Several factors will improve the fishing on our area lakes this month.

Water temperatures will slowly drop. Currently the average surface water temperatures are about 73 degrees.

Big fish like cooler water and you can expect the big bass and white perch to be active in shallow water.

The lake and river levels are getting back to normal after all the rain from the two September hurricanes.

High water really helps the fish by flooding new cover and adding nutrients to the water, but the high water did make it hard to locate the fish in September.

Normally our lake levels would be very low this time of year, but this certainly has not been a normal year.

So the landlocked lakes like Concordia, St. John, the Natchez State Park and Lake Bruin will be in great shape for some excellent bass and white perch fishing.

The Black River/Horseshoe Lake Complex is settling down as well.

The Old Rivers (the river bend lakes still connected to the Mississippi River) did not escape the effects of the storms.

As the hurricanes moved north all that rain had to make its way down river, and that’s what happen over the past two weeks.

The Mississippi rose from about 22 feet to 36.9 feet in just a few days. The fast rise really shut the fishing down on the Old Rivers, but the river is falling just as fast as it rose.

The stage today at Natchez is 30.5 feet. That’s a good level for catching the big Old River bream at Vidalia and Deer Park.

Just fish the flooded green willow trees in 3 to 8 feet of water with crickets or red worms and you can find the bream.

The white perch fishermen and ladies were doing well on the Old Rivers before the rise.

Numbers of fish were easy to come by but most were small. Maybe on this round the big slabs will show up.

The river forecast predicts a level of 29 feet on Monday, 27.9 feet on Tuesday and 27.1 feet by Wednesday.

A very favorable river stage and lower water temperatures should make the fish very active this month.

The bass fishing on the landlocked lakes was terrible throughout the entire month of September.

Now that the lake levels have returned to normal and the water is cooling down, the bass fishing will improve and just keep getting better as the water continues to cool off.

Fall is a great season to catch fish. The pleasure boat traffic has thinned out, the daytime air temperatures are tolerable and the big fish will be active in shallow water.

It’s time to get serious and go fishing.