Oxbow problems: Short term or long term?

Fall fishing is when oxbow lakes peak, and will provide the best look at the health of the fishery. The big largemouth stack around structure, like a point where a spring empties in the lake, which is where Sidney Montgomery found this fat one.

Tough bass fishing concerns some, accepted by others

Bass fishermen struggling through a poor year on Mississippi River oxbow lakes are beginning to question why catch rates are far below average years.

Others, like Dan Smith of Ridgeland, have a pretty good idea why largemouth aren’t biting and veteran fisheries biologist John Skains, who has long worked the oxbows, agrees.

Said Smith: “When we have water levels as high as we’ve had this late, and, then, when the river does fall, it does so so fast that it drops right through the prime levels at two feet a day, You aren’t going to catch many bass if you can catch any bass.”

Added Skains: “The conditions just haven’t been right for a good bite this year. And when the bottom drops out like it has in recent weeks, forget it. Fish are hard to find or pattern, and even if you were able to find them, they’re usually not in the mood to bite. They don’t like it falling like that.”

But that isn’t satisfactory for other fishermen, like longtime oxbow fisherman Joe Pettway, who is having what he calls a horrible year. He fears the poor season could be a sign of deeper problems.

“A bass tournament at Yucatan (a connected oxbow on Louisiana side) on Aug. 2 yielded only one bass, and that was 18 boats with 36 fishermen,” said Pettway of Vicksburg. “Louisiana wildlife officers told fishermen that all oxbows were having oxygen level concerns and all of the game fish were in deep water until the river stops falling so fast.

“My concern is that fish were not there through all the stages, and I am concerned that the low water that we had last year has caused this abnormality in our oxbows. Chotard, Yucatan, Palmyra, all have been terrible so far yielding only a handful of fish. I am a fisherman that has spent 40 years on these oxbows. I have always been able to put a few in the boat.”

Skains didn’t rule out the oxygen problem, but has his doubts.

“If we were talking landlocked oxbow lakes in the Delta, like Bee, Wolf or Eagle, then yes, low oxygen levels are an annual problem,” the biologist said. “I have never seen it being a problem in the oxbows connected to the river, at least not until the river falls out. I’d bet it’s more a situation where fish have just been harder to find this year due to different conditions, especially the last few weeks when the bottom started falling out of the river.”

Bite never materialized

Smith had hopes last week when he saw one river level forecast that showed the fall slowing from an average of between 1.5 to 2 feet a day to just a few inches. The forecast later changed and the rapid fall continued.

“We knew the fall was coming and coming fast, but originally they said the brakes would come on last week,” said Smith, whose favorite fishing each year is that magic summer day when everything comes together on Albermarle, which is connected to the river by Chotard Lake. “When the river is falling slowly through the mid 20s on the Vicksburg gauge, that’s prime time. They come out of the flooded timber and stack on that roadbed on the upper end of Albermarle.

“I’m afraid the magic number has done gone and went for that roadbed, and the river was dropping too fast for the fish. Looks like we missed it this year.”

OK. Let’s stop for a minute. It’s not like the year is over. Oxbows are at their best in the fall months, when the levels are stable.

Bass fishermen should still get some good fishing in on the oxbows, especially those two connected lakes north of Vicksburg. Skains thinks so.

But that ridiculous bite Smith refers to that happens when the water hits a certain level, about 25 feet at Vicksburg, and is on a slow to moderate fall — half a foot or less a day, didn’t happen.

Is the best yet to come?

Let’s hope so. The falling river level should work for fishermen, once it slows. Fishermen then simply follow the fish, which are following the shad as they get pulled toward the river. Structure like points, boat ramps, springs and steep banks with timber offer great action.

Has his doubts

Pettway fears that strategy won’t work this year, not based on what he’s seen.

“I fish the current, where oxygen has never been in question, points with current running over and around them, roadbeds and culverts, all of these places have held fish when other places would be dead,” he said. “That to me means the low oxygen content is just an easy way of saying ‘we don’t know’ what’s wrong with the lakes, but something is.”

Further proof, Pettway said, is in other species.

“The white bass are not schooling like they have in previous years,” he said. “They used to be a nuisance, now they would be welcomed.”

Doubting a bass angler with as much experience as Pettway is never easy, but then my history of 40 years of covering outdoors tells me not to jump to conclusions.

Fishermen are quick to look for any reason that explains why they aren’t catching fish, before accepting that the fish are simply winning the game this year.

I sure hope that’s the case here. Tracking the fall bite will give us the answer.

About Bobby Cleveland 1343 Articles
Bobby Cleveland has covered sports in Mississippi for over 40 years. A native of Hattiesburg and graduate of the University of Southern Mississippi, Cleveland lives on Ross Barnett Reservoir near Jackson with his wife Pam.

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