The other spring option is to run all the way past Garfields to the end of the lake and find the pad stems. "I've killed the big bass in the pad fields in May and June," said Vicksburg's James Thornton. "You'll know when it's right. You will see bass blowing up on shad all over the pad stems. If it's a quiet day, there won't be very many times that you won't hear at least one big fish blow up every 15 or 20 seconds.

"I've caught them on everything from a frog to a swimming lizard, and from a spinnerbait to a buzzbait. The key is to keep the bait moving, no matter what you're using, because the bass are active, and it's like they want to chase something."

As for the river-connected oxbows, the best idea is to watch the nearest river gauge to each lake. Anytime you see a fast rise or fall, forget it.

"Oxbow bass don't like any kind of rise, and they don't like a fast fall either," Montgomery said. "You also need to know that the water temperatures on those lakes are going to be a lot cooler in May than what you will find in lakes and reservoirs. The water coming down the Mississippi from the Ohio and Missouri river systems are cool. But that doesn't mean that you can't have some outstanding days in May, and especially in June, if the water levels are fairly stable or on a slow fall."

For Chotard and Albermarle, which are connected by a channel, watch Vicksburg. Whenever the river is 14 feet or higher -- which, 99 percent of the time, it is in May -- it affects the two lakes. Watch for a period after a rise when the river crests and then has only a slow fall, Thornton advised.

"What I like to do in that situation is to run to the upper end of the lakes, as far as I can get away from the river, and fish the banks where the water is falling," Thornton said. "Seems like the water is warmest up there and that the bass will move up into those areas to feed during the rise. A rise opens up a lot of newly flooded backwater banks.

"After it starts falling, the fish will pull out with it, and I do good fishing tight to whatever cover is available each day.

"Now -- if it's a fast fall," he concluded, "forget it!"