A high pressure system last weekend gave way to a low pressure trough that pulled moisture up from the Gulf that brought us some much needed rain.

In the fishing scene, this is the type of weather we need. Last weekend was a pretty weekend for fishing and being out on the water, but not so good for catching.

Some nice bass were caught in the early morning and late evening hours from Lake Concordia and St. John, and the surface lure bite was on at Lake Bruin.

We caught a few on surface lures at Lake Concordia, but we were catching more on bottom lures like light jigs with a swim chink trailer or anyone of the many soft plastic creations that have swamped the lure market.

As the water clarity gets better, the surface lure bites will increase. If you like to crank and wind, Bandit crank baits that run anywhere from 3 to 7 feet will work or any crank bait brand and type that will cover the upper water column down to 7 or 8 feet will do just fine.

If you like to catch numbers of smaller bass, the Black River/Horseshoe Lake Complex is the place to go. Black River Lake is producing numbers of bass in the 1- to 2-pound range with an occasional three-pound fish and a rare four-pound bass.

Horseshoe Lake and the bayous in the Complex produce larger bass, but the water clarity was not very good this past week. The rain we had late this week did not help as far as the water clearing up, but fish survived and will eat in muddy water. Just stay extremely shallow if you fish muddy waters.

The bass in Black River Lake were hitting Bandit series 100 and 200 crank baits of any brand crank bait that will dive to the same depths as those lures 100. Of course the fish will hit light weight, dark colored jigs with swim trailers and soft plastic lures. It is more about location than lure type.

Once you find the small fish in the Complex, you can catch them just on just about whatever you like to use.

I heard many good reports from Lake Bruin. The water clarity is just about perfect for surface lures. Heddon Zara Spooks and any one of the many “slush” lures will catch bass when they are looking up to feed.

Slush baits is a term I use for the old Dalton Special, Devil’s Horse and Crazy Shad lures with one or two small props on both or one end. If the water is slick with no wind, the slush baits seem to work better than walking lures like the Zara Spook.

May is one of our better surface lure months if you have good water clarity. The bream spawn continues but it is winding down. If you can locate some bream beds and you are bass fishing, slow way down. The bass will be around at some time or another.

When the bass spawn the bream will eat the bass eggs and fry, so now it is payback time. The bass feed on the bream as they spawn. Rumors abound concerning the Mississippi River level at Natchez and Vidalia. I had people coming in the shop saying we have a 14 feet rise coming and a 10 feet rise coming.

Nope. According the predictions by the experts, the river stage at Natchez today is 40.9 feet and rising. The rise is supposed to give way to crest at 42 feet on May 13 followed by a fall that could bring the level down to a fishable stage.

That would be very usual for May but nothing has been normal in the fishing scene around here over the past few years. I did watch a couple guys fishing flooded boat ramps on the live oxbow lakes, the Old Rivers. They were catching white bass using bright colored Bandit crank baits.