South Mississippi deer sluggish? Try bass

Give Rob Doherty a decent late fall or early winter day and he will find bass, like these two "green trout" from the Jourdan River.

Early deer season is often a struggle in South Mississippi, where warm temperatures and inactive bucks and does can make even the most devout hunters think about…

Fishing…

And, there’s good reason. The very same conditions that make life difficult for deer hunters make for excellent days on the water for avid bass anglers.

It doesn’t take a long trip to find some hot action either. On a warm fall day in late November or early December, the fishing is as good as it gets all year.

“Man, we got plenty of choices,” said Rob Doherty, a bass fisherman from Hattiesburg who knows the region very well. He fishes all over South Mississippi and promotes it whenever he can.

“You want tidal water, we got great coastal rivers,” he said. “You want small lakes, we got a lot of good state lakes. You want big lakes, you may have to drive just a little further, but we got that, too. All you gotta do is choose which you want, and get after it.”

Doherty has his favorites, and if he is free to fish today there’s a pretty good chance he’s sitting on Bill Waller Lake near Columbia. It’s the closest hot spot to his home, but the trip’s ease is not the attraction. He likes it because it offers both quantity and quality fish.

“It’s got a big bass population,” Doherty said. “Of course, it is dominated by smaller bass, but, because of the way they manage the bass, there are a lot of big ones. You can get bit and your pole bent.”

Waller’s 170 acres are well managed as a trophy bass lake by the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks, which has a restrictive limit to promote good growth. The daily limit is 15, but comes with two caveats — no fish between 16 and 22 inches can be kept and only one over 22 inches is allowed. The agency promotes harvesting smaller bass.

“This time of year, I usually search for 6 to 12 feet of water, on a point preferably and with timber, and fish it slow,” Doherty said. “I like a 6-inch finesse worm, dragging it around as much cover as I can. Blue-bird days are particularly good for that pattern. Give me a warm, cloudy day in front of a cold front and I will change up and start looking for active bass. Soft-plastic jerkbaits, topwaters … they all come into play.”

Choice No. 2 requires a longer trip, but it’s one Doherty willingly makes for a shot at Lake Okhissa, near Bude on Homochitto National Forest. With all the shad migrating up the creeks and coves of this 500-acre Lake, Doherty knows where the fish will be.

“I follow the creek channel on the upper end of the lake, or go up in the backs of the coves and I know the fish will be there,” he said. “When the shad move up each fall and winter, the edges of those channels will be open to a drop-shot, especially on the high-sky, blue-bird days.”

As winter approaches, Doherty starts aiming his truck and boat south towards the coast and the many coastal rivers where tidal fishing offers steady bass action.

“No giants, like TV fish, but just a lot of fish,” he said. “They call them green trout down there, not largemouth bass. My top choice is the Pascagoula River and I stay in the backwaters. The Potocaw Bayouare is always a good place and I like a pearl Senko style worm dead-sticked near docks or around other forms of structure.

“No. 2 would be the extreme lower end of the Pearl River, and I love a small ¼-ounce spinnerbait down there. I do the same thing at my other coastal destinations, like the Jourdan River, which is the prettiest place in Mississippi to fish. It’s got a lot of fish, too, but again they are small. The same kind of pattern also works on the Tchoutacabouffa River and Gulfport Lake.”

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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