Tournament statistics and catch rates back up Thomas’ unscientific assessment. Tournaments with five-fish limits require an average of 25 pounds or more to win, and in many it takes at least 18 or 20 pounds to cash a check.

“What I like about it is the numbers of quality fish we’re seeing now,” said Pete Ponds, who cut his teeth on the 33,000-acre lake. “I don’t fish Barnett as much as I used to before I started fishing the national tours, but I fish it when I can. Over the past two summers, when I have gone I’ve been able to catch between 30 and 40 fish a trip. The fish still do what they always have, and that’s form big schools, only now the schools have bigger fish.”

Fishing patterns change year to year with the changes in vegetation. An aggressive weed and grass control battle waged by the governing Pearl River Waterway District has kept any certain weed from dominating the lake. One year it might be hyacinth. The next it could be pads.

“I wish they’d slow down because I think a lot of the improvement in bass fishing is due to the vegetation,” Ponds argued. “For nine months of the year, you need to key on vegetation. During the three summer months, key on the deep main-lake structure.”

DAVIS LAKE
If you have never considered a trip to this 200-acre National Forest lake on the Natchez Trace about 30 miles south of Tupelo, 2007 should be the year to go. After being restocked and reopened in 2001, Davis Lake has continued to improve and produce bigger and better bass.

In one week last October, the lake yielded five 10-pound largemouths as the water cooled and the fish moved up shallow.

“What I like about Davis is that you can catch them year ‘round if you just adjust to what the fish are doing,” said U.S. Forest Service biologist Larry Clay. “Obviously in the spring and fall, we have great shallow water fishing in the coves, but in the summer and winter we have excellent fishing off the lake’s bluff banks on the south shore.”

Larry Pugh, an MDWFP fisheries biologist from Tupelo, makes Davis one of his regular fishing spots.

“Especially in the early spring when the bass are bedding,” he said. “The water is clear and you can see them on the bed and you have a great chance to catch a big fish.”

The lake has a 16- to 20-inch slot limit to protect its growing fish, and anglers are allowed to keep just five fish daily. Only one of the five can exceed 20 inches.

Clay’s favorite time to fish, oddly enough, is when the fish have moved back out to the deep water in late spring and summer.

“I know a few spots where they hang out once they go deep, and I love to worm those,” he explained. “I pretty much know that if I get a bite there, it’s going to be a quality fish. Because it’s only a 200-acre lake, it shouldn’t take anyone very long to find the best spots. With electronics you can find the channels and drops, the deep brush and all the other structure that bass relate to.”

Find more about Mississippi fishing and hunting at: MississippiGameandFish.com.