Fishing Headwaters Lake, FL

Highly recommended. Spent 2 days fishing there this week and came away pretty amazed. Between the 3 of us on the boat, we caught 45 fish over about 10 hours of fishing, using shiners. We hooked up with but lost about as many, but at least there was plenty of action.

Tons of fish in the lake, and lots of big ones. Our largest bass landed was 7 pounds, but most were in the 3-5 pound range. Had close calls with a couple true monsters, but they got off the line. The state requires you to use circle hooks with live bait, so getting a good hook-set can be tricky on a bass.

The bass are the biggest draw to the lake, for good reason, but we landed some really nice crappie as well, 12-13 inches. Lots of big tilapia, mud fish, and gar, if you’re into that kind of thing.

The whole lake is a maze of canals, deep pits, open water, tons of vegetation and structure. The state did a helluva job designing it. It was opened to the public about a decade ago, but in 30 years, once all the cypress they planted mature, it’ll be even more impressive.