Guide Jimmy Keith caught this largemouth on Lake Rousseau, near Dunnellon. Photo by Bud Reiter.

It will go down in history as the "Year of the Hurricanes." The constant pounding Florida took during the late summer of last year ranks as one of the largest natural disasters to ever hit the Sunshine State. It was a royal mess at the time. But six months later, there are some positive things happening.

Although the massive influx of rainwater adversely impacted both freshwater and saltwater fishing for several months, it did some good things for our inland lakes. Many were at low levels, and the additional fresh water was appreciated. In some respects, the hurricanes are a key part of a natural drawdown-refill cycle that will pay dividends for bass fishermen in future years.

While it's nice to contemplate a rosy future, there are also some fine things happening in the present. Here are three North Florida lakes where those things should be happening this spring.

LAKE GEORGE
The 44,000 acres of Lake George are located where the southern end of Putnam County joins Lake, Marion and Volusia counties. The lake has consistently ranked as one of the most productive bass waters in the Sunshine State. However, the term "lake" is a misnomer. In reality it is a wide spot in the St. Johns River that is subject to tidal influence in the mid and northern portions, while experiencing a steady current flow on its southern end.

That current flow increased significantly after five hurricanes dropped major amounts of rainfall in the central portion of Florida. All that water had to go somewhere, and a lot of it entered the St. Johns River and ran north.

As this is being written, the St. Johns River is running bank-to-bank full, and with water levels as high as they have been in many years. Having spent almost 14 years as a bass guide in that area, I can say with certainty that high water on the St. Johns River, especially if it is the tannic run-off water that we had in the aftermath of the numerous hurricanes, will thin out the eelgrass, which tends to die off under high and dirty water. Since eelgrass is a key bass habitat on this "lake," that would seem to be bad news on the surface.

But it's not -- at least for those anglers doing their fishing this March and April.

Bass on Lake George can begin spawning as early as December in a warm winter. Some spawning activity is invariably occurring during January at the mouths of the three west coast feeder springs. February can see a strong spawn, but the peak of the spawn on the main lake is normally late February through March.

Prime spawning cover on the main lake centers around the inside edge of eelgrass beds where the grass meets dollar bonnets over a hard sand bottom, and there are many areas of the lake where this occurs. But with eelgrass likely to be diminished this spring, finding key spawning sites may actually be easier!

Find the best eelgrass, and you'll likely find the best spawning sites, and some of the largest concentrations of bass in the area.

The key early spawn areas on Lake George center around the mouths of the three west coast spring runs feeding the lake. The mouths of Silver Glenn, Salt Run and Juniper Run are traditionally productive and are likely to be among the best bets this year, since the clearer waters they pump into the lake are kinder to eelgrass than more tannic waters. During recent years, the flats north and south of the mouth of Salt Run have been too shallow for significant spawning. With higher water levels expected this spring, however, it could be a goldmine. Bass have used it extensively during high-water periods in the past.