The tricks thrown at fishermen by Mother Nature in late October are gone now, and that should produce a treat as the first weekend of November approaches.
Winds are lying down, temperatures are rising, the moon is waning and the high pressure has stabilized, combining to create outstanding fishing conditions throughout Mississippi. From white bass schooling up at Sardis to largemouth at the oxbows, it’s heating up again.
It didn’t take long for fishermen to find results, including bass chaser Tom Fairchild of Vicksburg who caught fish Wednesday and Thursday.
“Hammered them late yesterday afternoon, and got back on them again this morning,” said Fairchild, who got lucky at Eagle Lake. “Been a while since I’ve seen fish turned on like they were this morning (Thursday).”
Even more excited was Jimbo Turner of Oxford, whose plan to catch crappie at Sardis turned into an afternoon of tangling with white bass.
“My buddy and I were going to join the crowd trolling for crappie but when we were heading down the lake I saw fish blowing up off a point,” Turner said. “We made a U-turn, raced back to the spot and there must have been an acre of fish schooling up on the surface. I’d always heard about the white bass but figured after the big fish-kill there this past spring I’d probably graduate (at Ole Miss) before they ever came back.
“I’m guessing it must not have been too bad, the die off I mean. We sat on that one spot and caught white bass after white bass for two hours. We didn’t have a lot of that kind of stuff with us but we had ultra-light spinning gear and were able to rig up some 2-inch grubs and that was good enough.”
Turner, of Brandon, a senior, said the fish averaged 1 to 1½ pounds.
“People say they aren’t good to eat, but we liked them just fine,” he said. “I guess if you are a hungry college student, then they must taste better. We cleaned about 100 last night and fed about 15 people.”
Schooling white bass are a given at Sardis each fall as shad migrate back into coves and up the river. The white bass gather on points and ambush the passing schools of shad.
Fairchild also used shad to find his fish at the oxbows.
After scouting the nearby oxbows Chotard and Albermarle for an upcoming club tournament, Fairchild decided to stop off at Eagle Lake to fish for an hour late on Halloween.
“I was in no hurry to go home and hear the doorbell ringing (trick-or-treaters) so I turned into Messina Landing at Eagle and decided to give it a look,” he said. “I only had about an hour and a half to fish so I launched and decided to stay pretty close to the ramp. I started fishing the piers right there and I picked up a couple of decent fish — maybe 2 pounds each — flipping the pilings in 5 feet of water.
“While I was taking the second one off the jig, I heard something and looked over a couple of piers, about 50 yards away, and thought I saw some fish chasing shad. I thought I was crazy so I went back to fishing, but I kept watching the area just in case. Then I saw it again.”
Fairchild raced over to the spot between two old piers.
“I threw a red lipless crankbait (a Yo-zuri) where I’d seen the movement and immediately caught a 3-pounder,” he said. “I caught two more almost identical in the same spot but that was it. But I have learned over the years at Eagle that if you find them doing something like that around piers, go find a similar situation and there will be fish there, too.”
The situation he was looking for was any kind of cover, in 5 feet of water, between piers with a lot of manmade cover. The crankbait was difficult to work so he switched to something more brush-friendly.
“I whacked them pretty good over the next hour with a chartreuse and white spinnerbait with a red split-tail plastic trailer,” Fairchild said. “It was good enough that I decided to come back today and hit it again. Today, I started with a buzzbait and I got there at 7 and left at 10 and had caught (and released) 22 when I quit. The topwater bite lasted about an hour and I went back to the spinnerbait and it was just like (Wednesday). I caught my biggest fish, about a 5-pounder, on my first cast with the buzzbait. It was the only big one I caught but the rest were solid 2- to 3-pounders. It was fun.”
What about Chotard and Albemarle?
“I hate to tell you anything about it with my tournament there this weekend, but I don’t think it’s any secret what you do in the fall,” Fairchild said. “Between last weekend and Wednesday, they started hitting pretty good. I caught them on four different lures, the Yo-Zuri, a lizard, a spinnerbait and a Bandit 250. Start shallow early and cover a lot of water and then move to the deep banks later and use the 250.”
Here are a few other hot spots to try.
Tenn-Tom Waterway, Columbus Pool: The fall crappie bite has begun, with fish moving shallow and being caught around cover 5-8 feet deep.
Barnett Reservoir: Crappie are being caught along the edge of the river, mostly within a mile either side of the Highway 43 bridge. The striper bite that was so good on shallow humps near the river prior to last weekend is back on. Average fish are running 5 to 7 pounds and a limit (6) is possible on crankbaits.
Pickwick Lake: The big schools of shad are moving into the backs of the coves and you know what that means. Yep, the bass are moving with them and the fall bite is on. It took 25 pounds (5-fish limit) to win a tournament there last weekend. Take lipless crankbaits and cover as much water as you can when you find the shad schools.
Lake Bill Waller: Go late in the afternoon and use a frog around vegetation. That is producing the bigger bites. For more but smaller fish, use plastics around shallow cover. The fish have moved up.
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