The big issue this week is not &uot;what to throw,&uot; but &uot;where to go.&uot;

The Miss-Lou anglers have numerous lakes, rivers, ponds and barrow pits to fish.

They are heavily populated with bass, crappie, bream and catfish. I’ve heard good reports from just about all of our area waters.

The crappie and bass are spawning and it won’t belong before the big bream will move up.

I keep hearing the same story over and over concerning the crappie. Everyone is loading the boat with male black crappie and catching very few females or white crappie.

The males are holding in real shallow water. I spoke with one fisherman that reported catching crappie in less than a foot of water.

Some believe the female crappie either moved shallow early and moved back out or they have not moved up. I believe the latter.

The crappie and bass spawn is spread out over a two- to three-month period, and it’s very possible the best fishing is yet to come.

Keep checking those areas holding the male crappie. The big females could show up any day. Be in the right place at the right time and you can load up on the slabs.

Bass fishing is good one day and bad the next. That’s because the bass are well into the spawn, and they can be very picky eaters when pre-occupied with the spawn.

You can find bass in deep water, shallow water and all depths in between. Some females have spawned and others have not.

As with the crappie, you have to be in the right place at the right time to catch bass during the second half of the spawn.

April is a great month to fish for bass with surface lures. Some females have spawned. The male bass that guard the nest can be very aggressive.

A successful presentation can change from one day to the next. Normally I would start out with an ultra slow retrieve when fishing top water lures in April.

If strikes are few and far between, try the opposite and work the surface lure hard and fast. Stir up a lot of water.

This type of presentation will often trigger a reaction strike when a slow, subtle retrieve doesn’t work.

Work the lure aggressivly for a few feet, and then kill the retrieve and let it sit.

Don’t move the lure for as long as you can stand it. I’ve had big largemouth bass take a &uot;dead&uot; lure that’s just bobbing around on the surface.

When they do take it, they usually slam it.

Eddie Roberts writes a weekly fishing column for The Natchez Democrat. Reach him at

fishingwitheddie@highstream.net.