Headwaters Lake Kayak Fishing

Happy Monday Spacefish!

I hope everyone is well, healthy and happy. Last weekend I was able to get out on Sunday morning and fish for a few hours at Headwaters Lake. I have recently had two inquiries about fishing in this area, so this seemed like a timely report to come out with! I hope everyone enjoys it, and is able to get something out of it!

Where to Launch

The photo at the top of the report is at the launch spot. I had not been out here since June, so I was pleasantly surprised, and very grateful that the SJRWMD had come out and put in some work to clean up the launch area. They cleared away a lot of the brush, and made it where the originally designed launch spot is actually launchable, which saves a lot of walking, and carrying of gear and equipment that I had to do over the summer to actually get on the water. So the actual experience of unloading/loading, and launching is much better now than it has been over the past year or so.

For first timers to this area, the launch spot is the Fellsmere Grade Recreation Area, located at the end of Fellsmere Grade Road, which can be accessed off of Babcock Road, just south of the St. Sebastian Preserve State Park.

Where to Fish

I’d like to point out areas to fish topwater, to fish worms etc…but I’ll be honest, at Headwaters the entire lake, or at least the sections of the lake that are accessible for the kayak angler, are ideal for topwater and weightless/weedless presentations. The amount of sub-surface and emergent vegetation that are prevalent throughout the lake make casting and retrieving topwater lures pretty much anywhere an intriguing option, as well as going below the surface with weightless and weedless soft plastics such as the flukes and worms. To be honest sometimes it is kind of daunting because literally any square inch of water could hold fish, but I have learned over the course of my trips to the lake to not overthink it, and just start casting.

There is hydrilla everywhere, and if you keep pushing east and southeast from the launch you will start to come across “ditches” areas where the hydrilla drops off before it picks back up, these areas are highly productive areas to catch fish. But I have also learned the value of going out with a few “hydrilla killa” options to just fish over large fields of hydrilla. It took a few trips of getting use to fishing this way, but casting a weedless soft plastic out, and slowly retrieving a soft plastic (stick worm/senko, trickworm, speedworm, fluke/jerkbait) by bumping and twitching it through the hydrilla will result in high catch numbers at Headwaters Lake.

Other areas I try to attack are submerged palm trees, the shallow areas around the banks, and the areas around islands. Usually a good day at Headwaters involves coming out and probing and searching until you start generating bites, then hammering away once you find the pattern and type of areas that are being productive.

Fishing – Topwater

I was able to get on the water a few minutes after sunrise, but luckily for me, the morning was pretty cloudy and overcast, which made it an ideal topwater morning. The bait that I threw from the first cast for about the first hour and a half of fishing was the Ambush Frog by Fish, or Die Bait Company. I went with the black one. My color selection for frogs is not very elaborate, it’s usually Black, or White, but most of the time in low light conditions, and in areas of thick vegetation, black is the color of choice for me. It consistently produces when it comes to Largemouth Bass in Florida.

I was able to catch a few quality fish by casting this frog out as far as I could over fields of hydrilla and retrieving it back as slowly as I could while keeping it up top and letting the legs kick up water at the surface. I also had success fishing this bait around the edges of lily pads.

Fishing – Topwater

I was able to get on the water a few minutes after sunrise, but luckily for me, the morning was pretty cloudy and overcast, which made it an ideal topwater morning. The bait that I threw from the first cast for about the first hour and a half of fishing was the Ambush Frog by Fish, or Die Bait Company. I went with the black one. My color selection for frogs is not very elaborate, it’s usually Black, or White, but most of the time in low light conditions, and in areas of thick vegetation, black is the color of choice for me. It consistently produces when it comes to Largemouth Bass in Florida.

I was able to catch a few quality fish by casting this frog out as far as I could over fields of hydrilla and retrieving it back as slowly as I could while keeping it up top and letting the legs kick up water at the surface. I also had success fishing this bait around the edges of lily pads.

Fishing – Swimbait

Another bait that I had success with throughout the day was a smaller profile swimbait, the Minutemen from Fish, or Die Bait Company. I used the “Bugle” color which is a green pumpkin with purple flake, and a great Florida Bluegill imitator. I had it rigged on a 3/0 Mission Fishin’ Screw lock hook with a ⅛ oz belly weight.

By the time I went to this bait, I had pushed back probably a mile or so away from the launch spot, and had come across areas of scattered hydrilla, and some of the aforementioned hydrilla ditches. I was able to get consistent bites running this bait along the edges of hydrilla, but even bumping it through the thick stuff. The fish I caught on the swimbait were all on the smaller size, the one pictured below may have been the smallest of them all, but was an incredibly beautiful fish!

Fishing – Worms

The third and final presentation/profile I threw, was the one that resulted in the most bites, the most fish landed, and the most quality fish of the day. It’s a bait & presentation that has become a staple for me in, and around thick vegetation. The “trick” worm, to be specific I used the Fish, or Die version, the “Musket” in Philadelphia (Junebug Red). This has always been a slam dunk color pattern, but this bait is one that I have gotten extremely confident with.

There are ways I will fish it differently in different bodies of water, but at Headwaters Lake the simple and straightforward approach of rigging it without weight on a 3/0 or 4/0 EWG worm hook (Gamakatsu is my favorite) and fishing it slowly through the hydrilla is how I get a lot out of it. I fish it very similar to how I would a senko/stick worm, or how I would fish a fluke/jerkbait.

I throw it out, let it sit still, and either give lifts of the rod tip, or sharp “jerk-jerk-pause” cadences. The beautiful thing about this bait is the tail, which offers a lot more than the traditional trick worm style. I also like to split it, and turn it into a stick bait/fluke hybrid.

I was able to get in an area of scattered hydrilla, and pretty much fan cast in a 360 fashion and catch a handful of fish per circle around and move 30-40 yards and do it again. I fished this way for about an hour and caught probably a dozen Bass.

If you are interested in going down to Headwaters and want some precise locations on where I caught fish, I will be happy to drop some pins and show you, but my advice is, just because you or I have caught fish in a certain area, don’t be shocked if they are biting somewhere else. Like I mentioned earlier, in my experience the most daunting part of Headwaters is finding them, but once you get a bead on where they are that day, my advice is to get something like the Musket, or any soft plastic worm or fluke style bait and work it really slow and pick those areas apart.

Conclusion

Great to see the kayak launch spot has been cleaned up, the weather has cooled off considerably, and this made for an awesome day of Bass fishing. If you have never been to Headwaters, I highly suggest going! Now is a good time to fish it. I hope everyone has a safe, and happy week, and gets a chance to take advantage of this wonderful Florida fall weather.

Tight lines this week, good people… Until next time!