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Home › Waters › Mississippi › Tombigbee River
River · Northeast Mississippi, Monroe County, the upper Tombigbee above the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway pools · Mississippi

Tombigbee River Fishing Guides

The upper Tombigbee in northeast Mississippi, a slow prairie-belt river fished for crappie, catfish and bass above the waterway pools.

Still bayou water ringed by moss-draped cypress at golden hour
Gauge location. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Guides on the Tombigbee River

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About the Tombigbee River

The Tombigbee rises in northeast Mississippi and runs south to meet the Alabama River and form the Mobile River, making it one of the major drainages of the Gulf coastal plain. The reach at Bigbee in Monroe County sits on the upper river, in the Black Prairie belt, above and among the pools of the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway that reshaped much of the system from the 1970s onward.

The character here is unhurried southern river. The water runs slow and carries colour from the prairie soils, the banks are lined with willow, cottonwood and bottomland hardwood, and the channel alternates between long flat stretches and deeper outside bends. Oxbows and connected sloughs are scattered through the floodplain and hold fish independently of the main channel, particularly after high water leaves them connected.

Crappie are the fish that drive most trips. Both white and black crappie are present in numbers, they stack on brush and on the structure in the bends, and spring is a serious local season. Catfish are the other mainstay, with blue, channel and flathead all well represented and large fish available. Largemouth and spotted bass work the wood and the slough mouths. White bass run in spring, freshwater drum are common, and the system holds longnose gar, alligator gar and paddlefish.

The waterway has made much of the lower system navigable, so anglers share water with barge traffic in places. Upstream of that influence the river is more natural. Flow responds to rainfall across a large basin, so it can colour up and stay high for days after a regional storm. The Black Prairie soils of this region make the water fertile, which is why the crappie and catfish grow as well as they do here. Local anglers fish brush piles they have placed and maintained themselves, and that structure is the difference between a slow day and a good one.

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Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

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Posting to Tombigbee River.

JPG, PNG or WebP, up to 12 MB. We resize it and strip the location data out of the file.

The name shown under the photo. Leave blank to stay anonymous.

Reader photo license v1.0 — the short version:

  • You grant Guided Floats, LLC a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to publish, resize and crop your photo on guidedfloats.com and in GuidedFloats’ own social posts and apps. You keep the copyright and can use the photo anywhere else.
  • You confirm that you took the photo yourself, that publishing it does not infringe anyone else’s rights, and that anyone recognisable in it (or a parent or guardian, if they are under 18) is happy for it to appear here.
  • Credit is printed beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, using the credit name you give us. Leave it blank and we use your name; write “Anonymous” for no name. Your email address is never published.
  • Withdrawing is one email to hello@guidedfloats.com naming the photo. It comes off the site within 7 days.
Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

Access

Bigbee - the gauge reach and a local access on the upper river.
Amory area landings - access to the river and the adjoining waterway pools.
Fulton - access on the upper Tombigbee in Itawamba County.
Aberdeen Lake and lock area - developed access on the waterway.
Monroe County road crossings - informal bank and small-boat access.
Oxbows and sloughs off the main channel - backwater access after high water.
Columbus Lake, downstream - the next major pool on the system.

Seasons

Spring: the peak season, with crappie on brush, white bass running and bass shallow.
Summer: hot and slow, with catfish reliable and early mornings the best bass window.
Fall: cooling water improves bass and crappie fishing through the bends and sloughs.
Winter: crappie hold deep on structure and catfish continue to feed in the holes.

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Questions

What is the current flow on the Tombigbee River?

As of Sep 17, 5:30 am, the USGS gauge TOMBIGBEE RIVER AT BIGBEE, MS reads 273 cfs. Conditions update every 15 minutes.

What species can you catch on the Tombigbee River?

Anglers target Alligator Gar, Black Crappie, Blue Catfish, Bluegill, Channel Catfish, Flathead Catfish, Freshwater Drum, Largemouth Bass, Longnose Gar, Paddlefish, Redear Sunfish, Spotted Bass, White Bass, White Crappie on the Tombigbee River in Mississippi.

Where can you access the Tombigbee River?

Bigbee - the gauge reach and a local access on the upper river. Amory area landings - access to the river and the adjoining waterway pools. Fulton - access on the upper Tombigbee in Itawamba County. Aberdeen Lake and lock area - developed access on the waterway. Monroe County road crossings - informal bank and small-boat access. Oxbows and sloughs off the main channel - backwater access after high water. Columbus Lake, downstream - the next major pool on the system.

When is the best time to fish the Tombigbee River?

Spring: the peak season, with crappie on brush, white bass running and bass shallow. Summer: hot and slow, with catfish reliable and early mornings the best bass window. Fall: cooling water improves bass and crappie fishing through the bends and sloughs. Winter: crappie hold deep on structure and catfish continue to feed in the holes.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Tombigbee River?

Regulations change by season and section. Read the current rules on the Mississippi agency site: https://www.mdwfp.com/enforcement-education/general-fishing-rules-regulations