Registration for the Relay for Life Bass Tournament on Lake St. John will cast off Monday.

Contestants can register at my store, Eddie’s Marine in Vidalia, from Monday through April 1.

We will accept registration fees on the morning of the tournament at Neely’s Spokane Resort.

If you enter the morning of, please bring cash. The fee is $120 per boat. You can fish alone or as a team.

We’ll have a number draw and turn the boats out one at a time for safety reasons.

Thirty-percent of all fees collected will be donated to Relay for Life. The remainder of the fees will be paid out to the contestants weighing in the largest five bass limits.

The $120 entry fee includes a big bass division. This is a non-profit event.

Come join us Saturday April 2 for a fun-filled day on Lake St. John.

The bass fishing has not been that great on Lake St. John and that’s actually good news for those planning to cast for a great cause.

The bass spawn is winding down. There’s a short time period during the spawn when the fish just aren’t active. That’s what we experienced a week ago.

The fishing was super tough but that should change by next weekend. Once the fish leave the nest they will be lean and hungry.

Lake St. John’s water level is in great shape. The level was a bit on the high side this weekend, but it’s slowly falling so I look for conditions to be great for this tournament.

I noticed this morning that the cypress trees are budding.

That’s a sure sign the surface bite for bass will now come into play. There is nothing better, nothing more exciting than catching big bass on surface lures.

Post spawn fish love top water lures in April.

Of course the early morning bite is best when using surface lures, but never rule out the surface bite during the middle of the day. Just target the thickest cover that offers the most shade and you can catch fish on big top water lures all day.

Make repeated casts to the good looking areas and you can call the fish up. This year’s spawn is just about over on most of our lakes and it sure didn’t last long.

Some lakes, like Concordia, were drawn down several feet in March and low water is not a good thing for a successful spawn.

This is the first time in 35 plus years I have ever seen a landlocked lake on a draw down during the spawn and still do not understand why the Lake Board did such.

I thought the weir was vandalized, but found out it was drawn down intentionally.

There was enough rain to keep the level at a reasonable height but the boards were intentional removed from the weir and we lost all that rain water.

The lake is very low so be careful boating in the north flats. There are stumps exposed and some just inches under the surface that I have never seen so be careful.

We are already feeling the effects of lack of fish caught on Concordia this spring. You can bet three of four years from now this year class of bass will not be very numerous.

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