Full moon cycle keeping the action constant
Changing weather patterns this week have played havoc with many fishermen, but there are a few exceptions. “I was disappointed that the cold fronts knocked the shad down off the surface and ruined the fishing for striped bass and hybrid bass this week, but oh buddy it sure hasn’t hurt the crappie fishing,” said William Thomas of Jackson, whose deeply-trolled crankbaits kept enticing slab crappie on Barnett Reservoir. “The wind has kept the jig fishermen off the lake but it hasn’t hurt the trollers.”
Thomas limited out three times in the past 10 days and came close on his three other trips — the kind of action you can’t beat with a stick.
But, what about a cane pole?
“Man, if it was any better for bedding bream, it’d be insane,” said L.J. Watts of Canton, who hit bedding bluegill a lick every day beginning on Friday and ending on Wednesday. “This full moon cycle has been as good as any I’ve ever seen. It has been constant action, and it hasn’t required any rocket science.
“Cane poles and crickets and access to any stocked lake or pond and it would have produced ice chests full of big ol’ hand-sized bluegills. My cousin and I fished through some pretty weird weather two days and filled two 48-quart ice chests both days and left them biting when we ran out of crickets.”
Private lakes produced solid catches all over Mississippi, but so did some of the public waters like oxbows along the Mississippi River and the lakes managed by the Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks.
In the South Delta area, Eagle Lake and the connected oxbows Chotard and Albermarle have been red hot for bluegill, and that means some of the biggest slabs on average anywhere in the south.
“I was catching some good bream last week at Chotard in 8 feet of water, fishing over brush about 4 feet deep,” said Glenn Thomas of Vicksburg. “Then about Saturday, I noticed the action was slowing. So I moved up shallow, found some beds and really whacked those big bluegills. Same thing happened in Albermarle. I went up to the upper end and got shallow and it was really, really good.”
Tippah County Lake near Ripley, Elvis Presley Lake near Tupelo, Neshoba County Lake near Philadelphia, Calling Panther Lake near Crystal Springs and Lake Perry near Beaumont have all been red hot for bedding bluegill.
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