Apparently the price of fuel is not going to keep people from boating and fishing.

Our lakes took a pounding this weekend.

Lakes Concordia and St. John are pretty much stirred up today.

That’s not to say you can’t catch fish behind all that boat traffic.

The boat traffic bothers the fishermen more than the fish.

The best report on the bream fishing is coming from the backwaters, the flooded woods along the Mississippi River.

The problem with this is that includes thousands of acres of flooded woods.

Normally by the first of July the “old river” bend lakes at Vidalia, Deer Park and Lake Mary are at a much lower level.

Last year at this time the river stage was in the 20-foot range.

Today the level is about 25 feet higher than last year’s stage.

The gauge at Natchez read 45.5 feet with a slight rise in the forecast. Hopefully we’ll get a slow fall soon.

Everyone’s waiting to see what effect this year’s high water level is going to have on the fish.

Predictions are that the Old Rivers will be the place to be for bass, bream and white perch once the Mississippi drops to a favorable level.

You can catch the bream right now by fishing near the flooded barrow pits and small lakes.

With a river stage of 45.5 we’re only two and half feet from flood stage.

Normally the river stage would be down to at least 35 feet in late June and we would have access to the boat ramps.

Those ramps are now about 10 feet underwater. I recently spoke with several backwater fishermen that are quietly loading up on the big bream.

Try fishing the flooded banks of the backwater lakes, the flooded gravel roads and near the barrow pits.

The bream, the big bluegills, are holding in 4 to 5 feet of water.

That tells us they may still be spawning. The river bream spawn later than the bream in our landlocked lakes.

The Natchez State Park Lake is producing some nice size bass this summer. I heard of several caught weighing over 7 pounds.

With the opening of Okhissa Lake in Franklin County the bass in the park lake are not getting beat up. Try big surface lures early and late.

During the middle of the day try a heavy jig, at least 3/4-ounce and trail the jig with a 10-inch to 12-inch worm. You don’t get many strikes on the big jig and worm combo but when you do its usual from a big bass. Don’t forget that your Louisiana fishing licenses expired on June 30th.