Polly Dean.

When you start talking about fishing in Florida, it’s not really a matter of “Where to go?” With both an Atlantic and Gulf Coast, not to mention over 7,000 named lakes, rivers and ponds, no angler is more than a short distance from the water. Inside the city limits of a number of large cities, in fact, fishermen can find quality angling that rivals anything the “wilderness” can offer.

Here’re 36 spots where you can enjoy fast action this year.

~January~
Spotted Seatrout
Steinhatchee River
Chilly weather brings hefty seatrout flocking to this Big Bend river. And with the season closing on trout in February, this month is the peak time.

Look for trout to gather in the deeper river holes. Those located on outside bends are often the most productive, but any hole with a hard rock bottom and a few sharply-dropping ledges can produce. The air might be cold, but the trout feed actively, generally within a few feet of the bottom.

Some anglers drift plastic jigs or sink plugs so that they just tick the bottom with the current. Others favor shrimp, live baitfish, or cut bait. Alternatives: Speckled Perch are on the move in Lake Woodruff and the connecting St. Johns River. A minnow-tipped jig can fool these fish.

Largemouths should be in full spawn on Lake Okeechobee. Look for them to be bedding anywhere they can reach the outer edge of vegetation in at least two feet of water.

~February~
Largemouths
Lake George
This month normally signals the first major spawn on Lake George. While eelgrass has been in short supply in recent years, it started to come back strong in 2007.

The eastern shore, from Georgetown to Pine Island, has the best grass and should draw a lot of bedding bass this spring. Veteran anglers often drift the grass with the wind while throwing a 1/4-ounce white spinnerbait or a swimming worm ahead of them.

Watch for freshly fanned beds, or patches of recently uprooted eelgrass, which mean bass beds.

When you find a concentration of beds, sight-fish with soft-plastic baits. But some anglers find that fishing subtle topwater plugs at dawn can produce hefty fish as well.

Alternatives: Lochloosa Lake has become a top producer of speckled perch, and February is a peak month. Drifting minnow-tipped jigs in open water can be deadly.

Rodman Reservoir will be drawn down this year, and that will make spawning bass much easier to find.

~March~
Striped Bass
Lake Talquin
Thanks to a state stocking program, this manmade reservoir produces Gulf-strain stripers up to 20 pounds every year. They’re most often caught by casting artificial lures into surprisingly shallow water.

The key area in March is the lower portion of the lake near the dam. The rock riprap lining the dam is a good target.

So, too, are any of the numerous submerged points and sandbars extending outward from the shoreline.

During dim light, some big stripers can be taken as shallow as three feet Soft-plastic jigs in pearl white are a top choice, and a local favorite is a 3/8-ounce white Roadrunner jig.

Alternatives: Shallow vegetation in Lake Kissimmee yields a lot of bass this month to topwater plugs and plastic worms, although some of the larger fish may have to be flipped from heavier cover.

Anglers trolling chrome minnow plugs in the Oklawaha River below Rodman Dam catch the peak of the annual striped bass run.