Artificial lures also work well.

“Crankbaits are great lures for the spillway,” Bermitz said. “The last couple of years, a real hot one has been the Rapala DT-6 in a crawfish color. Toss this right into the current at the base of the spillway and retrieve it with the current.

“If there’s any visible surface schooling activity, it’s hard to beat a chrome- or shad-finished countdown crankbait like the Rat-L-Trap.”

Some anglers have found that hard-plastic jerkbaits in either floating or suspending versions can also be quite effective when tossed to the spillway and jerked back erratically with the current. In chrome or shad patterns, they’re dead ringers for the crippled shad the bass are feeding on.

Savvy anglers also keep a topwater plug handy. Bermitz favors the Johnny Rattler or the Storm Chug Bug with the crystal flash tail hook and in shad patterns. Like many anglers, he’s found that surface baits can often produce bigger bass.

However, soft-plastic baits also have their place,” Bermitz explained.

“If the bass don’t respond to the more aggressive hard baits, a Senko can be very productive. June-bug has been a real good color, and we rig it in the normal weedless manner and fish it as a fall bait. Most of your hits come on the fall.

“Another very good bet is a Carolina-rigged worm with a 7 1/2-inch Bass Assassin curlytail worm in June bug, black-and-blue, or red shad.

“I like to fish this with a lighter-than-normal weight-- just enough to get the rig down to the bottom in the current.”

Moving water makes the inflow a hotspot. But surprisingly, the outflow in the Stick Marsh is not nearly as productive. If the water isn’t moving, Bermitz doesn’t waste much time at either end. He heads for Plan B.

“In the southwest corner of Farm 13, there is a big maze of wood that we call Pinball Alley,” he said.

“It’s mostly short submerged stumps with some laydown logs. The depth along the outer edge is in the five-foot range, and the wood runs back into very shallow water. This is one of the few places on this system where there’s a true shallow zone.

“It’s one of the best covers left for bass. They live around it for much of the year, stage to spawn on the outer edges and go inside to spawn.”

“It can be a difficult area to get back into,” he continued, “because the stumps are pretty tight. You have to work your way slowly in and out on the trolling motor, and sometimes even lift both motors to just drift over the higher cut-off stumps.

“You kind of bang from stump to stump, and that’s why we call it Pinball Alley. But it holds a lot of fish.”