Every year myself and a group of friends do a wintertime trip somewhere South. We have been to Lake Kissimmee twice, and Lake Okeechobee three times and we were all set to head back to Okeechobee for our fourth trip when we discovered there were multiple tournaments during the time we wanted to travel. We decided to search for a new destination. I had been reading about the new bass hotspot called Fellsmere Reservoir or more popularly Headwaters. After some study, we decided to make the trip from Virginia to Florida and check it out.
Here we go. Headwaters from start to finish. Sit back, relax and if you ever want to venture out on this water, hopefully, this will help.
Lodging
There are a few options for lodging. A lot of Airbnb places are popping up. There are also some travel trailers for rent from different people. A lot of fishermen stay in the many hotels in Vero Beach or Sebastian. Some are set up for boats and some are not. We opted to stay in a small fish camp on Blue Cypress Lake. The trip to the launch was about 40 minutes and there was really no traffic. The drive allowed my fishing partners to catch up on emails, etc.
The Launch
Much is said about the road to the launch, it’s 3.4 miles long from the main road. It’s gravel and graded once a week and the dust is the consistency of flour or baby powder and gets everywhere. We trailered every day with the cover on the boats and they still got coated really bad, not to mention the truck. The road to the launch is very, very rough if you are getting close to the time it is to be graded. The ramp itself is very nice. It is privately owned but patrolled by FWC to enforce rules. Rules are no entering earlier than 1 hour before sunrise and no parking on the grassy areas, which are clearly marked. There is an open field across the road from the launch for overflow parking that I used for a couple of days because the lot was nearing full. I also witnessed the vultures and crows that liked to perch and walk on any of the trucks parked near the water. One day there was a huge hyacinth island that blew across 1 lane of the ramp rendering it useless. There are two lanes to the single ramp. The road to the launch is the same road as the famous Stick Marsh Farm 13.
The Lake
The lake itself is pretty straightforward. It is your typical Florida shallow lake with deeper canals for general navigation. Remember the lake was designed for habitat so up-to-date mapping software and waterproof plastic maps to identify areas is paramount. We had to rescue a friend who got high-centered when he ventured out of a canal. Because of the canals, you get some great weed edges close to deep water, there is hyacinth mats, reed islands, milfoil, Kissimmee Grass, and even rock islands from the dirt they excavated and piled up. We found a submerged old orange grove and there is an area of cypress called the Cypress Maze on maps. We fished it all in the week we were on the water. My one major takeaway from the lake was that it fishes much, much bigger than it looks on a map. I was a little concerned we were going to be crowded due to the popularity and the size but we were never once crowded and there were days we didn’t have a single boat near us. No air boats were allowed and that was refreshing. There is a 25 mph speed limit on the lake and a requirement that you slow to idle when passing in the canals. The lake is a gem for sure.
Lures Thrown
We threw a good selection of baits and opted for all artificial. Here is a list of what was thrown and caught the most fish. Senkos 5 & 6 inch weighted and unweighted.
Speed Senko weighted and unweighted. Yamamoto Kut Tail 7.75 inch with screw-in nose weight. Yamamoto Cowboy & Mermaid on Shakeyhead. Dropshot with a Shad Shape Worm. Chatterbait Yamamoto Zako Trailer. Swim Jig Yamamoto Paddle tail Zako trailer. Yamamoto D Shad weightless. The colors were all Green Pumpkin with darker fleck, Black/Blue, and natural browns.
We averaged 10-15 fish per person, per day. We put a 6lb or bigger in one of the boats every day. There were 3 boats for 2 days and 2 boats the rest of the time. The days of 3 boats we had 6 anglers the days of 2 boats we had 5. The biggest producer by far was the 5-inch Senko with a nose weight and a screw-in hitchhiker blade in the tail. My big fish came on the Kut Tail and a lot of fish were caught on the Speed Senko. General consensus was that we were a week early for the big spawn wave. We saw a lot of empty beds and did catch a few off of the beds.
Will we go back? ABSOFREAKINLOUTLY!
