Several things will happen in the fishing world during the month of May. The bass spawn will be complete, and the normal patterns will take over.

Expect a good early-morning and late-evening activity period this month. The bream are in the shallows bedding, and the catfish spawn will begin.

The crappie won&8217;t be that hard to find as long as water temperatures stay below 85 degrees or so.

The largemouth bass will readily take top-water lures in May. Water clarity will play a big part in your success when fishing for bass with surface lures. Target clear water, but if there is none available, use big noisy lures like the double-prop lures or big black buzz bait.

The crankbait bit will pick up this month. A couple local favorites are the Bandit series 100 and 200. It&8217;s hard to beat black and chartreuse or any shad pattern crankbaits like a black back pearl Bandit.

Any one of the many soft plastic lures will work. Baby Brush Hawgs, flipping tubes or just a plain 6-inch plastic curl tail worm will produce bass in May.

The bream spawn is wide open. Lake St. John and Concordia are producing numbers of bluegill, long ear and a few chinquapins. Just fish along the cypress trees until you locate a bed and you can mop up on the bream.

Of course, crickets and red worms are always productive. But if you like artificial, try beetle spins.

The fly fishermen are using wet flies like the Ligon bream killer. Later on in May popping bugs will begin producing some nice bream as they begin to look toward the surface for a meal.

I&8217;m still hearing good reports from the crappie fishermen. Try the Black River Lake Complex. They were catching some nice crappie in Black River Lake, Workinger and Cross bayous this past week.

Things have been quiet on Horseshoe Lake, and that&8217;s strange because Horseshoe is loaded with big slab crappie. Over near Jonesville, the crappie biting was good on Haw Haw Bayou just off the Ouchita and Black rivers.

The bayou may be muddy after all the rain, but it&8217;ll clear up in a couple days. Try black chartreuse tube jigs and, if the biting is slow, use live shiners.

There is an open bass tournament scheduled for May 13. A MDA Benefit Team Bass Tournament will be out of Lakeview Lodge on the south end of Lake Concordia. The entry fee is $100 per team with an optional big bass division.

Entry forms are available at The Sports Center in Natchez and Bryan&8217;s Marine in Vidalia.

This will be a good event held for a great cause. Your participation would be greatly appreciated.

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

fishingwitheddie@highstream.net

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