FLORIDA BASS ARE FEISTY FIGHTERS.

Byline: BRETT PAULY

Minnesota is the Land of 10,000 Lakes, but Florida gives it a serious run for that lofty title.

On our final approach into Orlando, the earth appeared to be one large body of water interrupted by long stretches of terra firma . . . and every one of those lakes had bass in them - vigorous, aggressive, Florida-strain largemouth bass.

It was here I hoped to conduct a study - albeit a very unscientific one - comparing bass fisheries.

I had stalked bucketmouths in Southern California reservoirs, where the fast-growing, long-living black bass were imported from Florida in the 1950s and grow to monstrous sizes, drawing overzealous anglers from around the globe with designs on breaking the world record - 22-1/4 pounds - that has stood since 1932.

But the original stock swims in Florida and I've long wanted to go directly to the source. A cross-country contrast, as it were.

What I found is that when it comes to size, California bass are kings - 22 of the 25 biggest largemouths on record are from the Golden State. But few fish match the strength of a Florida largemouth - a smaller, spunkier quarry.

For those who have targeted the species in both states, the evidence is clear.

``Florida fish are much different. I've found that they fight better, are stronger and are a lot less finicky,'' said Ronnie Kovach of Huntington Beach, host of ``Fishing Expeditions'' radio talk show and author of ``Bass Fishing in California: Secrets of the Western Pros'' and other angling references.

Kovach attributes the striking variation to three reasons:

With so many lakes, Florida's waters aren't nearly as pressured as Southern California's and therefore the fish are less wary of artificial baits.

Florida lakes are more stained or off-colored, so the fish don't have as great a chance to study artificials and hit them more readily.

Waterways in Florida are much shallower and warmer. Higher temperatures increase a fish's metabolism, requiring that it feed more regularly. The more active the fish, the better the fight.

Of course, bruiser California bass get frequent feedings of stocked trout and can pick and choose their meals because the lower temperatures at greater depths slow their metabolism and hunger. Consequently, the fight isn't as dramatic.

``With big California bass porked out on trout in deep, cold water, six cranks on the reel and they're in,'' Kovach said.

It's a different story in Central Florida, and the proving grounds were to be at Lake Weohyakapka in Polk County.

Better known to locals as Lake Walk-In-The-Water, the 7,000-acre lake south of state Highway 60, between Lake Wales and Yeehaw Junction, was home to the hottest-hitting bass in the region.

My father, Ira, and I had hooked up with bass expert Reno Alley, who operates Memory Makin' Guides out of nearby Sebring. After musing over the notion that Dad had just flown in from his home in Reno, Nev.,a place Alley had never visited, he sped us off to the center of the lake, well stocked with three dozen wild shiners in the baitwell.

Forget fishing the banks. Way too hot for bass. Bass prefer the middle, where it's only eight feet deep and June water temperatures hover at 84 degrees - the coolest around. They try to search out cooler pockets and shad that school in open water.

The angling technique was as foreign to me as the surroundings. To say the gear was stout is an understatement.

The idea was to drift with a live shiner - along with shad, a native baitfish - on a 4/o hook and 40-pound line. A wire weed guard protects the hook's point from the hydrilla - a nonnative grass that bass hold in in an otherwise structureless lake.

A lightweight bullet sinker above the hook holds the baitfish down, while a cork bobber placed 3-1/2 feet above it keeps the shiner from hiding in the weeds.

``The shiner bumps across the top of the grass like he's swimming and it doesn't stand a chance,'' Alley explained. ``That bass is going to come out of there, vroo, and he's gone.''

The equation worked and Dad was onto his first bass in quick fashion - a 1-1/2-pounder to start the action.

The key is the set.

``When I say `hit,' I want you to hit this fish as hard as you can, and just start winding him,'' Alley said. ``No mercy; this is 40-pound test.

``That pound-and-a-half fish might have been a 12-pound fish; you don't know down here in Florida what you're going to catch from hookset to hookset.

``You try to horse him in. If he's big, he's just going to go around the boat and you hang on for dear life.''

That kind of action even with such heavy line?

You bet.

Alley switched from 25-pound line years ago because he lost too many trophy fish. Besides, these frantic fighters dive for the hydrilla if you don't turn their heads fast; you'll be glad to have heavy line when a bulky stringer of grass comes piggybacked to the bass.

Ira was certainly happy to be backed by big artillery when he hooked - and landed - a 7-pounder on the last cast of the afternoon.

Jerkbaits are also popular down South, and, with 12-pound outfits, more sporting. Find your cast-and-retrieve rhythm - a fluid motion of jerking and winding a shiner-imitation lure fortified with three treble hooks - and you'll be into bass soon enough.

Alley laid out the strategy in down-home terms: ``There is a theory in Florida bass fishing: There's got to be a jerk on both ends; if he jerks, you jerk back.''

And if the bass aren't hitting, the chain pickerels usually are. A cousin to the Northern pike, the chain pickerel is an anomaly. Considered a sportfish in state regulations, it is thought by many local anglers to be a trash fish for its bony flesh and tendency to beat up plugs - or run off with them entirely - with their sharp chompers.

We netted a dozen bass to 7 pounds on a half-day excursion; my largest was 4 pounds. Twenty fish to 13 pounds on a full day is not unusual; a 15-pounder is rare.

Despite the success of us rookies, Florida can be a major source of frustration for out-of-state anglers, since the lakes have no structure - structure that so many anglers depend on for visual cues to throw baits.

``It's not like fishing in other parts of the country; there are no drop-offs, no creekbeds, no rock piles, no stumps,'' said Tom Champeau, a regional fisheries administrator for the Florida Game and Freshwater Fish Commission. ``Our lakes are like saucers.

``In Florida, you have to get into the (hydrilla) jungle to catch fish.''

It is that bountiful vegetative habitat - in some places so overrun it makes navigation nearly impossible - that leads to high reproduction rates of bass. And greater competition for food causes the fish to be more aggressive feeders.

``They can't be picky and wait for a rainbow trout to come by; they have to hit whatever swims by,'' Champeau said.

And so my study was complete and I returned home with proof that Florida-strain bass direct from the source are feistier fighters than their progeny to the West.

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2 Photos

Photo: (1--color) Florida bass guide Reno Alley weight a 7-pound largemouth boated at Lake Walk-In-The-Water. Florida bass are regarded as easier to catch.

(2--color) When the bass aren't biting in Florida, the chain pickerels - cousins of the northern pike - usually are.

Brett Pauly / Daily News