Lake Apopka Fishing: Winning Patterns & Fishing Guide

A lot of anglers will ask, “When is the perfect time to go to the Harris Chain of Lakes? That answer can vary among different anglers, but all of them probably wouldn’t argue that January through March is one time of the year that is great to get out on the water, when the Largemouth Bass on the Harris Chain of Lake are spawning. However, there are many different options for bass anglers either fun fishing on the Harris Chain of Lakes or getting ready for a tournament in Florida. Regardless during these months, the fish are going to migrate very shallow in the Harris Chain of Lakes. One lake within the chain is Lake Apopka, which is very popular among tournament anglers in the late winter early spring when the fish are spawning. Here is a look into the popular baits to fish on Lake Apopka and some tips on breaking down the spawn. Make sure to read to the bottom to see How Revital Outdoors Premium CBD products help anglers fishing Lake Apopka.

Baits

The first step to attacking the spawn on Lake Apopka is having the right bait selection. There are three baits that work the best to locate spawn and aggressive Largemouth Bass on Lake Apopka. The first being a soft plastic bait that fishes on the surface of the water. Because the water is so shallow in Lake Apopka, and the fish spawn shallow, they will literally spawn anywhere- not necessarily relating to the bank. Anglers that take either a buzzing frog soft plastic or an unweighted swimbait style soft plastic can work the waters surface. The Largemouth Bass in Lake Apopka are very defensive and do not like a topwater bait swimming over the top of their bed. Therefore, anglers can cover a lot of water to find the most defensive bedding fishing. Both of these topwater soft plastic baits should be fished on braid because of the amount of grass in Lake Apopka. When an angler gets hooked up, they will likely try to get buried up in the grass quickly, so fishing braid will help fight the fish through the grass and get them coming to the boat.  

When the wind is blowing and it becomes hard for anglers to throw a topwater, then throwing a swimjig along the surface it very deadly. When fished in darker colors, this resembles the bluegill swimming throw the spawning areas. Bluegill are the biggest enemy to the Largemouth Bass spawning on Lake Apopka. Again, anglers will want to fish a swimjig on braid because of the amount of grass in the lake.  

The other bait anglers will want to have on the deck is a senko worm with a Texas-rigged weight. This is because many times Largemouth Bass in Lake Apopka will slap at topwater or jigs in defense to chase them off or around the bed. This will help anglers locate where the fish are relating to the bed, and then anglers can throw a senko worm into that area and have a better chance at getting a bite. The best worm colors to do this with is black and blue in cloudy days, and watermelon/ red in sunny days.  

Find The Beds

When bed fishing on Lake Apopka, it’s really hard year after year to pinpoint where the fish will spawn because they don’t normally repeat the areas year after year. Sometimes they will spawn in general parts of Lake Apopka year after year, but it can take some searching to locate exactly where most beds are. Largemouth Bass in Florida do not generally spawn alone, many times anglers will be able to locate multiple beds within a small radius. To try and help reduce the amount of time it takes to find these areas with a lot of beds. 

Grass relating lose to the bank is a great starting point. If you can find a long grass bed that is between 10 to 20 yards off the bank, this will actually serve as protection to the area between it and the bank. Largemouth bass will use this area for bedding and anglers can also see the beds a lot better in these areas because that grass will serve as a wall and help clean the water up.  

There is not many cuts and canals in Lake Apopka, but for the ones that are there, this is a gold mine for bedding fishing. Canal and cuts serve as great protection, shade, and usually have docks to help the fish find a great spawning area. Within the canal if there is some overhanging brush, or docks, this is usually where anglers can find beds. The senko worm is absolutely the best bait for fishing these areas. Because of the cuts and canals being so protected, anglers will want to really slow down their approach and fish a much more subtle bait in these areas. This is where the black and blue senko worm absolutely rocks. Anglers will want to make really long casts and work the bait slowly beck to the boat anticipating at any moment dragging the worm across a bed.  

How CBD Helps Anglers

Like MLF Bass Pro Tour Angler, Shaw Grigsby, make sure you have your Revital Outdoors Premium CBD Cream packed on your boat the next time you fish Lake Apopka. Our 250mg Premium CBD Cream is unscented and great for targeting specific areas of inflammation and discomfort. Simply pump a small amount of product directly on the area of in your hands to further massage the cream into the surface. Moreover, all of our CBD products are formulated using broad-spectrum CBD. This means that you’re getting the best possible strain of CBD without any unwanted effects. You can read more about broad-spectrum CBD here.