Chuck, the fish we caught in the stick marsh were big bodied in relationship to there weight. They appeared to be heaverier than there actual weight, which means I which I was there for the spawn but was too late. We fished the dams as first and it was nothing to see a dozen gators as a given time. There were a lot of trash fish like the gar and mud fish that were a nuisance and the bass we did catch were dinks as we drifted down the canal from the dam. The next morning we went to the stumps and we caught some nice bass, my biggest being a 4.8 lber on the gold back. My brother used the jerk method on the rapala but didn't do as good as I when I was working it a couple foot down as a crank bait. When he was watching me though I would act like I was jerking it so he would think that because he wasn't doing near as good as I using it as a crank. [:-]I tried goldback and blue back rattle traps but they kept getting hung up. The stumps is the place to go but the right time of the year is important too, also I only saw a gator or two while in the stumps so it not too far from the ramp, a small jon boat like yours would be ok. The game warden was out there when we were there but we didn't get chequed. Keep in mind that bass are catch and release only. Good Luck.
Bobby