FisherBird

I've never fished in florida but I have fished alot in a small canal, the hennepin canal and the Illinois michigan canal (Both in Illinois). Both of these are very shallow, get over grown with weeds and recieve a decent amount of fishing pressure. When I bank fish them I usually use plastics only because they are weedless and its easy to carry a versatile selection of baits as your rigging options are the same. Texa pose, texas rig, wacky, drop shot etc, you can carry some terminal tackle and alot of plastics in small back pack and not be bothered by excessive weight. This also gives you alot of options and lets you fish fast or slow untill the fish tell you what they want. Something I would reccomend you look into is punch rigging, (Texas rigging with an extra heavy weight and straight shank hook) it shines in very weedy conditions and if your milking a small spot, ie your back yard on the canal fishing slow is probably your best option. Its like fishing a jig, but works better in weeds as it doesn't get fouled as often. The biggest tip I can offer on actually fishing is practice casting/flipping and invest in some heavy duty equipment that will allow you to fish narly cover. Being able to present your bait in a location that 98% of other fishermen either can't or wouldn't dare to will allow you to fish fresh water even on highly pressured locations. I kill bass in the spring on those canals by skipping tubes under bushes/trees, and this can be right behind another boat or bank fisherman.