"It's hard to do something wrong on Rodman in April," says veteran tournament angler Gary Simpson, who also manages The Tackle Box in nearby Gainesville. "In my opinion, this is the best month to fish this lake. You still have bass spawning, and those that are done will still be fairly close to the spawning areas. As long as anglers key on the waters around those spawning sites, they really can't go wrong."

Bass can spawn in many areas of Rodman. In fact, they even spawn on cut-off stumps in the deeper waters of the main pool, if those stumps come up to within four or five feet of the surface. It may sound strange to be looking for bedding bass in 10 feet of water, but it is not at all uncommon to see them bedding on stumps in that situation. A quicker way to zero in on top fishing, however, is to locate the shallow areas that lie close to a deeper creek channel.

Rodman bass, like those in virtually any manmade reservoir, are oriented towards creek channels. These provide their pathways, resting points, and for much of the year the place where all bass movement starts and ends. The spawning season is no exception.

One of the top areas in which to look for bass this month is the Barge Canal itself, since bass move up to spawn on top of the berm wall lining the canal. Also, Doctors Cove, the Orange Springs flats, the flats immediately adjacent to Deep Creek, the cove to the south and east of Blue Springs, and the southern side of the original Oklawaha River channel near the dam are good.

When it comes to a game plan, this is simple fishing.

"Topwater plugs in the early morning are deadly on Rodman this month," says Simpson. "I start the morning throwing them along hydrilla on channel edges, because that is a great way to catch bigger bass."

A number of surface baits can be effective. But Rodman experts have found that the more subtle "quiet" baits are often the most productive. A slender minnow-shaped jerkbait in gold with a black back and orange belly stripe is the best choice, although perch or subdued shad patterns can also produce.

If bass are seen moving inside the hydrilla, don't hesitate to shift to a weedless soft-plastic jerkbait in a shiner or shad pattern, or a Texas-rigged plastic worm in June bug, red shad, or a brown-and-black combination of colors. Six- to 7-inch plastic worms are the norm, but many big-bass experts swear by lightly weighted 10- to 12-inch models that are slowly swum through the cover instead of being worked in the traditional manner. In scattered hydrilla, don't overlook gold hard-plastic jerkbaits, or a spinnerbait. These can produce reaction-type strikes from non-feeding fish.

Once the dim light and morning bite are past, savvy anglers search the flats for bedding fish, or flip soft-plastic worms or crawfish into thicker hydrilla areas along the channel edges.

Another reason for a lack of fame is the single boat ramp on the lake. Located on Southeast 115th Street (commonly called Trestle Road), the launch site is a very good one that can handle 20-foot boats, but it has a small parking area that strains to hold much more than a dozen trailers. That limits access.

The bottom line is that neither lake sees a lot of angling pressure, which is just fine with veteran guide Jim Romeka.

"These are productive lakes just about any month of the year," says Romeka, "but when the spawn is on they offer some of the best sight-fishing in north Florida."

It's not hard to see why. Sampson is normally a very clear lake, while Rowell is more tannic but still more than clear enough to spot spawning beds at a distance in its waters. Both lakes offer a wealth of shallow spawning cover such as arrowhead, bulrushes, pencil reeds, lily pads and some emergent maidencane. Both also have a wealth of offshore hydrilla that provides plenty of deep-water cover that can make bass tough to find for much of the year. When the spawn rolls around, however, the fish have to come out of hiding.

"Bass on both these lakes," Romeka notes, "start to spawn in early March and continue right on through April. I normally like to start on Rowell, because its small size is not hard to cover quickly to see what spawning activity is happening. I normally begin the morning tossing topwater plugs, soft-plastic jerkbaits and plastic worms along the bulrush points that extend outwards to the deeper hydrilla. That's the first point of contact for bass moving up to spawn, as well as the place they drop back to when they are done, so you have a pretty good chance of finding some fish right off. Once the light gets up, I get in shallow and start looking for beds."

His approach to Sampson is a bit different. This lake offers some significant offshore structure, with several distinct ledges and deeper holes. Given the water clarity, this is traditionally where the bass spend much of their time. But the hydrilla has changed that.

"The way the hydrilla is growing now," Romeka explains, "it actually shrinks the lake quite a bit. The bass used to have to make some long migrations to the spawning shallows, but now they can hold on the inside edge of the hydrilla line in the 5- to 6-foot depth, and that is where I start looking for them first thing in the morning."

The same mix of topwater and soft plastics that work in Rowell is his choice here, but Romeka also uses a hard-plastic jerkbait in gold with a black back and orange belly stripe. If bass are just boiling on the topwater plug without taking it, the subtler jerkbait often turns them into biters.

Once the sun gets up enough for anglers to locate beds, which does not have to be far due to the water clarity, Romeka starts looking for them. But not all the shallow cover is worth checking.

"These fish like to spawn a bit deeper here than on other lakes," he states, "and they don't want to get too far from deeper water. The really extreme shallows are not normally productive for larger fish because the fish have to cross a lot of very shallow and clear water to use them. I find the best fish on the outside edge of the shallow cover, especially around pencil reeds.

"There are also several canals on the lake, and the bass like to bed along their edges, or just up onto the flats next to them."

To contact Jim Romeka for a day of guided bass fishing on lakes Samson and Rowell, call him at (904) 291-8052.