The Florida Bass, formerly known as the Florida strain largemouth bass, is renowned for its exceptional genetics—especially its ability to grow larger and faster than the northern strain. While native to Florida, this powerhouse predator has now been stocked in lakes and reservoirs across the country, making a big impact well beyond the Sunshine State.
Florida Bass Grow Faster & Larger
The Florida Bass grows significantly faster than northern largemouth, thriving in warm, shallow waters. Known for reaching impressive sizes—often over 10 pounds and potentially up to 20—this strain is a favorite among trophy hunters. However, they’re less cold-tolerant and have a higher winter mortality rate compared to northern or native largemouth bass.
Florida Bass Are Often Harder To Catch on Lures
Big Florida Bass are often less aggressive than their northern cousins, which can frustrate anglers trying to land a trophy using artificial lures. Patience is key—slowing down your presentation, targeting peak feeding times, and using live bait are proven strategies for consistently hooking these giants.
Do Up North Techniques Work For Florida Bass?
For anglers that live up north, it can be a total shock when they come down south to fish for Florida Bass. While everything that works up north for largemouth bass will also work for Florida Bass at times, you will realize that many of these techniques and lures will not work well most of the time. This can be totally frustrating, but there are definitely some things to learn if you want to consistently catch nice-sized Florida Bass.
Live Shiner Fishing
The easiest way to catch good numbers of Florida bass and large Florida bass is to use live shiners. If you are used to fishing up north and you think it is similar to fishing with lively minnows up north, you have no idea. There are so many situations where anglers can catch similar numbers if not even more largemouth bass than someone who is fishing with live minnows up north.
Learn more about live shiner fishing for Florida Bass
Cold Fronts are the Worst
Fishing for Florida bass can be very challenging after a cold front, especially a severe cold front that drops water temperatures down quickly. Florida bass can really shut down after some of the more severe cold fronts pass through during the winter months. After a cold front, Florida bass may shift to deeper water or areas with heavy cover. While some bass may still feed, they may not be willing to move as far to eat a bait, so your casting window to catch them can be quite small after a cold front.
Learn more about Florida Bass & Cold Fronts
Use Lures That Swim
Florida bass chase down live shiners daily in Florida’s lakes, rivers, ponds and canals. There is something about the swimming action of a lively shiner that drives Florida bass crazy. If you can present some lures with an excellent swimming action, you have a shot to attractive some bass to actually bite your lures.
Learn more about using lures that swim for Florida Bass
Flippin’ & Punchin’
Flippin’ and punchin’ are both effective bass fishing techniques used to target Florida bass in and around cover and sometimes very heavy cover. At times, these techniques will out fish all other techniques when it comes to quality bites in a day. For many anglers, their biggest bass of the day will come from these techniques while fishing in Florida.
Learn more about flippin’ & punchin’ for Florida Bass
Slow Down
This one is easy to say, but much harder to do. Slowing down is one of the biggest tips that anglers will get when they ask the bait shops questions about catching more and bigger bass. The first tip will most likely be to fish with shiners. After you do a couple shiner trips and you’re tired of using live baits, it is time to come back to the “slow down” tip.
The problem with slowing down is that if you’re fishing unproductive spots, you’re going to spend a lot of time not catching bass. If the bass are not in an aggressive mood and you’re fishing fast, you’re not going to catch too many bass either, so slowing down is usually a good tip most of the time when you’re fishing for Florida bass.
Learn more about slowing down for Florida Bass
What Lures Work Best?
While any lure may work in Florida at times, there are definitely some lures that work better more consistently for Florida Bass. Take a look below to learn more about these baits.
Use Realistic Looking Baits
There are so many baits on the market that look very realistic. Try using baits that look very realistic and you’ll get more bites. We’re talking about swimbaits, glide baits, big crayfish baits and more.
Most realistic-looking baits to target Florida Bass.
Soft Baits
Hard Baits
Topwater Lures