It's that time of year again. The bedding is almost over and the bass are moving to their summer pattern. The water is clearing and normal pool has arrived. Time to get out the crankbaits and soft plastics.

We fished a tournament Saturday on the Tensaw Delta. Boats scattered both north and south. Rumor has it some traveled 50+ miles (they probably didn't pass any bass). A check of the boats before blastoff revealed lots of crankbaits and lots of soft plastics.

My partner and I followed suit. He had been on the water midweek and found some fish on 200 series Bandits, mistake and splatterback. We headed to similar water only to find a heavy stain, incoming tide, south wind and the river rising from water released from Claiborne dam. I managed to pick up a solid keeper on a chug-bug early, then worked the splatterback and caught 6 more fish…all short! My partner worked a worm most of the day and managed 2 keepers.

Once back at the weigh in we found 2 limits caught south on worms. Of the 27 fishermen only 15 managed to show for the weigh in. The fish that were caught were caught mostly on soft plastics. Texas rig worm led then floating or jerk worms second.

This turned out to be one of those trips that was tough, much tougher that expected. Many of our members had prefished and found fish as expected but with the unexpected conditions we had to scramble to put a keeper in the boat.

Better luck next time, Keep your line wet.

Fred