Several factors make October one of the better months for fishing the area lakes. The most important is cooler water temperatures.

As the night time lows began to dip surface water temps drop and game fish move shallow to feed. The threadfin shad, the most abundant baitfish in our area lakes, spawn in mid October.

When the shad spawn there will plenty of bait fish in shallow water and that’s where you will find the most aggressive fish. Another factor is less fishing pressure.

Hunting season in some form opens in October and many park their boats and head to the woods. Less pressure on the fish means more fish for those that fish year round.

Pleasure boat traffic has really thinned out. Surface water temperatures average about 80 degrees and that is a bit cool for swimming. Due to a fast rise that brought the Mississippi River level up from about 20 to today’s level of 29.1 feet the landlocked lakes are now getting the attention.

The fast rise made fishing tough on the Old River bend lakes but don’t give up on the Old Rivers just yet. If the long distant forecast holds up we should see a sharp fall come down river late next week. In the meantime the bass fishermen are catching limits from several landlocked lakes.

Lake Bruin scores a first place this week as the best place to catch numbers of bass on surface lures. Just be on the water early and the top water bite will be strong. If it’s a cloudy day the bass will be looking toward the surface for a meal on Lake Bruin. Lake St. John’s bass are under very little fishing pressure.

Try surface lures early and jigs or soft plastics once the sun comes up. St. John is home to a nice population on hybrid stripe bass as well. The stripes tend to roam open water during the heat of summer. Once the water temperatures drop below 80 degrees the big strippers will move shallow.

Fish the seawalls and the open areas between the piers on Lake St. John for stripers. Rat-L-Trap type lures work best but spoons and tail spinners will catch their share of fish as well. Lake Concordia’s bass are feeding heavy on shad in the flats.

Numerous limits are coming from this 1000 acre landlocked oxbow lake. Small shallow diving crankbaits, Rat-L-Traps and a host of soft plastics will catch the active fish.

If you’re looking for trophy bass on Lake Concordia stick with bottom lures like jigs and Sweet Beavers. October is here and this is a great month for fishing our area lakes and rivers.

Eddie Roberts writes a weekly fishing column for The Democrat. He can be reached at fishingwitheddie@bellsouth.net.