I can even screw up on Headwaters

[Madeintheshade]

Down there on 1-20 . Have learned not to expect much , but hard not to get excited with all the talk on this place.
Same song different lake. “I’ve never seen it this bad” famous words from my guides.
He tried , I tried had a nice trip , but was not what I was looking forward to.

[spookem]

That's what it is "talk". Some people like to line their pockets with fibs.........

[Flabasspond]

Down there on 1-20 . Have learned not to expect much , but hard not to get excited with all the talk on this place.
Same song different lake. “I’ve never seen it this bad” famous words from my guides.
He tried , I tried had a nice trip , but was not what I was looking forward to.

Sorry you didn't have the trip you planned out but it happens...our fish are notoriously fickle. A guide can only put you on fish, he cant make 'em bite. I was a guide for many years and have had clients ask me what I talked about when fishing is slow- I always told them that we talked about my party from yesterday...which was funny until they thought about tomorrow.

[cmbtvet]

Down there on 1-20 . Have learned not to expect much , but hard not to get excited with all the talk on this place.
Same song different lake. “I’ve never seen it this bad” famous words from my guides.
He tried , I tried had a nice trip , but was not what I was looking forward to.

We keep getting cold front after cold front, bass are all screwed up right now.

[Madeintheshade]

Yea for some reason I can’t pick a good day.
Was in the 80’s 2 days prior and the day I fished, but that might not have been enough .

[Poppin' Frog]

Headwaters was doomed the minute they publicized the opening and 100 different Youtube Pro's put out videos of all the big fish they were catching. You could go back and look at threads on this very forum a few years ago and a lot of good anglers were calling it then that this place had a two maybe three year life expectancy. Unfortunately it looks like that was true. No place can withstand the pressure this place has received given it's relatively small size.

[gambler1]

Headwaters was doomed the minute they publicized the opening and 100 different Youtube Pro's put out videos of all the big fish they were catching. You could go back and look at threads on this very forum a few years ago and a lot of good anglers were calling it then that this place had a two maybe three year life expectancy. Unfortunately it looks like that was true. No place can withstand the pressure this place has received given it's relatively small size.

The double edged sword of social media! They need to close it for a while, let the fish regroup from pressure and make it a pay lake. place was amazing when it opened to boating but to much traffic has caused the decline in catching for some.

[Donnyboy]

IMO the question was well answered by the previous posters. Headwaters was amazing when it opened to say the least.
I won’t even go now. It’s a zoo. The fish are still there but pressure has hurt it badly.
Almost the only way to consistently catch fish and big ones is with Shiners. The shiner guides still catch them. Artificial trips it’s a grind. Not worth the bad road and the amount of fish you can catch. Sorta sad, hard to believe how good to how bad and quickly it happened

[reelman]

Retired buddy about 20 miles away from Headwaters and fishes it often...sadly he is cursed with fairy wand dropshot-its...catches 5 to 15 bass each trip that all look like they are starving clones and been hooked 9x before...
is a tightwad with a 2001 small Skeeter... he does not move 5-7x as advised... his grown son comes down to Fla last month and catches a 10-9 trophy out of the back of his little Skeeter boat!!!...now he is on fire...
basically is deaf to me about Fla bass fishing... so only by attrition & moving 5-7x each trip should get his first 8+ trophy...told him to try Garcia and Okee some but noooooooo.
BTW, he thought he had his first Fla trophy but set the hook 2x and lost her....who sets a hook 2x using drop shot? its bass not ocean bluefish...LOL

(I am on the SJR living in Palatka and have 5 of those 8+ trophies and a 9.23# out of Rodman in 7 years...so its fun needling him as a long time friend...he has been in Fla 30 months and not one 8# yet...)

[Manatee Mauler]

Headwaters was doomed the minute they publicized the opening and 100 different Youtube Pro's put out videos of all the big fish they were catching. You could go back and look at threads on this very forum a few years ago and a lot of good anglers were calling it then that this place had a two maybe three year life expectancy. Unfortunately it looks like that was true. No place can withstand the pressure this place has received given it's relatively small size.

Yea, thats why they should have made headwaters for "Fl resident's" only. Submit a copy of ur id and get an annual pass. As said earlier, the quickest, easiest way to ruin a lake is to want to be a "go pro" pro and post on u tube. I fished a lake a few month ago and caught a 9 and 7 back to back. Then caught a 6 and two 5's. Then went to catchin 3-5 pndrs schooling. Caught 60 in two hrs. Say anything... Hell no. Didnt report it to trophy catch, just said to a few friends who would keep it tight lipped that this place was on fire. Wife was with me and she was like o my god. She was net girl. Wound up winning a tx there a few days later but advertising it on a website would have ruined it as its a small lake.

[acesover]

What they should do is close the overflow parking area and cut the regular parking area in half. Then charge a 10.00 launch fee to launch there and the Stick Marsh and use the money to pave the road. Headwaters is a frigging zoo this time of year

[John_6788]

Ya, fishing has been tough at HW the last few months... Im an artificial only guy and man its tough some days... maybe 5-8 fish with the possibility of a 3 to 5 lber... Last year I was regularly boating 12-20 fish every trip.... almost always a few 4-5 lbers. The stupind road is pretty rough sometimes,and almost always dusty as heck... Ive been going to other lakes recently. I scored 19 fish today and 16 last Saturday... All healthy and solid fish, but no giants. Still a ton of fun.