2004 FISHING CALENDAR The calendar is in PDF format. The Adobe Reader can be downloaded for free here.

By Bob Borgwat

Fishing in Mississippi: frantic, or relaxing; adventurous, or homespun; mysterious, or plain as an old shoe. The state's fishing resources are so varied that anglers can apply just about any adjective and find some facet of the sport that fits the bill.

Let's take a look at a year's fishing in the Magnolia State that may test your fishing line and your vocabulary.

The top lure pick among locals is a rattling, sinking crankbait retrieved at varied speeds or slow-trolled in deep water adjacent to sandbars.

Other options: Don't discount the action you can find for sheepshead around bridge pilings and bulkheads along the coast. The deep-bodied and black-barred fish have extremely strong jaws for munching the barnacles on the pilings, so drop a shrimp around this structure.

Sauger fishing in Bay Springs Pool of the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway up in northeast Mississippi is good in midwinter, too.

You'll need to exercise tremendous patience if you're to entice a bite from the real trophies in these waters. Slow-moving baits are tops, including jig-and-pig combos and plastic worms in dark colors.

Other options: Spotted bass gang up in 20 to 30 feet of water on the ridges, channels and river bends of Bay Springs Pool.

Wintertime tactics for speckled trout in deep holes and boat basins continue to draw solid catches of legal-sized fish. Check out the oyster bottoms in the 30-foot holes of Graveline Bayou.

Suspending jerkbaits and 3/4-ounce spinnerbaits with a single brass willow-leaf blade are the lures favored by local anglers. Fish either one in 8 to 10 feet of water on secondary ledges and humps near spawning areas of clay and pea-sized gravel. The ideal water temperature range is 48 to 56 degrees.

Other options: The upper Pearl River above Ross Barnett Reservoir from the state Highway 43 bridge to the low-head dam comes alive with spotted bass in early spring. Bright tailspinners and small rattling crankbaits can put more than 100 fish per day in the boat for a pair of anglers.

Large speckled trout first show up this month as the warming waters of the Mississippi Sound pull them out of the passes in which they wintered.

Photo by Ron Sinfelt

Pull middepth crankbaits 10 to 16 feet deep off the pier ends on the east side of the lake to Muddy Bayou. Don't overlook making a few passes around Garfields Landing on the west side as well.

Other options: Red snapper season opens this month. A basic terminal rig of a 6-ounce sinker and a No. 5 or 6 circle hook tied to the main line will get you great catches of snappers in the Gulf of Mexico when you bait up with cut squid or cigar minnows.

Crappie fishing at Pickwick Lake can yield 50 to 60 fish per party this month. Toss 1/8-ounce curlytail, tube and hair jigs close to brushpiles in 8 to 10 feet of water.

A cane pole is arguably the easiest tackle for icing down a limit of bluegills. Rig it with a No. 10 wire hook, a quill bobber and a small split shot. Thread the hook with a cricket, a red worm, a mealworm or a maggot and then drop it along shady shorelines, pier footings, laydowns, mossbeds, stumps or lily pads - and get ready for a fight!

Other options: Saltwater anglers know the bars on the outside of Horn Island yield up some of the season's hottest cobia fishing. Bait up with live sea cats and freeline them, or use a balloon to present them to loitering cobia.

Call them what you like - "ground mullet," "whiting," "southern kingfish" - these fish gather in big numbers on the oyster beds on the front beaches, where they gobble up cut bait fished on the bottom.

Common baits include night crawlers, stink baits and cut shrimp presented "straight up" on a Carolina-rigged leader and slip sinker. In most cases, a No. 8 treble hook offers plenty of holding power when attached to a foot-long piece of 10- to 12-pound monofilament. A 1/2-ounce slip sinker placed on the main line ahead of a barrel swivel completes the rig and offers little resistance to a cat trying to steal off with the bait.

Other options: Anglers who look to the Pascagoula River of southeast Mississippi should find blue cats plentiful. Scale your tackle accordingly, because these cats can grow quite large; the state record weighed in at an even 93 pounds.

Head for the Yazoo River in southwest Mississippi to round out your catch of Magnolia State cats. Flatheads, which are plentiful, take live baitfish around snags, stumps and laydowns.