RODMAN RESERVOIR
Mother Nature provided the low water experienced by anglers to the south, but man provides it this month on Rodman. And that’s a good thing here, too.

This year, Rodman underwent a regularly scheduled drawdown intended to reduce hydrilla and help dry out the silt buildup in the extreme shallows.

If past drawdowns are any indication, the fishing should be superb.

During the last drawdown, one of the most productive patterns for numbers of fish was crankbaiting the edges of the original river channel anywhere you could find fallen timber -- which isn’t hard on this reservoir. The most effective crankbaits were compact diving models in a combo of green/white, gold with a black back, or light crawfish.

The most effective models were those designed to run to the 4- to 6-foot depths. Key target areas were outside bends where the current runs a bit stronger and the banks are a bit more undercut. But many anglers find the 50- to 100-yard stretch downstream of a bend to be productive too.

Another river-channel pattern was to simply slow-troll down the current, dragging a 12-inch brown/black worm along the bottom. This often produced bigger bass that wouldn’t come off the bottom for a crankbait.

Bass roam the deeper river channel, and savvy anglers stay on the move until they find a school, and then work the area thoroughly.

The Barge Canal was another producer, and for the same reason -- it represented some of the deepest remaining water. During the late afternoon, when water temperatures are at their highest, subtle topwater plugs like the Rapala minnow are very effective along the edge of the berm wall -- especially in any areas where there is hydrilla.

During the brighter portions of the day, Carolina-rigged worms and lizards, or freelined shiners, produce a number of good fish from the deeper portions of the canal.

Anglers also shouldn’t ignore the deeper creeks intersecting the Barge Canal or the original river channel. With the lower water levels, any deeper water becomes productive.

Under normal conditions, largemouths in Rodman show some signs of spawning in early February. But lower water levels allow many of the shallow flats with dark silt bottoms to warm up sooner.

During the last drawdown, I found a number of fish right out in the middle of a 3-foot deep mud flat, bedding around nothing more than an old stick or sunken soda can -- and that was in mid-January!

Several of those bass weighed more than 10 pounds, and the largest pushed 12 pounds.

The Doctor’s Cove area and the Orange Springs flats seem to hold the most fish. But any flat located close to a deeper channel that has 2 or 3 feet of water can hold some fish.

On these open flats, the fish get spooky and require finesse tactics and a lot of patience. But the rewards are there for those who have a solid handle on both.

Although water levels may be low on many of Florida’s top lakes, that’s not really a drawback this month. It just makes the bass easier to find!

Find more about Florida fishing and hunting at FloridaGameandFish.com