Submitted PhotoDemarcquel Honer caught this nice striped bass at the Ross Barnett Spillway.

 

Demarcquel Honer has been fishing the spillway for many years — and has had much success throughout those years.

“I started striped bass fishing about six years ago and caught the biggest striper of my life, a 23-pounder on a quarter-ounce jig,” Honer said. “I use 20-pound braid with a heavy lead sinker and jig to get to the fish. I like to catch them when they are schooling and biting good, but I normally crappie fish year-round down there. The past couple years, we haven’t been catching them quite so big, but I have caught some 15-pounders more recently.”

Honer also likes to fish for the stripers when they are schooling on top, blowing up on shad and slashing the surface. Sometimes all it takes is a slight rise in the water level to turn the stripers on a feeding frenzy and then the fun starts if you are prepared.

“I have caught stripers on topwater casting stick baits and ‘walking the dog’ side to side,” Honer said. “They just love the side-to-side jerking motion, and they will try to crush the lures, and they almost take the rod from you sometimes.”

John Knotts, of Soso, has also been fishing the spillway for years, and these days he takes his sons with him. In fact, they’ve all become good anglers and proficient at catching stripers and catfish there.

“We really enjoy catching the stripers and hybrids,” Knotts said. “On one trip to the spillway, Jacob and Eli caught and released about 50 stripers that ran from 4 to 6 pounds.”

Pound for pound, there is nothing more powerful or fights any harder than a striped bass in the swift currents of the spillway waters.

“When the water is high, we’ll fish about halfway down the spillway where the water narrows down,” Knotts said. “My boys like to use a plain white spinner bait when the stripers are feeding. If you can get something white or shad colored in front of them, they’ll usually tear it up. Getting the lure out where they are at is one of the keys as well.”

“When the water is low, I like to use a white fluke on a half-ounce jig head and they really like that in the swift current,” he said. “Some people still like a chartreuse-colored jig, but we just do not catch a lot on that color anymore, so we go with the white and catch them most of the time.”

Crappie

Honer started crappie fishing with his grandfather and caught a lot of fish on minnows in his young years, but these days he prefers fishing jigs.

“I like to tightline jigs,” Honer said. “I’ll start chasing them pretty good after the first winter cool snap in October until springtime. My favorite months to catch the crappie are February, March and April below the spillway.”

When the water is up and flowing well, Honer likes to fish on the Madison County side of the spillway near the boat landing.

“I’ll cast jigs on 6-pound line and work them back in the slack water eddies where the water is flowing slower,” Honer said. “If you find out where they are holding and feeding, you can catch a lot on the jigs. I’ll use a basic lead head with no color but use a neon prism or chartreuse green color grub on the jig head. If I do use a colored jig head, then I like a pink or black color. My buddies and me really stick with an orange body and chartreuse green tail a lot when fishing below the spillway.”

When the water is down really low, Honer likes to fish on the Rankin County side of the river under the power lines. At the time this was being written, Honer had stopped by the spillway after work and caught six big slab perch on jigs. Whether they are making their annual late winter and spring run, or during the summer, Honer and a few die-hard crappie anglers will be chasing them, and they usually catch a few perch year-round.

If you are looking to catch white perch or big stripers, then Ross Barnett Spillway is the place to go this spring. Nothing beats the succulent taste of filleted perch nor the sheer power and ferocity of the striped and hybrid striped bass. Take it from Honer, try your hand at Ross Barnett spillway, and you just might catch a mess of fine eating crappie or tangle with a massive striper and have the trip of a lifetime.

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