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The Perfect Storm
 Keith Lusher
Local freshwater anglers know that with every turn of the page on the calendar comes a different way to target bass on the Northshore. Whether it's looking for cooler water in the summer or casting into the shallows for spawning bass in the spring, there’s always different factors to the bass fishing equation that changes with every month. Bass fisherman Chris Basey of Covington says in May there are two things that happen in the rivers and the bayous that span the Northshore.
Basey sets the hook on a bass in Bayou lacombe
Post Spawn Recovery From late February into April bass move into the shallows to spawn. It’s during this time that both males and females enter into a period of time where feeding is not their ultimate priority. The process can be hard on bass who are busy fending off their fry from predators. When March rolls around these fish are finishing up with the spawn and start moving to deeper water to recover. But it’s May now and the bass have recovered and are back to a more normal feeding pattern. 
Basey says it’s this month that he starts to see the bass really turn on. “This month I find that the bass start to eat more often because the spawn is over and done with. Also their metabolism is higher with the warming water,” Basey says. With the bass feeding more heavily all that’s needed it a surge in the food supply and that’s where the second half of the equation factors in.
Shad Spawn The shad spawn a perfectly timed phenomenon that coincides perfectly with the bass starting to feed more heavily. May is the month that shad move into the rivers to spawn. They group up and travel upriver making their way to the backs of small cuts and canals off of the main rivers and bayous. Flooded grass along the bank, eel grass and just about any vegetation with a solid surface will be a sought out spawning destination for shad laying eggs. Basey says when these schools of shad are moving it can be an exciting time to fish. “When fish get on the shad spawn they act like they are on crack! It doesn’t matter where you are in the bayou, you can catch them anywhere you see shad schooling,” Basey says. The tournament angler recommends fishing in the morning and using anything that resembles the shad. “The shad will be attracted to the warm water on the surface from the morning sun,” he says. “I like to use a Chug Bug and work it franticly across the surface. It doesn’t take long before the explosion comes!” Basey recently used this method to catch a 3 lb. 14. oz bass in a tournament held at Bayou Liberty.  LaShun Robertson
Tournament Results
Bass Assassins held its tournament at Bayou Liberty. With all of the rain we’ve been seeing it was a peasant surprise to be able to fish on a sunny day. The results at the scales didn’t reflect the nice conditions however, with no stringers coming in over 9 pounds. LaShun Robertson took home the win with a 5-fish limit weighing 8 lbs. 8 oz. Jimmy Dorris placed second with a 8 lb. 6 oz. limit. In third was Chris Basey a who brought in a 5-fish bag weighing 7 lbs. 13 oz. Basey also won the big fish division by brining in a 3 lbs. 14 oz. bass. |
 Keith Lusher
I created NFR.com in the spring of 2012. Since then it has helped link Northshore fishermen to valuable information and has filled the void of absent information on the web about fishing on the North Shore of Lake Pontchartrain. Northshore Fishing Report has morphed into a brand name and can be found not only on the web, but on radio and newspaper. As NFR grows I will continue to work hard at keeping NFR local focusing on local anglers, reports, seminars, and fishing tournaments in St. Tammany and Tangipahoa Parish. I hope you enjoy the website and If you have any questions please email me at: Keith@NorthshoreFishingReport.com
Look for the Northshore Fishing Report publication every Thursday in The Slidell Independent Weekly Newspaper!
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Sac Week continues on NFR with Mike Manzella joining the studio by phone to talk Livescope, his personal best sac-a-lait and the Mr. Miyagi of the Tchefuncte River.
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