The stick marsh is located in the central section of Florida on the East coast near the town of Melbourne. This body of water contains two different sections, the stick marsh and farm 13. When it was originally constructed the two sections were separated by a dike which ran east and west. The  two bodies of water were designed as holding ponds for the run off of water from the local orange groves. The section known as the Stick Marsh was not cleared of any trees, brush etc. and when it was flooded it was almost impossible to get thru the heavy area's. This made a bonanza for the fish to hide and grow, the fishing was great. The other section was a vegetable farm and it was flooded with everything left in it also. It never contained the mass population of trees and brush that the stick marsh had for the exception of the south side. It had a lot of irrigation ditches between flat ground where they had grown vegetables before it was flooded.

After a few years they blew the west section of the dike out so both sides were accessible to fishermen. This meant that there were 2 sections of water that were full of Bass and pan fish for the fisherman to enjoy. Both sections of water now are basically referred to as the Stick Marsh. Since the inception of the lake it has been catch and release for Bass with no exceptions. You are allowed the normal limits of other fish that are in the lake like crappie (speckled perch) which can grow to 3 lbs., bream, cat fish, bow fin, gar etc.

The lake had it hay days in the 90's where catches of 50 to 100 bass per day were normal. The lake still has days when you can catch 50 bass per day when the conditions are right and the fish cooperate. The storms in the area over the past years have helped to remove a majority of the trees that were left standing and several of the stumps although when the water level is low you can still find many stumps. The majority of the grass if not all was ripped out from the storms during 2003 and has just now started to come back. This has for the past couple years made fishing a lot tougher on the lake due to the water staying dirty for several days during windy conditions. Once the water clears the fishing gets great and stays that way until it churns up again.

The stick marsh still holds large numbers of bass over 10 lb. in it but they are a little smarter than in the past. Once the grass left the easy fishing went with it and it takes more patience and skill now to find those larger bass. Big bass don't get big by being stupid, they are older and smarter.