With grouper season closed in Tampa Bay, this fish is a ‘fun, quick and cheap thrill’

Freshwater, the final frontier?

Growing up as a saltwater-spoiled angler, I always looked at freshwater fishing as something people did just because they couldn’t saltwater fish.

I kind of still do, but in recent years I see now why fishing freshwater has appeal when it goes right. This past week, I got onto a topwater bass bite that I will not soon forget.

It started a few weeks ago. At a few freshwater ponds around my neighborhood, I started to notice a pattern. Cleaner water with not much rain allowed good visibility into the ponds and lakes.

Big fish along with smaller fish were lining the edges over beds, which to me meant a later spawn was in full swing. I was able to get a few smaller fish to bite but never a big one.

I began to study their habits on my walks along the banks. I would watch the fish as they stayed in the same areas day after day. If I walked close, they would swim to slightly deeper water, but keep an eye on their bed. After a bit, tilapia would move in, and lead the bass to aggressively push the tilapia out. This game of cat and mouse would continue along each bed.

What amazed me was that was the only pond I would see the behavior on. A separate pond, only a short distance away, had no fish on the banks, but when I would fish the middle I would be able to catch one or two quality largemouth fishing jigheads and soft plastics. Each pond seemed to have it’s own fish behavior.

As the water cooled following the last strong cold front, the fish on the banks got more stacked up. I attempted to coax them into eating on multiple occasions, but couldn’t find anything that would work. Lockjaw?

Bass fishing was supposed to be easy, I thought. That’s what my saltwater thinking told me.

A few days later, as the weather warmed, I ventured around during an early morning, seeing if a time change would make it different. I also changed baits, this time switching to a noisy topwater plug thinking the annoyance of the tilapia presence might make the bass more aggressive, not just because they want to eat, but because they want to keep any predators away from their hatchlings which I could now see.

I worked the topwater side to side “walking-the-dog” 10 feet off the shoreline where the bass had been stacking. On the third cast, a big blowup followed by a solid bass jumping. The topwater hit was the equivalent of any snook in saltwater and got my adrenaline flowing.

After coaxing the first fish up into the grass, it was released and I thought I was onto something. The next cast, another blow up on the topwater and another hooked fish. This one was the biggest at 22 inches and pulled harder with fewer jumps.

Over the next half hour, I walked a little further and continued working the bank. Four more bass were hooked and released, and with each hooked fish the excitement rose. It was as fulfilling as hooking saltwater fish on artificial lures after studying these fish for a timeframe and I left them to be.

Scrolling social media later, I noticed other anglers were also posting bass, and big ones at that. The timeframe seemed to indicate right now is prime time from those more experienced in freshwater than myself.

Reaching out to angler John Schwenn, I asked about his bass story. Like myself, he primarily saltwater fishes but found bass fishing a great alternative.

“Grouper season is closed, that’s the only reason I bass fish right now,” he said with a smile. “It’s a fun, quick and cheap thrill. I fish them with a Texas rigged paddle tail worm.”

If you can’t find your way to the salty air of the Gulf of Mexico or it’s boundary waters, bass fishing is a great way to bend a rod and the excitement of it might get you hooked.