Post by fish2win on Feb 24, 2022 19:45:44 GMT -5
well All this Rain flooding and warm air takes me back to a situation in Mississippi in 1977. Now let me add that the water temps in the mid south don't get quite as cold as here but still they will sink into the upper 40s. So this was in mid to late February/ The weather had been typically cool for Memphis but then we got a week of rain with temps in the upper 50 to mid 60s. There was one particular Ox Bow I fished which was just inside Miss. Every one called the place lake view but I think it was actually named Moon Lake. This Ox Bow was about 4 miles long and maybe a 1/2 mile at its widest. It was completely surrounded by ancient cypress trees that towered 50 or more feet in the air and had lots of knees that were growing towards the surface. The Miss River flooded over into it every spring and that cause d it to have an inflow and a canal outflow, The canal portion ran the length of the lake and may have been as deep as 20 feet in places.
There were two things that thrived in the magic oxbow and I fished it every chance I got, Those two things were Cotton Mouths and largemouth Bass. In the spring when the river burst over the banks it would flood way up in the woods around the lake. I remember vividly on one occasion counting almost 100 cotton mouths in a single day. They were aggressive critters that would charge top water lures and even on occasion try to get in your boat.
Getting back to the story it had rained hard for several days while the air temps hovered around 60, The rum off by 6the surrounding cotton field would concentrate in places . On this occasion the water entering into the lake was quiet warm. In fact it was so warm that it called many fish to congregate in the warmer waters. Well I was watching the 6 o clock news on Friday and low and behold they showed footage of two men killing the bass on buzz baits, The warmer water had drawn the bait feeding on every little critter that had been washed in and then every The bass stuffing them selves on the minnows. The next morning I was on the lake, We found a good run in spot and between myself and my partner Jack Stone we caught about 30 bass to six pounds on Buzz baits or by waking a spinnerbait just under the surface,
After a few days the run ins subsided, The weather turned back to seasonal temps and the magic buzz bait bite was gone. Ill never forget this odd ad sudden seasonal pattern and have longed to find that exact situation again, F2W
There were two things that thrived in the magic oxbow and I fished it every chance I got, Those two things were Cotton Mouths and largemouth Bass. In the spring when the river burst over the banks it would flood way up in the woods around the lake. I remember vividly on one occasion counting almost 100 cotton mouths in a single day. They were aggressive critters that would charge top water lures and even on occasion try to get in your boat.
Getting back to the story it had rained hard for several days while the air temps hovered around 60, The rum off by 6the surrounding cotton field would concentrate in places . On this occasion the water entering into the lake was quiet warm. In fact it was so warm that it called many fish to congregate in the warmer waters. Well I was watching the 6 o clock news on Friday and low and behold they showed footage of two men killing the bass on buzz baits, The warmer water had drawn the bait feeding on every little critter that had been washed in and then every The bass stuffing them selves on the minnows. The next morning I was on the lake, We found a good run in spot and between myself and my partner Jack Stone we caught about 30 bass to six pounds on Buzz baits or by waking a spinnerbait just under the surface,
After a few days the run ins subsided, The weather turned back to seasonal temps and the magic buzz bait bite was gone. Ill never forget this odd ad sudden seasonal pattern and have longed to find that exact situation again, F2W