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Suwannee Bass on
Florida's Wakulla River
Editor's note: GRF member Bill Bell went fishing on the
Wakulla River south of Tallahassee in early April of 2003. Here is his account
of the trip. For more pictures of the Wakulla and Suwannees (including some cool
black and whites, check out the Braggin' Board!)
The Suwannee bass is not native to the Wakulla River, but
is apparently thriving! If you want to tangle with one of these gorgeous fish in
Georgia, your best bet is the Ochlocknee River in South Georgia.
This weekend, I finally got a chance to fish
the Wakulla River that I have mentioned on the board. 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.
In addition to the Suwannee bass, the Wakulla also boasts
some fat, mean Florida-strain largemouths. There's a lot to be said for Florida
river fishing!
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.
We're not in Georgia anymore, Toto! Bill was able to snap
off a quick shot of these manatees on his Wakulla trip. What a cool trip!
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