From Lake Toho in Central Florida to Kentucky Lake in Tennessee, tournament anglers are finding productive bass fisheries that may also be profitable.

Lots of Southern lakes produce bass, and they can offer tough fishing to the various tournament trails that visit. But some waters yield better catches to tournament competitors, even though the anglers may have seldom, if ever, fished those lakes. Perhaps the tactics effective on some are more commonly employed by the tournament anglers, or maybe those waters are easier for the visitors to quickly figure out.

Regardless, some lakes produce well, and the tournament organizations love them. A well-known tournament angler, Carroll Hagood, has participated in over 100 major tournaments throughout the South. He's won over $500,000 on the Bassmaster trail, having fished the Top 140 level tournaments over 14 years. He placed fifth in the 1991 Bassmaster Classic and won a major Yamaha event (and $50,000 cash) held on Central Florida's Lake Tohopekaliga. The 58-year-old professional fisherman, who has fished both national and regional events and runs the Day Dream Guide Service out of Auburndale, Florida, shares his knowledge of the South's best tournament waters.

Here are the top 10 bass tournament lakes around the South (in no particular order) where pros, like Hagood, continually catch the most and biggest bass and the tactics that best produce tournament-winning bass from them.

1. Lake Tohopekaliga, FL
These central Florida waters in the Kissimmee River chain are big-fish waters where 25 pounds is the minimum needed to win most 5-fish limit events in the winter and spring months. The top tactic here is flippin' 3- and 4-inch crawworms, tubes and lizards around the bedding largemouth. The big females are the ticket to a tournament win here. When flippin', an angler is usually fishing for the big fish rather than for numbers... Read Full Article