Photo by Ron Sinfelt

If Hernando De Soto had been a bass fisherman, he might have recognized the Tombigbee River of eastern Mississippi as a premier bass fishery. Then he would have stopped to wet a hook, and avoided ending his journey beneath the surface of the Mississippi River.

Of course, De Soto and his band of 1,000 soldiers could not have imagined in 1541 how the twisted network of stained streams and oxbows, dotted with cypress trees, stumps and lily pads, would look today. Though much has changed since this fertile labyrinth became the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway in the mid-1980s, its waters still give up lots of largemouth, spotted and, occasionally, smallmouth bass.

De Soto crossed the meandering Tombigbee River en route from Florida to his date with destiny near where Lowndes County meets Monroe County and what is now the midpoint of the Tenn-Tom Waterway. Stretching 230 miles southward from Yellow Creek on Pickwick Lake at its north end, the waterway connects the Tennessee River with the Gulf of Mexico. Along the way, 10 navigation pools are backed up by a series of locks and dams. The major pools entirely within Mississippi are Bay Springs Lake, Aberdeen Lake and Columbus Lake.

BAY SPRINGS LAKE
Midsummer bass fishing at Bay Springs Lake heats up in ways different from what's seen at its sister lakes. Located near Tishomingo, the 6,700-acre reservoir is a clear, deep impoundment that remains cooler than the lakes to its south. As a result, its spotted bass are about as numerous as largemouths, whereas only a smattering of smallmouth bass will be found swimming its waters. Those latter fish may have come downriver naturally, or may have been caught in tournaments on Pickwick and released in this reservoir.

"It's a fantastic spotted bass lake," said fishing guide and Strike King pro staff angler Roger Stegall, of Iuka. "While the general public fishes for largemouth bass with typically big baits, there're a lot of spotted bass being taken by anglers who understand that small lures can turn big catches of spots. A lot of 5-pound spots are caught on Bay Springs by anglers who know how to fish for them."

Lying in the Magnolia State's Hill Country, Bay Springs Lake floods many old stream bottoms, forming long points and deep coves. Rocky shorelines are abundant, and old roadbeds cross many of the creek bottoms. Submerged hilltops and old pond levees -- such as the Josh Pond Levee south of Crow's Neck -- create underwater humps that concentrate both baitfish and bass in deep water under the summer sun.

"The magic depth in summer on these humps seems to be 22 to 30 feet for both largemouths and spotted bass," Stegall said. "For largemouths, I work the deep dropoffs and old roadbeds 25 feet deep with spinnerbaits and 10-inch plastic worms Carolina-rigged. The spots bite best on smaller lures -- drop-shot rigs with 4-inch baits and the so-called french-fry plastic worms, also Carolina-rigged."

Stegall favors long leaders on his Carolina rigs because a 5- or 6-foot leader gives your bait a freer action. "You might as well throw a Texas-rigged worm if you think 3 feet is long enough for your leader," he asserted.

At the end of that leader is a 6-inch worm that might not draw as many strikes as will a smaller finesse-sized plastic worm, but the strikes you do get are generally larger bass.