By Robert H. Cleveland

Imagine that a lunker largemouth is pulling hard against your line, bending your 7-foot rod in an arc and giving your forearm and shoulder a workout. The water is boiling; your temperature's rising. The pull is unrelenting.

This is no ordinary bass. If you can beat it and get it to net, it'll prompt some indecision. If trophies are among your goals, it's obviously a wallhanger qualifier. But ...

You work the fish in, pulling it away from a log and leading it like a dog on a leash away from any other line-threatening obstacles. Finally, your fishing partner is there at your side with the net in the water and it's done. The big fat sow bass is yours. It's in the net, and then in the boat.

Then you can finally exhale, and when you do, the vapor forms a cloud in the cold air. You give your partner a celebratory high-five, and the slap stings your skin in the cold air of February.

Yeah - that's right: February. Sure, it's likely that the forecast temperature in Mississippi will be 50 degrees or lower. And, yes, you will have to wear insulated clothing if you go fishing. But when it comes to catching a trophy largemouth bass, there is no better month in Magnolia State waters than the second month of the year.

The reason's simple: It's the peak of the pre-spawn period, when female bass are at their biggest, full of eggs and at the peak of feeding activity. By instinct they know that the rigors of spawning lie ahead, and feel the need to fill their bellies, ensuring strength for the spring rites.

From the coastal rivers to the Tennessee line, and from the Mississippi River lakes to the Tenn-Tom Waterway, February is trophy bass month in Mississippi.

"The pre-spawn process actually begins a lot earlier, but it does peak about a month or six weeks before the females move up on the beds," said fisheries director Ron Garavelli of the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks. "Big females feed heavily any time we have a run of warm days in the winter. They take the opportunity to gorge."

Garavelli can (and did) point to the state record book to back that up. The largest bass known to have been caught in Mississippi is an 18.15-pound largemouth taken at Natchez State Park on New Year's Eve of 1991. Anthony Denny of Natchez threw his twitch bait at a surface swirl that looked like a big bass feeding - which it was. He caught the lunker in 2 feet of water.

Big as that hawg was, it's likely that in February, after two more months of feeding and with a fully developed egg sac, the fish would have been bigger. A weight of 19 or even 20 pounds could have been possible.

"We are a year-round bass fishery in Mississippi," Garavelli asserted. "Our winters are not so severe that we have a down season. There may be some periods as long as a week or 10 days when we have a deep freeze that can shut the fish down, but they are rare. Our bass have a 12-month growing period."

Obviously, the further south you move in the state in February, the more consistent the fishing you'll find. But a few north Mississippi lakes can be very good, too.

While most bass waters can be productive at times, history indicates that trophy hunters should target a certain few lakes for sure. So put on a few layers of clothes, grab the rods, and load the boat and hook it up to the truck. Give these waters a try.

As the original stocking class of Florida bass has matured, giant fish have turned up in creel reports. Bass in the 13- and 14-pound range were reported in 2003, and that year-class should be reaching full maturity this year.

Lying well inside the southern third of the state, Columbia is one of those lakes that are particularly noteworthy in February. Lunkers are caught by using pre-spawn tactics and then targeting the spawn during the month.

Most of Columbia's big female bass are in a pre-spawn pattern in February - holding on deeper cover at the edge of the spawning areas in shallow coves and upper lake regions. In a pre-spawn mode, they are most vulnerable on the third day of warming weather patterns. Those conditions push them up toward the banks for feeding, and fishermen can exchange slow fishing patterns like a jig-and-pig for spinnerbaits and even soft-plastic twitch baits.

Vulnerable as the lunkers are then, that exposure is nothing compared to what happens when they move to the beds. Biologists say that spawning on many of the southern lakes like Columbia can start as early as mid-January - and that works for fishermen knowledgeable about sight-fishing over bass beds.

Columbia has unusually clear water, even in the rainy winter months. With polarized sunglasses, fishermen can easily spot big females on the shallow beds and then coax them into striking. It's a practice that many local anglers and visitors perfected on Columbia's neighboring lake, Lake Bill Waller.

Waller was one of the first MDWFP lakes to be renovated and restocked with Florida bass back in the 1980s. The record bass for that lake stands at over 15 pounds, and an occasional trophy is still surrendered there, despite the long-ago disappearance of the original stocking class.

"There's a lot of people down here who are pretty good at fishing the beds because of their experience on Waller," said O.T. Sutton of Columbia. "I don't know if it is good for the lake, because it is so effective. You can see those big females on the beds, and then it's just a matter of antagonizing them into striking. I've seen people cast hundreds of times to the same fish before it bites."

Lessons learned on Waller and other lakes are being put to good use on Columbia. The daily limit on Columbia is five bass per day, only one of which can be over 18 inches. All bass between 14 and 18 inches must be released immediately.

For information on Lake Columbia, visit the MDWFP Web site at www.mdwfp.com. Click the Fishing link; go on to State Fishing Lakes. Next, click on District 5, and then, Lake Columbia. Regulations and a map of the lake are available.