Hunter Miles made a cast in the direction of a submerged tree and worked his Carolina rigged Zoom Ole Monster worm into the brush top and shook it a little before it came to an abrupt stop.

Wham!

A lunker bass slammed into the worm and the hawg wallowed wildly in the limbs of the tree top before Miles pried him out of the brush. The 6½ pound Okatibbee lunker anchored his limit.

Miles had just run his boat along a submerged creek channel and studied the Lowrance Side-imaging screen and marked the brush tops and structure along a channel. The keys to his ledge and creek fishing is using his Lowrance electronics to find the bait and bass.

“That was a great day on Okatibbee,” Miles said. “I caught one over 6, and a few in the 3 to 3.5-pound range. I’d marked several tops and stumps along the submerged ledge but the ones that were loaded up with crappie were the ones that I caught good bass on. Every bass was buried in the brush and I could feel them in there when I set the hook. I was able to pull most of them out and land them.”

Though young by most standards Hunter Miles has been fishing at a high level since he was 13 years of age and won his first team tournament with partner and mentor Brock Mosley with 23 pounds of bass on Okatibbee Lake. That tournament turned the young angler on to bass tournaments and he was instantly hooked. Though his dream is to be a professional angler, he has already accomplished much in a short time.

“After winning that tournament I decided that I wanted to fish the professional tour and I’ve done everything I could to this point to work to that end,” Miles said. “At 16 I fished the BFL tournament trail as a co-angler and at 18 I started fishing the trail as a boater.”

This year his schedule is chock full of bass tournaments and he’s been very successful on every trail he’s fished and most recently had a 35th Place money finish on the BASS Open on Ross Barnett Reservoir and a Second-Place finish on Okatibbee Lake at an open benefit tournament.

Early morning top water bite

“During May there will be an early morning bite on Okatibbee and similar lakes in Mississippi,” Miles said. “I really like fishing top water this time of year as the bass are feeding up after resting from the spawn.”

Miles loves fishing top water lures and he prefers fishing around grass and pads when given the chance. He also targets shallow water coves, flats, and creeks that hold fish during early May. If there’s a shallow pocket or point near deep water, that makes it even better.

“I like to throw a Ribbit frog and a Strike King Sexy Frog,” Miles said. “I’ll burn those frogs and just rip it across the top and get reaction bites. And sometimes they will be bone crushing strikes! But once the sun gets up the top water bite will be over fast and then I’ll move out to the deeper water and target those offshore fish.”

Ledges and creek drop-offs

Okatibbee Lake has a lot of shallow water creek channels, ditches and submerged creek channels that have stumps, logs and brush piles on them. Some are natural but there’s plenty of brush piles that hold a lot of forage bait, crappie and lunker bass.

“You can find schools of spots on the ledges along the submerged creek channels also,” said Miles. “I like to use a Strike King 6 XD as my search bait while I’m looking for schools of bass or lunker bass in water 12 to 20 feet deep. Whether I’m fishing shallow or deep I prefer fishing a crankbait fast and enticing bass into striking out of reaction.”

“I like to keep it simple and use basic colors like the Sexy Shad in clear water and the Chartreuse craw color in dirty water,” Miles said. “My biggest bass to date, a 10 lb. 4 oz lunker, came on a 1.5 Strike King square bill. That crankbait is my best friend on this lake, that and a shaky head.”

Mayfly hatch

There’s one time in May when the bass will stay shallow and maybe feed all day and that’s when the Mayfly hatch occurs.

“When the Mayfly hatch occurs on Okatibbee and the water is right the bass will feed all day long and I’ll be there for them,” Miles said. “I’ll throw a frog all day long and usually catch big bass, but you have to be there when the hatch happens because it won’t last long.”

If you’re looking to catch big bass in May then you probably want to start shallow and work any shallow pockets and flats close to deep water. Finding shad spawns and Mayfly hatches are added delights and will be short-lived but provide fantastic bass catching opportunities with lunker bass always a possibility. Take a few of Hunter Miles’ techniques and tactics and you might just catch a lunker bass or load the livewell.

Call Mike Giles at 601-917-3898 or email mikegiles18@comast.net.