Unfortunately summer came early to the Miss-Lou this year.

With triple digit temperatures in early June you can bet July and August will be scorchers.

Extremely hot, dry weather in May and June has lowered the landlocked lake levels that were already too low.

The only way we will get enough rain to get Lake Concordia back to pool stage is a hurricane, and of course we really don’t want that.

Even with a lot of rain the weir is still in disrepair and top boards were never replaced.

Lake Concordia is extremely low but still producing a few bass. Size is hard to come by but you can catch enough to keep it interesting early in the morning and at night.

With the busted up weir and the top boards removed none of the spring rains were held in the lake.

That was a bad call.

Just as we forecasted back in April and May when we were trying to get the Lake Committee to keep the water level up, we are now in a drought.

It is too late now, but this is the perfect time to make repairs on the weir.

I sure don’t see where it would be a danger to anyone to repair it at this level.

I will contact the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries again about getting the weir repaired, so hopefully it will get done while the water is low, and next year we may have a decent spawn.

The leaks in the weir are now so full of debris the only water we’re losing is from evaporation and/or maybe irrigation.

I don’t know yet about Lake St. John, but I will today because that’s where I am right now.

There is a fair top water bite going on at both lakes. Try buzz baits, Zara Spooks or any one of the many styles of poppers, chuggers and walking lures for bass on the landlocked lakes.

Once the sun gets overhead, and the heat turns on, you can either stay with surface lures cast to the cypress trees that offer the most shade or pick up a Bandit 100 or 200 series crank bait and see how much water you can cover.

Crank baits in shad, crawfish and bream patterns work well all summer.

Lake Bruin bass fishermen and ladies are beating the heat by fishing in the dark.

For some reason more people fish Bruin at night than they do Lakes Concordia and St. John.

All these lakes are good places for night fishing.

The easy pattern is to fish the lighted piers.

Try bard-colored Bandit crank baits under the light, and soft plastics fished behind the lightest slip sinker you can cast, or fish the plastics weightless.

I watch the backwaters along the Mississippi River levee every day. The water clarity went from a funky shade of brown at the higher level, which is not good, to a greenish color.

Green water is good water.

High water years are followed by some of the best perch, bream, catfish and bass fishing this area has to offer.

Get ready for a good year on the Old Rivers, barrow pits and backwater lakes along the river. This should be a great year for fishing those waters.

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