Robbie Bridges' eyes sparkled when he first saw Davis Lake.

"This looks interesting," the avid bass fisherman from Brandon said. "You say this lake is loaded with lunkers? If that's so, then we ought to have some fun."

His excitement wasn't dulled by his lack of knowledge, or experience, on the lake in the Tombigbee National Forest just off the Natchez Trace near Houston. What he saw thrilled him.

"What is it, about 200 or 225 acres?" Bridges asked.

The answer was 200.

"Subtract over half of that, at least, because of the season, and we've got about 75 or 80 acres of fish-holding possibilities," he said. "We should be able to learn what we need to know on the fly."

That's exactly the attraction of small-lake bassin'. Eliminating water and learning the available fish-holding cover doesn't take that long.

Being a tournament bass fisherman, Bridges is used to dealing with major lakes and reservoirs hundreds of times bigger than Davis. When he pre-fishes for a tournament on those big waters, he can spend as much as a week just learning how to get around and much more when it comes to learning the nuances.

Not so at Davis and several other outstanding public lakes in the northern part of Mississippi. Bridges needed just 10 minutes to motor around Davis, and another 10 or 15 identifying likely fish-producing patterns.

"You don't even need a map," he said. "You like having contour maps to find the creek channels, but that's not absolutely necessary. I can eyeball the likely paths of the channel coming out of the upper end and running along that steep bluff bank on the south side.

"But this being April, I think we'll just head into those coves and see what happens."

Only 20 minutes had passed when Bridges made his first cast.

It took five more to put the first fish in the boat. The 2-pounder wasn't near what we'd come looking for, but it certainly served as proof of the value of the smaller lakes.

We scored and we scored quickly, and anybody who bass fishes can appreciate that kind of success.

Regrettably, a cold front arrived several hours earlier than expected, ending our day a few minutes after that first fish with a wicked display of lightning.

We raced back across the ski area, where running on plane is allowed, made it to the boat ramp and had the boat on the trailer when the bottom fell out accompanied by a lightning bolt that hit a nearby tree.

"Another advantage of small lakes," Bridges noted. "Can you imagine what it would have been like had we been or a reservoir or a river, miles from the ramp and the safety of the truck today? That would have been hairy."

Northeast Mississippi is loaded with many opportunities for fishermen who prefer small lakes.

"It's actually a lot like a golf course," said Larry Pugh, a former fisheries biologist for the region who now serves as the state's Assistant Director of Fisheries. "This course has several great holes -- fishing holes -- that are ideal for fishermen who like new challenges and like weekend trips.

"You can come up here and base out of Tupelo, for instance, and there are nine or 10 lakes, 250 acres or less, to choose from. Not all of them are great trophy bass lakes, but most of them either offer a good shot at a big fish, or if not, they offer the opportunity to catch numbers of smaller fish. Pick your poison."