While I enjoy fishing with a cane pole, there's something about "chunkin' and windin'" that I've always liked. Sure, you can catch lots of fish while holding a pole and watching a bobber but when you're reeling a lure and a bass smacks it, that's the height of fun for me.

I still vividly recall the first time I ever felt a bass on the end of the line, when, at about the age of 9 or 10, I was casting a Hawaiian Wiggler from the sandy banks of Molido Creek. I lofted the lure next to a cypress knee on the far bank, and, two turns of the reel later, I felt a jolt. I didn't so much reel the bass in as launch him airborne over my head to land on the bank behind me.

I have no doubt that bass still lurk behind the cypress knees of Molido Creek just as they did when I was a kid. In fact, dams were constructed across some of those old streams to form small lakes. Bigger lakes in Louisiana came into existence in much the same way, except that their creation involved moving tons and tons of earth to create a reservoir. Both types of impoundments offer plenty of exciting bass fishing activity today.

And then there are the Bayou State's natural lakes, many of which were formed along the Red River, which cuts a swath from the northwestern corner of the state cutting diagonally across the heart of Louisiana. Periodic floods undermined the trees along the river's bank, dumping them into the roiling water and forming a series of logjams that extended approximately 150 miles. These jams artificially raised the banks of the river and created numerous lakes along the river in low spots along the tributaries to the Red.

A significant number of these lakes have been lost, but several of them were saved, paradoxically, by the construction of dams. These lakes include Lake Iatt, Saline Lake, Nantachie Lake, Wallace Lake, Lake Bistineau, Black Lake, and Caddo Lake. Some of these lakes are popular as fishing sites; the last three in the preceding list lead the way.

One feature typifies these old natural lakes: a profusion of trees, namely cypress and tupelo gum. Because of the presence of trees, pleasure boaters, water-skiers, and personal watercraft are usually not a problem for anglers.

While these lakes are usually fairly shallow, other lakes such as Toledo Bend have some extremely deep water. This monster of a pond has some water 60 feet deep along the Sabine River channel that runs through it. At the same time, however, Toledo Bend has shallow flats that may average less than 5 feet in depth.

Early in the year prior to the spawn, bass in deeper portions of Louisiana's lakes will spend most of the time in or over deep water. As water temperatures warm in early spring, bass will begin moving toward the back of the coves and other stretches of shallow water where spawning will take place once water temperatures reach the mid-50s.

Bouncing a jig with a pork or plastic trailer down the side of submerged creek or river channels can sometimes produce eye-popping catches. Locating concentrations of suspended bass on sonar is a help in dictating the choice of lure and approach. Carolina-rigged plastic worms will often produce on fish suspended a few feet off the bottom. Other lures such as jigging spoons, plastic grubs and tailspinners are designed to be dropped and hopped right in the face of a bass.