While the rain did keep some people off the water, this short work week could not have come at a better time.

The bass are extremely active and fairly easy to locate. Cold weather over the past week has lowered surface water temperatures from the low 60s to the low to mid 50s and as we predicted the cold water turned the big fish on.

David Cooper won a recent bass club tournament on Lake Concordia with the first 20 pound plus 5 bass limit I have heard of in months.

Cooper also had the big bass of the day, a fine Lake Concordia bass that feel just ounces short of 6 pounds. Most of Cooper’s fish were caught pitching a jig in 4 to 10 feet of water. Concordia Bass Club recently fished Bayou Louis.

I really don’t like to fish the bayou lakes this time of year, but did manage, after many cast, to win the event with five bass weighing 17.16 pounds anchored by the big fish of the day a 4.93 bass.

Jr. Book was right on my heels with 16 pounds and some change and James Mullins had a good day landing third place with a little over 15 pounds. Had the water been a little higher, Bayou Louis could have produced some heavy weights.

And had I not had frostbit hands after a long cold early morning boat ride in 27 degree air temperatures, I could have weighed over 20 pounds.

Low water had pulled most of the fish off the shallow cypress trees and I caught the largest four bass of the five fish limit in 4 to 8 feet depths.

You can bet this holiday weekend will produce some big bass as well. Lakes St. John and Bruin are in good shape. Jig the main lake brush piles in 10 to 20 feet of water on Lake Bruin and you’ll catch the bass.

Soft plastics like Net Baits Action Cat fished on a Carolina rig will produce numbers of bass from Lake Bruin’s ledges.

There are some fish in shallow water around the cypress trees but that pattern requires a lot of casts to cover enough water to put together a shallow water bite on Bruin.

Lake St. John may not have the water depth that Bruin has, but St. John is home to a good population of largemouth bass. The manmade brush piles are holding some nice fish as are the deeper cypress trees.

Again, jigs like the Davis Paca Jig in crawfish or bream patterns will catch the bass from the cypress roots and brush piles. Rat-L-Traps cast between the piers on St. John will produce bass as well as hybrid stripers.

Lake Concordia’s bass are relating more to the piers than the cypress trees but that will soon change. Try Davis jigs around the thick cypress roots this weekend.

For those that don’t like to pitch jigs, because they are slow bite lures, try small crankbaits and lipless lures like the Rat-L-Trap. Soft plastics like the Zoom brush hawg fished behind a heavy slip sinker will work almost as well as the jig. Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving holiday and we’ll see you on the water.