June was a tough month to catch fish on the area lakes.

Extremely dry weather with air temperatures topping out in the upper 90s raised surface water temps into the upper 80s.

The bass, bream and white perch fishing for the most part was hit and miss… and most missed.

There is one area that’s only a short drive from Natchez that produced many limits of bass and some nice size white perch this month, and it’s still not too late to fish these waters.

The 4-Rivers near Jonesville and Harrisonburg, La., were the most consistent producers of quality limits this month.

Just above Jonesville, the Ouachita River ends and becomes the Black River and just to the east of this intersection, the Tensas River joins the Black River and to the west the Little River converges with the Black River.

This is only one area in the United States where four rivers meet within such a short distance. The 4-Rivers, between Columbia lock and dam and Jonesville lock and dam, offers many river miles to fish including several hundred acres of backwater lakes.

To successfully fish this area you have to watch the river stages. Pool stage on the Black River at Jonesville’s headwaters is 34 feet.

The best level for fishing this river system is anywhere below 42 feet down to 34 feet. The stage today at Jonesville’s headwaters is 37.1 feet and falling.

As long as the rivers are on a fall there will be current, and current is what you need to keep the fish active. Once the Black River drops to pool level (34 feet) the current, for the most part, will be gone and the fish activity drops off.

For slab white perch try the backwater lakes, Town Lake and Rosin Creek north and south of Harrisonburg. Haw Haw bayou just north of Jonesville is also produces a few nice white perch.

The rivers are the place to be when water temperatures on the landlocked lakes are in the mid to upper 80’s. The current keeps the fish active.

Closer to home we’re still waiting for the Mississippi River to drop to a favorable stage for fishing the live oxbows at Deer Park, Lake Mary, Vidalia and Yucatan.

The long distance forecast predicted a level of about 37 feet for this week but that did not happen. An unexpected rise came down river and today we have a level of 42 feet at Natchez.

It’s a slow rise that should bring the level up to about 43 feet over the next few days and then a sharp fall is in the forecast.

So July will be the month for limits of bream, white perch, white bass and largemouth bass on the Old Rivers.

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