Saturday morning around daylight I drove by the two marinas on Lake Concordia. At Lakeview Lodge, on the south end, the parking lot was full.

That was at sunrise, so those were fishing boats. Around noon on the weekends, the pleasure boat traffic will kick off. I spoke with Gina Garrity, the manager at Spokane Resort on Lake St. John, and she said their lot was full as well.

The bass fishermen and ladies are struggling on both lakes, but the water is warming up fast, so the early morning and late evening top water bite should be good for the next month or so. If the bass won’t look up to eat, try a Bandit 100 or 200 series crank bait and see how much water you can cover.

There is no use in running around here and there looking for a glory hole on these lakes anymore because the glory holes no longer exist. If you want to fish piers on Concordia, just run approximately halfway up the lake, drop your trolling motor and fish the west bank. If you had rather fish cypress trees, fish the east bank. If you are fishing Lake Concordia during the early morning hours, the east bank will have more shade, and shade is what you need to find to catch the bass.

The bream are spawning but we never had a major wave of spawning bream move up at the same time. The spawn has been spread out over a month or so now, but you can catch the bream from lakes Concordia, St. John and Bruin, as well as Saline/Larto or any of the other landlocked lakes. Many of us have been bass fishing the landlocked cypress tree lakes hard since November of last year when the Mississippi River rose and messed the fishing on the Old Rivers up. We’re ready for a change, ready to leave the landlocked lakes and fish the live oxbows, which are only fishable about six months out of the year if not five months.

Of course, the fishing on these live oxbow lakes depends on the river stage, and we are watching the river forecast closely. We had a crest, so the river is on a slight fall, a very slight fall.

The stage at Natchez today is 50.3 feet. On Monday, the forecast predicts a level of 49.9 feet. It is not easy, but you can catch the bass, bream and perch when the stage at Natchez hits 40 feet and falling. The best level for the bream fishing is 35 feet and falling, and that is a good level for the bass if you know where to go.

The bream will be holding far back in the flooded green willows, and it will take some time to locate the big Old river bream, but when you do you can load up on some nice-sized fish. Check the flooded gravel roads and the drains leading from the barrow pits to the Old Rivers as well.

If the fall speeds up, there will be current in these drains ad when find current the baitfish will be there. Find the baitfish and you will find the bass, bream and perch. The best level for white perch fishing the Old Rivers is approximately 28 feet and falling, but with a little hard work, you can locate and catch the perch during the higher levels.

Moving across the levee to the unprotected side to fish the live oxbow is a seasonal deal that usually works out great for everyone. Once the river drops low enough to fish the Old Rivers, the pleasure boat traffic is really thick on the landlocked lakes, so the fishermen and ladies cross the levee to the one of the Old Rivers, where you rarely see a ski boat and very much boat traffic. Just keep a close watch on the river stage.

I will start fishing the Old Rivers at 40 feet and falling. The Old Rivers offer the best summer bass, perch, catfish and bream fishing in this area.