The 10th Annual “Fishing for a Cure” McCartney Oil Team Bass Tournament will cast off Aug. 23 on the 4-Rivers. This annual event near Jonesville attracts some of the best bass tournament fishermen in the area.

This year we made a few changes to possibly help with the long line at the launch ramps. Contestants may launch from any boat ramp from Jonesville Lock and Dam north to Columbia Lock and Dam. This includes all landings on the Ouachita, Tensas, Black and Little Rivers.

You can pick up an entry form at Sports Center Natchez or Eddie’s Marine in Vidalia. Eddie’s Marine will once again conduct the weigh-in.

You can mail your fee in or attend the registration and supper at Little River Park Friday evening. Fishing hours are from 6 a.m. until 3 p.m.

The rivers may be rising a bit with all the recent rain, and that may be a good thing. The higher water levels will create a stronger current. Faster currents cool the water down a few degrees and the fish will be more active.

The rivers have been producing numbers of bass this summer and if we get a cloudy day and a good current there will be some nice bass brought to the scales.

The entry fee is $110 per team and all proceeds will go to the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

We’ll have plenty of food and drinks at the weigh-in, along with lots of door prizes. Come join us on Saturday Aug. 23 for fun filled day on the 4-Rivers.

The launch ramps were busy on the old rivers this weekend. The river on a slow fall and the bream, white perch, white bass and black bass are biting.

The bream are eating crickets in two to eight feet of water, between the dead timber and green willows. Keep your bait right off the bottom for the larger fish.

If you fish too shallow the small bream will steal your bait. The white bass are bunching up near the ditches and on the south end of the old rivers.

Try spoons, bright colored crankbait and tail spinners for the hard striking white bass. The river stage today at Natchez is 30.7 and falling.

By Wednesday, the stage should be around 29.5 feet. The very best stage for the white perch is 28 feet and falling.

This coming weekend should be the weekend the white perch turn on at the Old Rivers.

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