Thread: Withlacoochee River

Never saw a gator while fishing, I'm sure they gotta be plentiful.
u2s

Originally Posted by up2specks

Never saw a gator while fishing, I'm sure they gotta be plentiful.
u2s

There's no shortage of them.

We vacation every summer in Dunnellon and have stayed on the river several times. I have fished it from hwy200 & up to Rousseau but never been on the lake due to lack of knowledge on the underwater obstructions. I know it gets very narrow near 200 & there are very large phosphate rocks in the river just barely under the surface. We've caught bass, catfish, variety of panfish & some small specks. Did well around the bike trail bridge just south of where the Rainbow connects, north of 41 near the old train trestle & the bends just past that, area around the Goldendale boat ramp was good also. Never caught anything huge but had fun & did well every time out especially for the summer time of year, usually very hot when we go. There is a bait shop on 41 near the Blue Gator that was very helpful & had some recent area catch pictures & an article about a woman who caught a large speck off her dock near Rousseau - think it was around 3lb+. I love the area would like to fish it more often but only make it there annually, I only take my small boat when we go - it's definitely not as deep & open as the St.Johns

Originally Posted by specktacklure

We vacation every summer in Dunnellon and have stayed on the river several times. I have fished it from hwy200 & up to Rousseau but never been on the lake due to lack of knowledge on the underwater obstructions. I know it gets very narrow near 200 & there are very large phosphate rocks in the river just barely under the surface. We've caught bass, catfish, variety of panfish & some small specks. Did well around the bike trail bridge just south of where the Rainbow connects, north of 41 near the old train trestle & the bends just past that, area around the Goldendale boat ramp was good also. Never caught anything huge but had fun & did well every time out especially for the summer time of year, usually very hot when we go. There is a bait shop on 41 near the Blue Gator that was very helpful & had some recent area catch pictures & an article about a woman who caught a large speck off her dock near Rousseau - think it was around 3lb+. I love the area would like to fish it more often but only make it there annually, I only take my small boat when we go - it's definitely not as deep & open as the St.Johns

Don't know how small your little boat is or what it's made of (aluminum is pretty forgiving) don't be afraid to go poking around during the day, the channels are decently marked. Just go slow.

When gator hunting, we get out of the channels and run over all sorts of crap. Just ease back off or slide over it.

I grew up fishing 'the river'(Withlacoochee) in the Dade City area. This was in the 70's and 80's. This area of the river is small where only a canoe or small Johnboat can be used when the water level is up a bit. We gained access to this part of the river by foot and experienced some excellent bluegill, red breast and bass fishing. My buddy has a 10lb bass on the wall that was caught from this area. As far as the Speck fishing, there is a spot on the river called Doze Hole (spell check) that had 10 fow as I remember. We found the Specks in the middle of this hole down deep (the few times we had access to a boat). The river runs through Silver Lake which is located in Hernando County. There are Specks in this lake but I can't speak of size or amount but I think it's worth a try. It can be seen from Interstate 75 to the east. Exit 301 to hwy 50 is the closest way to access this lake. This lake is not big but big enough to troll. There is a park and boat ramp there.