Find Some of the Best Bass Fishing in Small Places

Florida's small mid-river bars, some less than 10 feet wide, can hold big-leagues bass.

August 22, 2025 By Terry Lacoss

The St. Johns River holds some of Florida’s best trophy bass fishing, however few fishermen have capitalized on this well-kept secret. Many of these secrets lay hidden less than a 100 yards offshore of a grass bed, bend in the river, offshore of a creek mouth, offshore of channel markers and many other popular tidal river structures.

The St. Johns is some 300 miles long and up to 7 miles wide at its widest part. Add to the puzzle, it flows north and levels may fluctuate with the tides from 13 to 18 inches. Tidal flow is only .3 miles per hour! Locating an offshore structure can be challenging.

Some of the most productive waters lie between Palatka and the mouth of Lake George where the river is narrow and harbors both current and bass habitat. Here, good numbers of freshwater mussels bury up in the sand close to a deep drop in the river channel where current flushes their favorite foods over a slight rise in the bottom. The activity of burying up in the sand forces old, dead mussel shells up to the surface, ultimately creating a shell bar, also referred to as a shell bed. The old mussel shells attract a variety of river aquatic life including grass shrimp, crayfish and insects that bass and bluegills feed on. Some of the shell bars can be as small as 5 feet by 10 feet in size but can hold a sizable school of bass.

Bass caught on a lipless crankbait. — Chrome Rat-L-Trap is a productive lure to throw on river shell bars holding shad and other bait.

Many seasoned river bass fishermen claim it is often difficult locating these small shell bars with fishfinding electronics. Instead, they rely on simply dragging a 1-ounce worm weight attached to the main line, followed by a plastic bead, small two-way swivel, an 18-inch length of 10- to 20-pound fluorocarbon shock leader and finally a 5/0 worm hook. An 8- to 10-inch black plastic worm with a blue curly tail is then rigged weedless onto the worm hook.

Locating a productive shell bar is then accomplished while making long casts in water depths from 5 to 20 feet while dragging a weighted worm slowly along the bottom. Be sure and log the location with your GPS!

Once a school of shell bar largemouth is located, other popular bass lures can be fished including diving plugs, spinnerbaits, surface plugs, and blade jigs. Best plug and spinner color pattern is by far shad, followed by chartreuse.

Swimbaits are also extremely productive either rigged to a weighted jig or a 7/0 worm hook. Eight- to 10-inch sizes are recommended when targeting trophy size bass, while 4- to 6-inch sizes are recommended when targeting schooling bass on a shell bar.

On this portion of the St. Johns River, the major spawn typically takes place from early February until the first of April. Here the spawn takes place in shallow sloughs and edges of grass beds and when finished, good numbers of post-spawn bass will simply relocate directly offshore onto and close to a deepwater shell bar. The abundance of forage foods including shad, bream and shrimp attracts good numbers of St. Johns River bass and they grow to giant proportions.

Bass angler fishing in a lake. — Deepwater shell bars, away from the shoreline, can produce great action.

“Back when FWC bass fishing regulations only allowed keeping one bass over the 22-inch mark, we had our best day of shell bar fishing,” Palatka’s Lee Stalvey remembers. “During one of the tournaments, we had to release three 9-pound bass and two weighing over eight pounds each while fishing offshore shell bars located in the St. Johns River!”

“During that tournament, I was fishing with longtime tournament partner Jason Caldwell. Our two bass we weighed in measured over 22 inches weighed over 10 pounds each.”

Today most Florida bass tournaments acquire a special permit which allows fishermen to keep up to five bass without any length restrictions. All bass must be kept alive in an aerated live well and released after weigh-in at the tournament site. Lee’s son Parker is also an excellent bass fisherman who often competes against his father in major tournaments held in the Palatka area of the St. Johns River.

“My biggest competition comes from my son Parker,” Lee said. “I have really enjoyed watching Parker grow up and follow in my footsteps. I almost taught him too well; I don’t like tournament river fishing against Parker!”