The full moon that just past has clearly brought another wave of bass and crappie to the shallow waters to spawn. Moon phases play a major role in the habits of fish including bass and crappie. The full moons during early March and April this year, were perfectly timed to coincide with the spawning cycle.

Many anglers reported seeing large numbers of spawning beds and some are holding bass weighting five pounds and larger. Several anglers are reporting an excellent bite early in the morning; however, when the wind speed increases, sight fishing becomes much more difficult and the bite generally slows.

The water level in Roosevelt Lake has been very stable the past few weeks and currently stands at slightly less than 50-percent full. The stable water level and the mostly calm weather should contribute to a successful spawn for the lake. The post-spawn bite continues to be very aggressive. Texas-rigged and dropshot worm techniques helped two anglers recently catch 30 fish in one day on Apache Lake. Spinner baits, chatter baits, crankbaits and jerk baits also continue to produce good numbers on Roosevelt and Apache Lakes.

A reminder to anglers that if you want to keep bass to consume, you can help improve the fishery by keeping bass in the 1-2-pound range rather than keeping bass that are four pounds and larger. Those larger bass contribute to better quality fish in the future, so get a quick photograph and get them back into the water as soon as possible. Crappie fishing was called "fair" on Roosevelt Lake lately. The crappie spawn is underway so most crappie anglers are fishing shallow water and always near some kind of cover. A key point to keep in mind is that the male crappie turns black during the spawn so watch for dark spots in the water. If you're fishing for crappie in shallow water, recommended bait is a Berkley grub tail on a 1/32-ounce jighead hook. The lighter jig head allows the bait to fall slower giving the crappie time to see and attack it.