with D.D. Murphy

    May is a transition month for bass, especially on northern Alabama lakes. The bass are moving and you have to follow them to have good catches.  But they do travel on predictable paths and they hold on predictable spots.  Wheeler is an excellent lake to pattern May bass and catch numbers as well as heavy sacks.

    Covering 60 miles on the Tennessee River, Wheeler is the second biggest Alabama Lake.  This TVA lake runs from the Guntersville dam to the Wheeler dam and goes from a river run to huge flats near Decatur to a highland type reservoir toward the dam. Dammed in 1936, it contains 67,000 acres of water and over 1000 miles of shoreline.

    D.D. Murphy grew up in the area and has fished Wheeler for 36 years.  As a youth he fished the lake with family members for anything that would bite. When he was 16 Coach Ronnie Hindman took him bass fishing on Lake Eufaula and he was hooked. Since then he has concentrated on catching bass and has learned Wheeler’s secrets.

    Owning a bait and tackle store in the area as well as fishing many tournaments on Wheeler helped D.D. figure out how to catch Wheeler bass. He has fished the BASS Weekend series the past two years and placed fourth on Wheeler last year and third there the year before.  His best tournament catch on Wheeler was a five fish limit weighing 28.12 pounds and he has landed a 9 pound, 15 ounce lunker from the lake.

    “Most tournaments are won on the flats between the nuclear plant and Limestone Creek,” D.D. said.  The big flats in that area produce heavy tournament strings and it is the area he fishes.  May is an excellent time to find schools of big fish moving across the flats and holding at the mouths of creeks.

    By late April 90 percent of the bass have finished bedding, according to D.D.  You might find a few still in the very shallow flats spawning but most are following ditches out to deeper water.  Find a bend in a creek channel or ditch and bass will be holding on it.  Points where the channels hit the main river also hold big schools of bass.

    The flats on Wheeler are very shallow, with two to six feet of water covering huge areas.  It does not take much of a drop to hold bass and give them something to follow. D.D. will watch for a change as little as six inches to one foot to know he is in a good place.

    Hard bottoms are a key. Shell beds are a favorite feeding place for May Wheeler bass. Those shell beds attract baitfish, the key to finding active bass on Wheeler.  Also, there will be some shad and bream spawning in May and they are attracted to the hard bottoms which brings the bass in to them.

    The flats and ditches have many stumps on them and bass love to hold around a stump.  That is also a good cover that D.D. searches for and if he can find a good stump bed near a shallow hump with shells on it he knows bass will hold there.

    A variety of lures will catch bass right now on Wheeler.  D.D. will have a Terminator spinnerbait, a Rapala or Strike King crankbait, a jig and pig, a Carolina rigged lizard and a Zara Spook tied on when he goes out.  All are thrown on Castaway or GLoomis rods and he uses heavy line, usually 17 pound mono.

    The water is usually stained at Wheeler but not muddy so shad colored baits are best and the heavy line does not spook the fish.  White with some chartreuse is a good color for the spinnerbait. In late April smaller blades work well but as May progresses and the baitfish get bigger he will go with bigger silver blades on his bait.

    Crankbaits that run ten feet deep or less are the best on Wheeler.  Most areas D.D. will be fishing may drop off to deeper water but he expects the fish to hit in four to six feet usually.  Shad colored crankbaits are the best for fishing this shallow water.

    D.D uses a homemade jig and tips it with a craw trailer.  Greens and browns are best in May. A jig and pig is his go-to bait for big bass. D.D. says more big bass have been caught on a jig and pig and more tournaments won on them than any other bait.

    He will also drag a Carolina rigged lizard and uses one-half to three-quarters ounce leads unless the wind or current is strong. Heavier sinkers help locate the shell beds and rocks as you drag your Carolina rig along but since the water is less than ten feet deep you don’t have to go to a full ounce sinker.

    The Spook is a great big-fish bait and chrome is a good color. It will draw strikes from fish holding at the depths D.D. likes to fish and a Spook walked over a drop with stumps on it will produce good bass.

    The following ten spots all hold May bass and are some of D.D.’s favorites. The GPS coordinates are in degrees, minutes and seconds.

    1. N 34 34 39.5 – W  86 53 13.4 – Creek mouths are good because bass migrating out of the creeks to deeper water will hold on cover and structure as they move out. But not all creek mouths are created equal.  Limestone Creek is a good example of the kind of structure you need to look for to hold bass.

    The upstream side of the mouth of Limestone Creek has flats and shallow water.  There is a river ledge that runs between the flats and the mouth of the creek, dropping off at the end into the creek channel and on the side into the river channel. This point is covered in stumps and is the kind of point or ledge that will hold bass.

    D.D. will position his boat in deep water off the end of the ledge, keeping it on the river side.  He will make long casts with his baits so they work across the point from different angles but always coming downstream.  You can work around the end of the point starting with one bait like the Spook then as you get into the creek side turn and fish back with another bait like a Carolina rigged lizard. That gives bass holding there a look at two different kinds of baits.

    If you catch a fish continue to work the bait it hits. After going some time without a bite try one of the other baits. Sometimes a change-up will get bites from fish that won’t go after the bait that has been working. Try to hit stumps with your Carolina rig and crankbait here.

    2. N 34 35 06.6 – W 86 55 32.9 – The mouth of Flint Creek is different in that it has more bends and flats on both sides with a river ledge on each side where it hits the main river.  Start at the upstream river ledge and fish it from several angles. It is best. Then try the downstream ledge.  You can also fish into the creek, keeping your boat in the creek channel and casting to the lips on either side.

    There is a sharp outside bend that swings over close to the bank not far into the creek.  Outside bends of channels always offer a hot spot where bass will hold up. The drop is usually sharper and it gives bass a quicker escape route.  Always watch for bends like this one and fish them carefully.

    Fish into the creek until you stop catching fish.  In late April and early May bass will still be filtering out of the creek and more may be back in it than later in the month. 

    3. N 34 38 31.7 – W 87 0 31.3 = Go downstream under the Highway 31 and railroad bridges and watch to your right.  At the second black channel marker buoy upstream of the Swan Creek Daylight Marker 302.3 slow down and idle across the river ledge. Watch your depthfinder and head straight toward the north bank.  You will be in shallow water about six feet deep or less but you will cross an old lake that drops into 11 feet deep.

    Start fishing as soon as the water drops off, working the lip of the old lake. Keep your boat out in the 10 to 11 feet of water and cast up across the flat, bringing your bait from shallow to deep. Fish all the way around the lake working like this. It will take some time to outline the lake bed but it can hold bass all around it.

    This is a pretty clean bottom with no stumps. There may be a little grass growing here. Milfoil used to fill the shallows and make the lake better but low winter pools have killed off most of it. If you hit any grass fish it carefully.

    This lake bed attracts lots of baitfish so watch for them. You will often see them skip away from your bait while it is in the shallow water and that is an excellent sign bass will be nearby. 

    Since the bottom is clean D.D. will often fish a lipless bait like a Rat-L-Trap here, one of the few places it can be worked without hanging up.  If he needs a bigger bass or is looking for tournament fish he will go with a big bait, starting with a three-quarter ounce and even fishing a full ounce Trap.

    This is also a good place to fish a crankbait, bumping bottom as you come across the lip of the old lake.  A spinnerbait slow rolled across the drop is also good.

    4. N 34 38 32.8 – W 87 01 28.9 – The mouth of Baker’s Creek is good but different.  Upstream of it the plant on that side has two water discharges so there is often current here even when the river is not moving.  There is a small island with trees on it in the mouth of the creek and flats on both sides of the channel. Where the creek enters there are rock piles on either side.

    Fish all around these rocks. Shad may spawn on them and bait fish are drawn to them. The current improves fishing here as it does on other spots but it is more consistent here due to the discharges.  Fish with the moving water as much as possible, keeping your boat on the down current side and casting back up and across the rocks.

    Current makes bass feed and you will often find it flowing over the points at the mouths of creeks. Current coming down the river and out of the creeks will create eddies that confuse baitfish and offer bass a good place to ambush them. Watch for any changes in the current if it is moving.

    5. N 34 39 11.6 – W 87 02 25.1 – Going downstream watch for the channel split where it goes on either side of Finley Island. The island is underwater but the shallows split the channel. Right at the head of the island, on the upstream end, is a red and green striped buoy marking the point of it.  This point is three to six feet deep and holds bass.

    D.D. will fish both sides of the point, positioning his boat downstream of the point out in the channel on either side and casting upstream, working his baits across the end of the point and down the sides.  You can throw a crankbait, spinnerbait, jig and pig and Carolina rig here, fishing with any current coming down the river.

    6. N 34 39 54.1 – W 87 03 28.4 – Across the river channel you will see Byrd’s Island Daylight Marker 299.3.  Go to it and fish the river ledge on both sides of it.  There are no ditches across it but there are shell beds on both sides that hold bass. You can feel them with a Carolina rig or heavy jig and pig to locate them and then fish all your baits over them.

    Watch carefully for any rise, even if it is only six inches.  This will often mark the shell bed so if you see your boat is coming up into more shallow water fish closer to it. You may be sitting on the sweet spot and casting past it.  If you do get your boat up on top of the shell bed mark it then come back later and fish it.  Your boat may spook the fish in the very shallow water but they will come back.

    7. N 34 39 26.5 – W 87 03 28.4 – If you go straight south across the channel from the marker in hole 6 you will cross the middle of Finley Island. When it gets shallow idle across the flat and watch your dephfinder.  The water will be three to six feet deep then suddenly drop off to 11 feet deep.  This is an old farm pond that was on the island and you can see it on good maps.

    Grass used to grow all around this old farm pond and hold fish. There are some stumps here and you may find a little grass now. Get your boat into the middle of the pond in the 11 foot deep water and fish all around it, casting your baits to the shallow water and working them back across the drop.   

    Here and other spots bass are more likely to be on the upstream side if the current is flowing.  They can hold in the deeper water in the old pond and baitfish coming downstream with the current will wash across the lip of the drop and make and easy meal. Try to make your crankbait or spinnerbait look like a baitfish coming downstream with the current.

    8. N 34 40 36.4 – W 87 03 17.2 – Several creek channels wind across the big flats in the mouth of Swan Creek and join up. There are also ditches off them and high spots on the edges of the channels and ditches.  Bass moving out of the vast spawning flats behind these ditches will follow them out, stopping to feed on bends and high spots.

    The mouth of the creek is between the marker in hole 6 and the power line but it is small and there are stumps here. Be very careful going it until you learn your way. You will be going across flats only two to three feet deep in many places and sometimes the deeper channels are lined with stumps. Idle speed is safer.

    Go in and find the sharp bend in the creek channel. It is due north of the downstream end of Finley Island, although a long way from it, and south of the big island in the mouth of Round Island, Briley and Mud Creeks where they all come together.

    There are two shallow humps just off the lip of this ditch.  Fish all around it and work up the ditches, following them looking for breaks and humps.  Bass will hold on any change and feed here.

    Your Spook is a good search bait here and in other places. Make long casts across the ditch edges and work it along them. A hit will usually mean other bass are holding in the same area.  Fish your Spook but also follow it up with crankbaits, spinnerbaits, jig and pig and a lizard.

    9. N 34 40 32.7 – W 87 04 27.2 – If you follow the creek channel downstream it will run between two sets of towers on the power line.  One tower set is out near the river channel and the next one toward the north bank and the ditch where two creek channels join and make a bend before going out to the river between is them.

    Fish the ditches like the ones in hole 8 but also fish the towers.  The concrete piers of the towers have rocks around them and often draw in schools of shad to spawn around them.  Fish all around the tower bases with topwater then run a spinnerbait or crankbait right beside the legs.  Stay downstream and cast upstream to work your baits with the current if it is moving.

    D.D. says a big tournament was won here by fishing these towers.  The channels are like a highway the bass follow and the towers are like fast food joints along the highway. Bass will hold and feed around them all during May.

    10. N 34 40 33.9 – W 87 05 51.6 – The mouth of Fox Creek offers flats on both sides with a channel snaking across them to join up with the river.  D.D. sits out on the river and throws across the upstream point formed by the creek and river channel, fishing a crankbait or Carolina rig across it.

    Dark lizards seem to be better and D.D. likes the Zoom lizard in either black or Junebug.  He will vary his sinker weight with the current but likes lighter leads when possible, unless trying to find new shell beds.

    Fish both sides of the creek mouth and work into it, following the channel across the flat, especially in late April and early May.  Search for schools of bass with faster moving baits then fish them and your slower moving Carolina rig and jig and pig for bigger fish.

    Try these ten spots then find others by studying a map looking for ditches and humps. Spend time on the water fishing those places. Try D.D.’s baits and tactics and you will catch plenty of May bass at Wheeler.

with Steven Fikes

     If you like fishing for shallow bass you love April.  All over the state bass are in the shallows either spawning or feeding after the spawn.  If you really like fishing for shallow fish around grass and lily pads you should head to Aliceville on the Tombigbee River.  Its backwaters are full of bass feeding around shallow cover right now.

     Aliceville, also called Pickensville by some, is an 8300 acre impoundment formed by a lock and dam on the Tombigbee River west of Tuscaloosa right on the state line.  The dam was closed in 1980 and water from the river filled many sloughs and shallows on both sides.  There a couple of good ramps and some lakeside campgrounds for visiting anglers.

     Many bass fishermen from both Alabama and Mississippi fish Aliceville and it hosts a good many club and pot tournaments. In the 2007 BAIT Program it ranked in first place for the bass per angler day and pounds per angler day categories.  Combine that with a third place ranking in percent success, fourth in average bass weight and second in hours per bass over five pounds and Aliceville got the top ranking of the 27 lakes in the survey.

     Steven Fikes has lived all his live around Tuscaloosa and loves bass fishing.  He grew up fishing and got serious about tournament fishing about four years ago. Up to that time he had fished with the Tuscaloosa County Bass Club and some other tournaments with buddies and as a no boater in some BFLs.  When he started fishing the BFLs as a boater he did well, qualifying for the All American in 2007 and qualifying for the BFL Regional again last year.  He is on the Grammer Marine fishing team and also fishes their tournament trail as well as other local pot tournaments.

     Steven fishes Aliceville often and knows what the bass are doing there.  He says many bass will spawn on the full moon around March 11 and another smaller wave will spawn on the April 9th full moon.  That means right now there are post spawn bass in the shallows guarding fry and feeding as well as pre spawn bass looking at bedding areas.  By mid April there will be some post spawn fish guarding fry but most of the bass will be feeding in the shallows through the end of the month.

     In an April Aliceville tournament Steven weighed in his best five bass limit in a tournament at 16.25 pounds and had a personal limit while “fun” fishing weighing 21.5 pounds.  His best bass from Aliceville is just under seven pounds but he has seen many bigger bass caught there.

     Aliceville is full of sloughs and shallow flooded flats covered with hydrilla, milfoil, lily pads and several other types of grass.  Some sloughs have cypress trees standing in water six to ten feet deep.  All this cover offers bass great places to hold and feed and makes the lake look “fishy” everywhere you turn.

     Steven is on the Castaway Rods fishing team and uses their casting rods in a variety of actions to cover the baits he likes to fish in Aliceville right now.  He will have a couple of heavy rods and reels spooled with Power Pro braid for flipping creature baits, lizards and jigs into grass and around trees.  He will always have a rod and reel rigged with a Zara Spook for fishing open water and a buzzbait tied on for heavier grass cover.

     A Strike King spinnerbait is ready to run around grass and cypress trees and he will also use a Bandit Footloose shallow running crankbait to fish over grass that is still under the surface.  A floating worm is also a good bait to have ready.  He uses Bass Pro Shops Excel monofilament line for baits where it works best and will go to Segar Fluorocarbon if the he needs an invisible line in clear water.

     Steven and I fished Aliceville the last day of February – the day after the flooding rains. It was cold and cloudy and the river was running as fast as he had ever seen it and rising all day, pushing water back into the woods. Muddy water was also pushing into the shallows but we were still able to find some clear water to fish, which is important and you can almost always find it even when the river is muddy. 

     Even under the bad conditions we landed 14 or 15 bass up to three pounds. Most looked like bucks moving in to check out spawning areas so by now many will have spawned and the bucks will be guarding fry and the females will be feeding to recover from the spawn in the following areas.

     1. N 33 16.264 – W 88 18.814 – If you put in at Raleigh Ryan Access ramp run up the river to the second opening to your right. It is not the opening at the red channel marker; it is past it and is one of the entrances to Coal Fire Creek.  Be careful since it is shallow and there are stumps here. You will go back and turn to your left as you follow the bank. There will be standing trees on your left and you want to go around to the back side of them.

     When you get behind the timber there are two good pockets on your left across the timber field. There are lots of stumps under water as well as visible ones and standing trees. Go in carefully to the cove on the left and start fishing near the blown down tree with the big root ball sticking up on the bank. Work to your right, fishing around this pocket, across the point between them and around the next cove, too. 

     Steven likes to start fishing early moving fast with a spinnerbait or topwater in areas like this. There will be lots of grass to fish and the bass can be anywhere in it. When you catch one, especially if it is a good one, slow down and probe the area carefully with a plastic bait or a jig and pig. Pitch them into holes in the grass and also rig one on a heavy tungsten sinker that will punch through the mats to bass holding under it. Work a floating worm over and through the grass, too.

     2. N 33 15.757 – W 88 17.587 – Coming back out the way you went in watch for an opening to your left. There is a big island to the left side and a very small island to the right of it.  Start fishing on the point of the big island and fish back into the slough to your left. There is a lot of grass and pads in here and it will get very thick toward the end of April.

     Out on the point the water comes up from 11 to six feet deep pretty quickly and the bass will hold along this drop in the grass.  It gives them access to deep water so this is a very good place later in April.  They can feed all the way back into the slough so work your spinnerbait, shallow running crankbait and topwater all around this slough.  We caught four bass and Steven caught one of our biggest bass here when we fished. The water was a good color although many other areas were muddy.

     Watch for open areas between grass mats and work your Spook through them. If that does not draw a strike try punching through the mats with a creature bait like a Little Chigger Craw or a lizard.  Be ready for a hit as soon as it falls through the mat and set the hook hard. You will need braid and a heavy rod for this kind of fishing.

     3.  N 33 14.825 – W 88 88.954 – You can go all the way back out the point of the main river where you came in or start working the bank to your left a couple of hundred yards before you get to the river.  A ledge with grass growing on it runs out from this bank then drops off fast and is a good area for post spawn fish.  Overhanging brush offers some shade, too.

     Run a buzzbait over the grass then work your plastics through it.  Keep your boat out in deeper water and fish the edges of the grass then work back into it. Here and in all other spots pick apart the cover if you catch a good bass, there are likely more nearby.  Watch for patterns, too. If you catch a couple of bass from milfoil but not other grass, concentrate on the milfoil.

     4.  N 33 15.122 – W 88 18.286 – For something a little different run up to the big grain bins up the river from the campground on your left. Start working the left bank, fishing the docks and riprap along this bank all the way to the barge landing. Fish around the barge if one is there.

     A spinnerbait or crankbait is good here and you can also fish a floating worm or jig around the docks. 
Fishing upstream gives you more control of the boat and also allows you to fish slower.  Work your bait with the current as you work upstream, presenting the bait naturally like a baitfish moving with the current.

     5. N 33 15.580 – W 88 18.985 – Run upstream and you will pass some houses on your left.  Just above the green channel marker 310.7 in front of one of the houses is the opening to a big creek. Run back in it to the small island on your right. It is across from a big house with a screen porch that runs all the way around it, the fifth house from the end.

     There is deeper water around this island and grassbeds fill the shallows near it.  Bass hold here both post and pre spawn because of this deeper water refuge and feed in the grass. Fish all the way around the island covering it with all your baits.  Steven says grass will often grow to within six inches of the surface out away from the island and you can work a topwater bait like a Spook or buzzbait over it to pull bass up out of the grass.

     6. N 33 14.385 – W 88 18.467 – Head back down the river and go into the creek at the upstream end of the campground. Stay near the left bank, there are two more sloughs to your right.  Steven runs back to where there are permanent trailers and docks on your left going in.  Many of the docks have white PVC post on them. The day we fished the docks were under water and the posts looked like they were just standing in the water.

     Fish up this bank, pitching a plastic bait under the docks and to the poles on them. Work the scattered grassbeds around them, too.  Steven will fish all the way into the cove where the road runs near the water and there is a private boat ramp. If any bass are still bedding some will be back in this cove then they will move out to the docks and feed post spawn. You can look for beds and sight fish back in here around the full moon in April.

     7. N 33 15.014 – W 88 18.660 – Come out of the left pocket and run into the middle arm. Go back until you get to the trailers but watch for stumps in that area. You will be back behind the grain bins out on the river. 

     Many of the stumps back here have PVC pipe in them to mark them.  There is a bed of a half-dozen or so stumps out from the trailers and Steven likes to work the grass all around them. Try to drop your bait down by the stump, too.  It will be covered with grass but offers a good holding spot in the grass. Fish all around the back of this slough, working the grass here.

     8.  N 33 15.308 – W 88 16.677 – Run down the river and go into the cut just upstream of the red channel marker 309.3. This is actually the old river channel and it runs to the far bank with houses on it.  Run almost to this bank then swing left, following the bank. You will run past some standing trees on your right. When the open water narrows down to a small channel ahead and to the right there is a big slough full of cypress trees to your left. Steven still calls this the Eagle’s Nest although the nest is gone.

     Steven stops out from these trees and works in, casting a Spook around them then flipping a jig and pig or plastic bait to the.  The trees are in six to ten feet of water and run a long way up this slough.  You could probably stay in here all day fishing trees.

     Also try your baits around the grass on the banks of the slough. Steven says you will often catch males guarding fry around the grass but the bigger females are likely to be holding deeper around the base of the trees, recovering from the spawn. Steven said if he had to catch a five pounder he would concentrate on cypress trees here.

     Fish trees slowly and carefully and try to find a pattern. Are they holding on the shady side of the tree? Do they want a splash when your bait hits the water or do you need to hit the trunk and let your bait slide into the water? Paying attention to details like those can make the difference between fishing and catching.

     9. N 33 14.708 – W 88 16.025 – Go back out the way you came in and when the trees on your left end you will see a big point on your right.  It is the right side point of a big cove when facing it.  Start on the point and work the grass beds going into this side of the cove.

     This is a very big flat and the grass will be all over it. Work all of the right side, looking for keys like where two kinds of grass come together or where there is an isolated patch on top.  Keep fishing the area until you find the fish then concentrate on the smaller area and pattern where they are holding. The other end of the slough full of cypress in hole 8 opens here and you can fish all the way through it and come out here, or go in here too.

     10. N 33 14.748 – W 88 17.319 – In the back of the big cove above you will see a small island toward the left bank going in and there is a opening to its left. This goes back then opens up. Another cut to the left goes into another pond that is called Clear Hole.  The water almost always stays clear in here. Steven says many people go in here looking for bedding bass but they get hammered and are hard to catch.

     Check out the ponds and cuts in this area. Steven says he often starts out at the small island at the first cut and is catching bass as other boats go by him further back to look for spawners.  Fish all the grass in the cuts and ponds in this area.

     Check out these ten spots.  There are many others near them that hold bass, these are just some of Steven’s favorites.  Once you find the patterns the bass are on and which baits they want you can catch them in other similar areas.

     Steven did not fish as hard as he wanted to last year. After some numbness in his left hand he was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis.  Fortunately, medication has stopped the progress of the MS and he is able to fish now. Please keep Steven in your thoughts and prayers.

with Boyd Duckett

     Bass fishing in February can be either feast or famine.  Cold fronts and harsh temperatures turn off the bass but a three day warming trend can herd the big bass to shallow area where you can catch them  better than any other time of year.  Improve your odds by heading south. Demopolis Lake is a good bet for February bass in shallow water.

     At 10,000 acres Demopolis is the largest lake on the Black Warrior/Tombigbee River system. It extends up the Black Warrior River 48 miles and 53 miles up the Tombigbee River from an overflow dam near the city of Demopolis.  Since it is an overflow dam and the land is very flat the lake can rise or fall quickly depending on upstream rains, and there are no controls on the water level.

     Demopolis offers tough fishing at times but the 14 inch limit means the average size of bass weighed in at club tournaments is good.  In the 2007 BAIT reports Demopolis ranked 17^th in angler success but 5th in average bass weight. You will catch a lot of bass under the 14 inch length limit that must be released and are not brought in during tournaments.

     Boyd Duckett grew up in North Carolina and started fishing with his brother when they found a pond back in the woods near where they lived. He began tournament fishing when 17 years old and jumped in at the pot tournament level on local lakes. A move to Nashville, TN for business allowed him to learn fishing deep in highland reservoirs, a change from what he was used to fishing.

     In 1991 Boyd moved to Demopolis and within a few years his tournament fishing seemed to get a lot better with him winning many events.  In 2002 he got serious about his tournament fishing and entered bigger tournaments. That paid off in 2007 with a Bassmasters Classic win and he now fishes the Elite Series as well as the PAA events.  He will be fishing the Classic this month on the Red River after qualifying through the Elite Series.

     In 2007 Boyd set a one-season record, winning $860,000 that year, more than any other fisherman had won in one year on the BASS trail.  He was also the first fisherman in 36 Classics to win one on his home state lake when he won at Lay Lake that year.

      Boyd learned a lot about Demopolis fishing it in local tournaments with Bill Champion.  He agreed to share some of the keys to February fishing there and says water level is critical to catching bass in February.  If the water is rising from upstream rains the fish will move far back into newly flooded cover and you can not get to them.  Falling water pulls them to the edges and makes them easier to catch.

     Since Demopolis is so shallow Boyd says the bass will move to the spawning areas as soon as there are a few warm days and the bigger bass move in first.  They will head into sloughs and creeks, working their way to the very backs of them to spawn. You can follow them this month and use a variety of methods to catch them.

     Water clarity is very important, too.  Rising water forces muddy river water back into the sloughs and you need to go back in them until you find a good color to fish. Some are so long that muddy water almost never gets all the way back in them.

     Boyd will tie on a Berkley Little Chigger Craw behind a heavy Tru-Tungsten weight for flipping mats and heavy cover, a Rat-L-Trap for searching for active fish and a Falcon spinnerbait for covering water where the Trap is ineffective. He also likes a shallow running crankbait like the Mann’s 1 Minus to run over shallow grass back in the pockets.

     Boyd showed me the following spots a few weeks ago and fish were already in some of them.  They will get better all month as more and more bass respond to the warming water and move in.

     1.  N 32 31.159 – W 87 52.209 – Running upriver from the dam the second small ditch on your left runs back and opens up into a big slough that runs parallel to the river.  Boyd called this the “Meat Hole” because of all the bass caught in it.  When we were there the rising water had filled the ditch with hyacinths and it would have been hard getting in but Boyd says it is well worth the effort.

     The ditch going in is only about 2 feet deep with the river stage at 20.5 feet so you need it at least that high to get in.  When you get back where the slough opens up, there will be a lot of flooded brush and tree bases standing in the water. Boyd says to fish the first 5 feet of cover from the edge back, working it with a spinnerbait when you can and flipping or pitching a Little Chigger Craw tight to cover where it is thick.

     If the river stage is over 22 feet this spot and others gets very hard to fish since the water will be many yards back into thick woods you can’t get to. Bass follow the rising water and get where you can’t catch them.  When the level is between 20.5 and 22 this is one of the best places on the lake.

     2. N 32 31.920 – W 87 50.953 – Culpepper Slough runs off the right side of the river upstream of the marina and dock at Demopolis and goes back under Highway 43.   There is standing timber in the middle of the slough going in so be very careful. It is a good idea to idle in until you learn it.

     Go back to the bridge and start fishing. Bass will move up the slough and hold around razor grass, tree bases in the water and under matted vegetation. One of Boyd’s favorites is what he called “alligator grass,” a plant with small leaves on long stems. The roots are on the shallow side and the plant grows toward deep water, making a covering shelf bass love to hold under.  The plants warm from the sun and the water temperature will usually be several degrees warmer under the mat than in the surrounding water.

     Near the back of the slough on your right you will see the old causeway for Highway 43.  Fish all along the slough on both sides. There are lots of mats of grass to fish here.  Flip a heavy weighed Chigger Craw and let it fall through the mat.  Boyd says be ready, you can’t drop your rod tip and set the hook since the weight is so heavy. The fish will spit it out quick so set the hook on any tick or hesitation as your bait falls.

     Work all around this slough and go back as far as you can. You can’t go too shallow in February if there have been a few warm days. Hit all the cover you come to including grass mats, tree trunks and razor grass edges.

     3.  N 32 32.496 – W 87 50.947 – Run up past where the two rivers join and watch for an opening on your left.  The ditch leads into Dobbs Swamp, a huge area where you could spend all day fishing. As you go in the channel will split off to your left, the coordinates above are just upstream of that split going left.

     Start at the split and fish into the lakes and sloughs on that side, fishing open water with Rat-L-Trap and spinnerbaits and pitching a plastic bait to heavy cover.  Keep working back until you find clearer water if the mouth is stained up.  Here and in other areas river stages of 20 to 21 feet are best.

     Watch for old beaver dams across channels.  At high water they will be covered but most have grass and trees growing on them.  If the water is dropping and a current is moving across them the little cuts and channels with current always hold bass.  For some reason rising water creating a current on the upper side of them does not hold the bass but Boyd says you are guaranteed a bass if the water is dropping and you fish the current on the downstream side of them.

     4. N 32 33.126 – W 87 51.633 – Come back out and go up the right side at the split.  You can run a long way back in a narrow channel then it will end at mats of hyacinth. Push through it and lakes will open up on your right and ahead of you.   The one on the right is choked with hyacinth and the one a head is more open, with hydrilla in the middle.

     Both can hold fish but after warm days the one ahead will be better, and the water will be even clearer.  It was very clear in here the day we fished and individual bass were chasing shad. Boyd said two days before we fished, on a cloudy day, there was a lot of schooling activity here and he caught a bunch of bass. The day we fished he landed three fish on a shallow running crankbait fished slowly over the grass.

     In this and other areas, if the water is still in the low 50s Boyd will flip the edges of the razor grass beds with a Chigger Craw.  Bass will hold in these spots until it warms a little more. Also concentrate on the mats if the sun is shinning and the water is warming.  Bass are more likely to be active and in the hydrilla if the water is warming, too.  When it gets above 55 degrees Boyd will go as far back into these areas as he can, pitching to all the heavy cover.  He says you can not go too far back in February; the bass will be very shallow.

     5.  N 32 31.033 – W 87 49.004 – Run up the Warrior River until you see the cement plant on your right and an old rail road trestle running down the side of the river. It is being dismantled.  Go under it at the small ditch and a steep bank slough opens up.  The water in here is usually clear and it is deeper than any of the other sloughs in the area.  Boyd calls this the “Citadel.”

     Boyd says this is a good early February hole since the water stays clear and warms fast.  He will start just inside the slough and work all the way around it, hitting all the shoreline cover.  There is another ditch opening to your left not far from the mouth that is very good if the water is in the mid 50s and warmer.  It opens up into about an acre size lake and holds some big bass.

     6.  Run into French Creek, the big creek on your right above the cement plant.  It opens up and goes back to a bridge.  Run to the bridge and start fishing on the left side as soon as you go under it.  Fish all the way to where the bank turns back to the right at coordinates N 32 31.315 – W 87 47.331 or go to this spot and start fishing back toward the bridge.

     Boyd says this is a good early spot since it is a steep bank with a lot of wood cover along it.  You will see a metal gate running off the bank, too.  When the water temperature is 50 to 51 he likes to fish all along this 400 yard stretch, working the cover slowly and carefully. 

     Bass moving up will hold along this bank before moving on toward the back of the creek.  And French Creek tends to have bigger bass than most other areas so it is a good place to work during tournaments.  Florida strain largemouth were stocked from the bridge here for three years back in the mid 1980s and, although they have been diluted over time, their offspring still produce bigger bass than most other areas on the lake.

     7.  Go back to the bridge and start on the other side, the upstream side on your right going upstream.  Fish along the road bed around the point and into the small creek entering there. The bank is deeper from the bridge around the point and has wood cover then gets shallow in the creek.  Keep fishing the grass mats and razor grass edges all the way to the rail road bridge in the back of this small creek.  (no coordinates here –  pretty obvious what to fish from one  bridge to the next!)

     This creek is a good spawning area so the bass will first move up on the steeper bank then work their way in to the back to spawn.  You can follow them as the water warms this month.  Boyd says the bigger fish tend to spawn early on Demopolis and thinks the full moon in mid-March will be a heavy spawn. The bass should be moving into these areas all during February getting ready for it.

     8.  N 32 31.035 – W 87 47.149 – From the bridge run the left side of French Creek to the back to a dead cedar tree lying on the left bank. Start fishing at it and work toward the back of the slough, around the cove here. There are some power lines crossing in the very back of it.

     The left side of this cove where the cedar tree lies on the bank is a little deeper with some wood and grass patches.  The right side has razor grass beds.  Boyd says he will keep working around this cove over and over as long as he catches a bass on each pass.  He says you can often stay right here and limit out on good fish as they move in.

     9.  N 32 32.242 W 87 47.871 – Run up the river from the mouth of French Creek and you will pass a creek on your right that sometimes holds bass but often gets muddy since it opens up back on the river on the upper end.  Upstream of it is another slough that runs parallel to the river and is a good one.  Start fishing toward the back near the small island on the left side. Across from it is a ditch.

     Work both sides of this slough from the island to the ditch.  You will come to a beaver dam across the slough and then it opens up above it.  It is hard to get across this dam but when the bass are spawning it is a good area. In early February fish up to the dam then back out.

     If there is any current coming across the dam there will be bass in the small channels. The day we fished we spent a lot of time here since Boyd had caught a bunch of fish here two days earlier. We saw individual fish chasing shad and big groups of shad, a key to fishing since bass will follow the bait until they make their spawning move.

     Boyd impressed me the way he picked apart the cover and carefully worked different baits until he found what they wanted.  On a tough day with rising water and a hard cold front after cloudy, warm days for a week Boyd caught about 15 bass. Most of them and the biggest hit a spinnerbait he crawled on the bottom here. He kept working slower and slower until he found what the bass wanted.  If the fishing is tough keep working until you find what works that day.

     10.  N 32 33.587 – W 87 47.272 – Yellow Creek is a creek on the right after you go around the bend with Slough Creek on the left.  Boyd will go back into it to the left side of what used to be an island and is still shown as one on some maps.  It has silted in on the right side and is now a big razor grass flat. Go back to where it looks like there is a split then stay to your left.

     Go in and make a 90 degree turn to your left at the entrance.  Start on the left bank past the long point and work to the pocket upstream. Throw a spinnerbait in the more open water and flip a plastic bait to the edges of the razor grass. Stay to the left and work way back in here, especially if the water is warming.

     Fish these ten spots and see the kinds of places Boyd finds bass in February on Demopolis.  There are others similar to them but remember this lake fishes small.  Some of these places are worth fishing all day. Boyd says keep moving until you find some feeding fish then stick with them.