Uncover Great Fishing Destinations in Florida's Vibrant WMAs

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I couldn’t take it anymore. I was turkey hunting on a Central Florida Wildlife Management Area and all that I could think about was bass fishing! During a scouting trip several days earlier, I happened upon a deep drainage ditch loaded with lily pads. I was hopeful it was loaded with bass. I quickly packed up my turkey hunting gear and made a mad dash back to the truck where my frogging rod waited.

After a 5-minute drive and 10-minute hike through the woods, I was in business. Cast after cast produced one nice bass after another that quickly inhaled my Booyah Pad Crasher Frog. Because of the remote location of this fishing spot and the complete lack of sign of human activity such as trash and footprints, I wondered if the fish that I caught had ever seen a lure. I had found my “secret spot” on one of Florida’s public Wildlife Management Areas.

Florida’s Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs) not only offer excellent hunting opportunities, but many areas have excellent fishing in largely unknown and unpressured waters. With just a little bit of effort, anglers can discover hidden gems of public fishing that many are unaware of. Join us as we discover the ins and outs of fishing WMAs.

Accessing Florida’s Awesome WMA System

With more than 6 million acres, Florida has one of the largest WMA systems in the country. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) is the lead agency on over 1.6 million acres but partners with other governmental agencies and private landowners on the rest of the areas to provide excellent hunting, fishing, and recreational opportunities to the public. Although WMAs are best known for public hunting, excellent fishing can be found in some of these areas. From public fishing piers with fish feeders, to remote ponds and coastal estuaries, a variety of fishing habitats can be found. Let your willingness to get off the beaten path be your guide to finding public fishing gold mines.

The first step in locating WMA fishing opportunities is to identify WMAs in your area of interest. Visit myfwc.com and look for the “WMA Recreation Finder” feature on the web site. Areas can be searched by map or by name. Once an interesting WMA is found, switch over to your favorite satellite imagery website such as Google Earth or Bing Maps and look for bodies of water. Any pond, canal, ditch, lake, river, or creek could provide great fishing as many users often overlook WMAs as a source for fishing opportunities. Remember, the farther away the body of water is from a WMA road, the less likely it is to receive fishing pressure. You can easily cross-reference any interesting area with the specific WMA brochure map found on the FWC website to find out the easiest and shortest route to your fishing spot.

Try this insider tip for researching fishable WMAs: Contact your nearest FWC regional office and ask to speak with an FWC officer or biologist who is responsible for the WMA that you are interested in. They could be a wealth of information, as they have local knowledge of the WMA. Ask about the specific body of water that you are interested in and how best to access the area.

Once you’ve located an interesting area, double check the specific WMA regulations to make sure that fishing is allowed and what special rules may be in effect. Most areas allow fishing but some areas close periodically or have special size limits, bag limits, or vessel restrictions for specific bodies of water. Access may be limited—or closed to any but special permit-holders—during certain hunting seasons. This is not usually an issue from May through August, when few games species are in season.

The final step is determining if an area is open to vehicles and how to best gain access to the WMA. Some areas are open year-round to vehicles, while others only offer access by foot or bicycle. Pay special attention to the “Fishing and Frogging” section of the online WMA brochure as some areas will grant vehicle access for fishing by issuing a no-cost permit to those that are interested. If this applies to an area that you are interested in, follow the instructions for obtaining a permit and access into the area.

If vehicle access to a WMA is closed during the time that you are interested in, consider hiking, biking, or using an E-bike. Check WMA regulations to make sure that you comply with all access requirements including signing into and out of the area (if required) as each area has unique rules and regulations specific to the property. Some areas require a daily entrance fee that is often waived with a valid WMA permit or if exempt. Entrance pay stations are often remote and without power. Diligent research and preparation can prevent a surprise fee and prevent you from rummaging through your vehicle for money in order to pay a fee for legal access.

A good number of WMAs have public boat ramps on bigger and more popular bodies of water. From primitive canoe and kayak launches to multi lane concrete ramps, there are a variety of options available to boating anglers. Since WMAs are in remote areas, ramps and launches are often less crowded, indicating a lower pressured fishery. Most of the WMA boat ramps and canoe/kayak launches can be found on WMA brochure maps or by visiting myfwc.com and look for the “Boat Ramp Finder” feature on the web site.

Go Fishing! Tactics for Fresh and Salt

For your first trip to unknown waters, keep it simple and stick to baits and techniques that can catch a variety of sizes of fish. Your main goal is to determine if there are fish present and if there is easy access to the body of water. Carrying an armload of rod and reel combos can get in the way and interfere with trying to get to the water in remote wooded locations. Bring one rod and reel combo with a small amount of tackle for your trial fishing trip. Once you complete your initial fishing assessment, you can return with a larger variety of technique specific rods, reels, and tackle.

For targeting largemouth bass, try Texas rigging a small finesse-style worm such as the 5-inch Strike King KVD Perfect Plastics Finesse Worm or Berkley 4.75-inch Bottom Hopper Worm. This small weedless rig will catch a variety of sizes of bass in a wide range of habitats, from weed filled lakes to rocky canal edges. A 5-inch stick style worm such as a Strike King Perfect Plastics Ocho, Yum Dinger, or Berkley General can be fished in a variety of ways such as Texas rigged, wacky rigged, or the popular neko rig to attract the attention of bass.

If you know, based on your pre-trip research, that the body of water has a good amount of vegetation, a hollow-bellied frog can produce both quality and good numbers of bass while remaining weedless. Anglers in South Florida can target peacock bass, oscars, and other exotic fish with small 3-inch jerkbaits such as the Rebel Tracdown Minnow or the Strike King Bitsy Jerkbait fished with an ultrafast retrieve along rocky canal banks and canal intersections.

If catching panfish is more to your liking, bluegill, crappie, shellcracker, redbreasts, and warmouth can be caught on a small jig/spinner lure combinations such as the Mr. Crappie Sausage Spin, Beetle Spin, or a variety of small 1⁄16-ounce crappie jigs. Fly fishermen may have trouble casting in heavily wooded areas but if the area is clear enough, an assortment of small bluegill poppers or Sneaky Pete poppers can attract the attention of a variety of panfish and bass.

For WMAs located along coastal areas, excellent saltwater fishing may be available for inshore species of fish. Snook, spotted seatrout, redfish, mangrove snapper, flounder, or tarpon can be frequently targeted. Look for oyster bars, mangrove trees, creek drains, and shallow to deep transitions during an outgoing tide as fish will position themselves in the current while waiting for a meal. Try casting a walking style topwater bait like the new Berkley Saltwater J-Walker or a Heddon Zara Spook and work the lure in a back-and-forth rhythm with the current. When scouting your new coastal area, a small ¼-ounce bucktail jig can catch a variety of species of fish and give you a good idea of the fish catching potential of an area. For live bait anglers, a fresh live finger mullet or shrimp fished in the areas of falling water can often be irresistible to fish. Try free-ining your bait in minimal current or adding a float or popping cork and letting your bait drift with the current in a natural manner.

Special Notes on Wilderness Safety

Many WMA waters are remote, and some are a good distance away from the nearest road. You will often be the only one around. Let someone know exactly where you will be fishing. This will help the FWC and emergency personnel locate you in case of an emergency. Bring plenty of food and water and stay hydrated. Remote WMAs are no place to cut corners. Ticks, chiggers, and other biting insects can be troublesome and can be avoided using insect spray containing Permethrin.

Are you up for the challenge? Try using a little bit of work by researching your nearest Wildlife Management Area and spending a little time exploring waterways off the beaten path. You might end up finding a hidden gem of public waters that sees very little fishing pressure, if any at all. It might be well worth your effort!

Where to Start? Try Here

Here’s a sample of some of the more fishable Wildlife Management Areas in each of the FWC regions:

South B Region

• Southern Glades Wildlife and Environmental Area (Miami-Dade County): Fishing banks of both the C-110 and C-111 canal can be excellent for largemouths, peacock bass and exotic cichlids. Four piers are located along Aerojet Road.
• Big Cypress WMA (Collier, Miami-Dade, Monroe counties): Excellent fishing for largemouth bass, peacock bass, Oscars, and cichlids along canals throughout the WMA.

South A Region

• Hungryland Wildlife and Environmental Area (Martin and Palm Beach counties): Fish canals or wet weather ponds for bass, bluegill, shellcracker, warmouth, or cichlids.
• Dupuis Wildlife and Environmental Area (Palm Beach and Martin County): Try fishing in one of the freshwater ponds or at the public fishing pier for bass or bluegill.

Southwest Region

• Babcock/Webb WMA (Charlotte County): Fish on pier, bank, or non-gas powered boat at Webb Lake or from the bank at Marl Ponds 1, 2, or 3.
• Fisheating Creek WMA (Glades County): Grab a canoe or kayak and head to Fisheating Creek for excellent fishing for bass, panfish, and catfish—not to mention breathtaking scenery.

Northeast Region

• Prairie Lake Unit of Three Lakes WMA (Osceola County): Try fishing from a boat, canoe, or kayak at Lake Jackson within the WMA for unpressured bass, bluegill, and crappie.
• Guana River WMA (St. Johns County): Excellent saltwater fishing for seatrout, redfish and flounder can be found at Lake Ponte Verda within the WMA.

North-Central Region

• Four Creeks WMA (Nassau County): Bring your canoe or kayak for excellent freshwater fishing in one of the four WMA creeks.
• Big Bend WMA (Taylor and Dixie County): Freshwater fishing along streams and ponds and saltwater fishing for seatrout and redfish along Gulf access points and boat ramps.

Northwest Region

• Apalachicola WMA (Franklin, Leon, Wakulla, and Liberty counties): Multitude of fishing opportunities along ponds and streams or target blue catfish and flathead catfish along one of the WMA rivers.
• Escambia River WMA (Escambia and Santa Rosa County): A variety of freshwater species can be targeted including channel catfish, blue catfish, flathead catfish and sunshine bass within the WMA.

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This article was featured in the April 2025 issue of Florida Sportsman magazine. Click to subscribe

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