The bass and crappie were just beginning to move up when this cold front blasted through.

Water temperatures fell several degrees and that, of course, will delay the spawn. Keep a close watch on the weather. When we get a few days of sunshine with warmer temperatures, the bass and crappie will move to the shallows. That’s not to say you can’t catch some nice fish right now. Just dial your trolling motor down to the lowest speed and slow your lure presentation down.

When confronted with post-frontal conditions, the strike zone of the bass and crappie will be very narrow. An accurate cast and a precise lure presentation will put fish in the boat regardless of water temperatures. Numbers of fish will be hard to come by, but the average size of your catch will be on the heavy side.

The big slab crappie and sow bass are loaded with eggs. This is a great time to catch a trophy fish.

Vidalia resident John Bruce recently landed and released a nice Lake Concordia bass weighing just over eight pounds. That’s a good sign.

Lake Concordia’s trophy bass were hard to catch last year at this time, but with the higher water levels we should have a good spawn this year.

Please remember to take a camera along and practice CPR … Catch, Photograph and Release. If you don’t have a camera when fishing Lake Concordia and you catch a big fish, just bring it to Lakeview Lodge. The crew at Lakeview will weigh the fish, take a digital pic and make that picture available to you.

Well, most of you know I am no longer working in Vidalia selling boats. This past Monday was my first day with Thomas Marine in Gonzales, La. I really like it down here working with the super nice team at Thomas Marine and we have a huge inventory of boats. The Cajun hospitality is second to none and the food is great. I’ve probably put on an extra five pounds in the short week I have been here.

I don’t mean for this to sound like an ad but if you need information on Triton, BassCat, Chaparral Ski Boats, Bennington Pontoons or Sunsation offshore powerboats shoot me an e-mail at eddie@fishingwitheddie.com and visit our Web site at www.thomasmarine.com.

The Sunsation Power Boats are fine. Powered by twin 550hp high output Mercruisers, these rigs can cruise at 100mph or more comfortably. Some models feature flat screen TVs, microwave ovens and the works.

We have Chaparral ski boats powered with 4.3L to 6.2L I/O’s. The 6.2L has a 320hp! Everything down here is fast; high quality and all boats are showroom stored. Nothing is outside.

Even though my family and I will be living in Gonzales, I will continue fishing the area lakes, directing and competing in local and state-wide bass tournaments, as well as my radio work with 95Country and writing my newspaper columns.

Eddie Roberts writes a weekly fishing column for The Natchez Democrat. He can be reached by e-mail at fishingwitheddie@highstream.net.