The chance to tangle with a Suwannee bass is an added bonus on this river. Photo by Jeff Christopher.

Suwannee River bass fishing is a little-known commodity outside of the small river towns scattered throughout North Florida's Big Bend section. It includes plentiful, often cooperative bass that can be ambushed at the entrances of tidal creeks along the southern end of the river. Those largemouths run up to 11 pounds and hide along wooden structure that lines the banks. Farther north, rocks and wooded areas hold the unusual Suwannee bass, a feisty subspecies that patrols the shoreline. There are also crystal-clear springs where big bass go to spawn each year.

During the usually mild winter and spring months -- especially March and April -- the scenic river is home to some of the most dependable bass fishing anywhere.

"The Suwannee in the springtime is probably the most rewarding fishing you can do in Florida, particularly when it comes to cold fronts and the impact that they have on our shallow lakes," says Bernie Schultz, a top tournament pro and expert on the river that's located less than an hour from his Gainesville home. "Cold fronts can play havoc with the natural lakes in Florida, but moving water is the most stable water you'll find in the winter and spring.

"Unlike the lake bass, when these fish are subjected to fronts, they seek the shallowest water and hard structure like rock and wood. They position themselves tight to those structures, feeding occasionally in the current. It's easy for the average guy -- a bank-beater -- to go out there and catch fish just about anytime. The colder days seem to be the better days because the fish hold tighter to the cover."

To Schultz's way of thinking, there is no better time to fish the Suwannee than from January through April. In this season, it is not unusual to average 30 to 40 "mixed bag" bass, including both largemouth and Suwannees. His biggest bass, caught on a green-pumpkin 5-inch Yamamoto Kut-Tail worm, topped the 9-pound mark, but he emphasizes that "on the average, they're not big fish. But how many places in Florida can you fish during a cold front and catch those kinds of numbers?"

The tidal section of the lower Suwannee, particularly creeks and ditches from the mouth of the river north to Fowler's Bluff, is especially popular among local bass enthusiasts. In these shallow tributaries, bass waylay baitfish from behind abundant wooden structure, as well as lily pads.

"In this section of the river, there's always a lot of forage, and you have a dual current situation," Schultz says. "Upriver, you generally have a current flow that travels in only one direction and it's always outgoing. But at the mouth, you can double the feeding periods, because you have the tidal influence. The bass are feeding on both fresh- and saltwater forage, depending on the direction of the tide."

As with most tidal rivers, Schultz prefers a falling tide. Bass congregate at the mouth of the creeks, where they are usually easy prey during a falling tide and the first portion of the incoming flow.