“They weren’t shallow anymore, including this one line of pads and stumps on a stretch of the river shelf where I had found them that week,” Alford recalled. “I knew the fish hadn’t moved too far, because the shad were still pretty thick in that area. I had hit the stumps, and the pads, and had nothing. I moved to a few similar areas and couldn’t find fish.

“So I went back to my No. 1 spot and changed: I pulled out on the river, tied on a deep-diving Bandit crankbait and worked it along the deep side of that shelf. We were running out of time and didn’t have but a few minutes. I made a couple of casts, and -- bang! -- I caught this 7 1/2-pounder. I made a couple of more casts and had another one on that was bigger, but it threw the hooks.” Had Alford caught that second fish, and had it been as big or bigger, it would’ve won the event. Still, the fish did catch won the lunker pot for the event.

“I had caught similar fish shallow that week, and they moved that quick,” Alford said. “That’s typical for Barnett in May.”

The upper river area of Barnett is popular during the post-spawn period for several reasons -- one of which has nothing whatsoever to do with the fish. Wind is a problem in May, often leaving fishermen with that choice. The lake is no place to be when bass are shallow and on stumps and the wind is blowing.

“The river is a great post-spawn area also because of the various patterns it offers,” Ponds offered. “Depending on how fast the lily pads have developed, they offer post-spawn fish a great hiding place for ambushing shad.

“Pad points, both on the river and secondary in the backwater areas, are one of the first places that fish go. If the pads are thick, you can run a frog over them and target monster bass; if they are still thin, or they’ve sprayed them, then a lizard or a spinnerbait is good.

“That year that Dwight Cranford won the Heart tournament with that lipless crankbait was amazing,” Ponds continued. “Everyone knew the fish were in the pads, but for some reason they weren’t hitting frogs or worms or buzzbaits. He didn’t give up, used really strong line and threw a Rat-L-Trap right into the thick of the vegetation, and then pumped it up and down off the bottom, often having to snatch it out stems and all. I can’t imagine the strength and perseverance it took to do that.”

Weather permitting, the upper half of the main lake is the bass angler’s area of choice in May. It outproduces the rest of the reservoir combined when wind allows access to the open water.

“I think the No. 1 pattern on Barnett in May is finding the big fish in the first stage of transition out of spawning areas on the big lake,” Ponds said. “The sows move out first and they gather on secondary ledges, like the first drops out from the spawning area. From their scattered bedding areas, they seem to home in on those first ledges and form schools.