Suwannee bass appear to
be thriving! These guys don't get real big but make up for their
lack of size with lots of attitude! Suwannees are native to the
Suwannee, Santa Fe, and Withlacoochee Rivers in northern Florida as
well as the Ochlocknee in the panhandle.
This weekend, I finally got a chance to fish
the Wakulla River. The river rises from a massive spring just south
of Tallahassee, Florida and flows a short distance to the coast. It
is crystal clear and loaded with vegetation, wildlife and fish. I
canoed and fished the river quite a bit growing up (it was strictly
a largemouth fishery then) but haven't been back in a while.
Recently I have heard reports of a developing Suwannee bass fishery
there so I decided to check it out.
My friend Bernie and I arrived at the upper access off of
Highway 365 around 7:30 am. The air was chilly and the springfed 70
degree water created a layer of fog over the river. We put in and
pushed off downriver. The upper section of the river is broad,
shallow, and braided. The bottom is a mixture of limestone gravel
and sand with eelgrass, elodea, and pickerelweed along the banks.
There are a number of cypress trees and blowdowns along the banks
that break the current. The water is so clear that it is almost
transparent, and there are plenty of largemouth, Suwannees,
redbreast, stumpknockers, suckers, mudfish, and even saltwater
visitors like sheepshead and mullet.
We drifted a while before Bernie hooked his first river bass of the
year, and it was a nice one. The fat largemouth looked to be fresh
off the bed and she must have been hungry to eat the little beetle
spin he was throwing. She was one of the larger river largemouths I
have seen and a heck of a good start to the day. I continued to
throw a small crankbait and a popper as we moved downstream with no
success. Finally, in a little slough off the main channel, I found a
taker. I flipped the popper near a fallen cypress and saw a wake
streak out from the bank. The bass exploded on the popper and began
a short, stubborn fight just like a shoalie or smallmouth. I was
just about to lip my first Suwannee when it jumped and threw the
hook. I don't get very upset about losing fish, but this was pretty
bad.
Whoa
Nellie! The Wakulla also sports a few nice traditional bass of the
largemouth variety!
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We continued
fishing for an hour or so, catching lots of bream and running
into a pod of 5 manatees moving upriver (these guys are
unbelievably huge, nearly the length of my kayak at 11 or 12
feet, and are an incredible sight). The sun was a little higher
and I was able to see a few fat Suwannees holding in the
current. They didn't seem to care for my crawfish crankbaits or
jigs so I decided to improvise. Even though I have heard they
don't care for plastic worms, I tried a brown and orange 4"
finesse Zoom on a 1/16 oz Slider weedless head. This changed my
luck immediately. I saw a sandy patch behind a weedbed with a
Suwannee over it and pitched the worm to it. The fish moved over
and sucked in the worm and I set the hook. I managed to get this
fish to the boat and take pictures. The bass was about 13" and
looked a bit like a redeye or a smallmouth. The body was dark
and the belly and lower fins were mottled gray like a
smallmouth. The head of the fish was very distinct and had an
incredible turquoise hue that didn't show up very well in the
pictures. The dorsal fin was connected with no notch and looked
very much like a smallie. I was surprised at how large the
scales were and how deep-bodied the fish was in general.
Once I figured out the pattern, I started to
catch them regularly. There is tremendous variation in the
coloration, with some fish looking like brilliantly colored
largemouths with red eyes and a tiny mouth and other fish
looking dark and more like a smallie or redeye. I think there
may be some hybridization going on but that's just a guess. I
caught fish over 14" and saw 2 fish that were pushing 3 pounds.
I also was able to observe several spawning pairs of Suwannees
(I caught a couple of spawners but decided not to bother the
rest) in the clear water. The male and female are generally the
same size, unlike most largemouth I have observed, and the beds
are much more irregular and inconspicuous. They seem to like to
place the beds under logs and in cover close to the main river
channel. The beds tend to be a little deeper than the largemouth
bed in the same river. The crystal clear water allows you to
really observe their behavior and reactions...it is a neat spot
to fish.
I ended the day with a dozen Suwannees and 6 or 7 largemouth
in addition to redbreast and stumpknocker. No trophies, although
my buddy caught a giant largemouth and we saw many more big ones
in the river. In addition to the manatees, we saw gators, huge
schools of giant gar, several 10 pound plus mudfish (I hooked
one which promptly snapped me off), and plenty of birds
including an aerial fight between a bald eagle and an osprey. It
is a beautiful place and a definite change of pace from our
rivers up here. The whole area has a tropical feel (they filmed
a Tarzan movie on the river) and the fertility of the springfed
river has to be seen to be believed. |
Bill
was quick with the camera and was able to get a shot of this pod of
manatees as they meandered past. |
