We are getting right on top of another full moon and as late in the month as it is, it is the first full moon in the month of May.

We should have a really big willow fly hatch this week, and tons and tons of bream will be caught around the flies as well as from the bedding areas for those folks that are lucky enough to be on one or more.

A couple of weeks back, around the new moon, one local fisherman was telling me about the shellcracker beds he and his kin fished on and the number of fish that they have taken. It was good.

This fellow had caught plenty of fish and after about three trips he took the preacher. At the end of the fishing day he said he gave all the fish to the preacher for the church, which was a good thing for him to do.

The preacher distributed them out to some of the older ladies in the church, which really made their day. And I’ll bet the preacher figured he was going to get an invite to eat fish at about half of those houses in the next few days. Maybe he is avoiding an overdose of fried chicken, but fried fish is not much better on your diet. The taste is great, however.

Some fishermen have all the luck while others have to work for the luck they have.

This fisherman was telling me that they had moved back into a small slough to get out of the wind and eat some sandwiches they had brought. You know that a real fisherman knows to have his bait in the water at all times so their poles were fishing for them as they ate their lunch.

They did catch a few fish while eating, but it was after they finished and moved just a few feet back toward the lake itself that they really hit the bed and fish began to bite like there was no tomorrow.

When they got home and counted, they had 109 shellcracker, which is nine over the limit. Not a good thing to do and the game warden is most likely to give a ticket for something like that.

I am telling you that to tell you this. Don’t try and keep a count of your fish as you catch them. You will mess up and the messing up hardly ever comes out on the low side. Count them as you are getting ready to leave and throw away what you have over the limit or be ready to give up some money.

I had this one old dude tell me one time he kept everything he caught whether was over the limit or not. There was a lot of times that he went and did not catch very many fish, so when he caught over the limit he was just making up for the times when he didn’t catch much. I can kinda see the logic in his statement, but I will bet that he won’t get that past a game warden or judge.

No where as many bream have been caught as shellcracker, but we expect that to change with this major moon.

These old boys said they had fished on two different shellcracker beds and had caught a few bream as the shellcracker began to play out. There may be a good chance that the bream will be in the same general area this week as the shellcracker.

This is the week to have plenty of worms as well as crickets with you as you really don’t know what you might run into and it is always best to be prepared for whatever happens or really whatever you happen into. Maybe that fish cooker can go back to being a fish cooker instead of a deep fryer for chicken. Of course, that isn’t bad either.

If you don’t put on new flyline this season, it may be a good idea to put a fresh coat of wax on the line. Make sure it floats high. Flyline that sinks will cause the hook on the fly to rip out. You won’t catch many fish that way.