It sounds like the fish in your lake did their business in April. That would line up to be true given your southern location in Mississippi. The further south, the earlier in the year they tend to spawn simply because of the temperature being correct.

All of that said, I do have notes going back to 2013 which is the first year I fished Lake Barkley. My crude notes show a definite connection with decent messes of shellcrackers being caught very near the April/May new moon and full moon.

This year, we caught better numbers of redear the past few days...meaning May 23rd and 24th. I thought they were finished spawning and was shocked to stumble upon a nice bed of redear that i found while walking on a dock at a local marina. The excitement of seeing big shellcracker from the bank standing a few feet away is tremendous.

It seems like they will nest when the water is between 70-80 degrees. Perhaps this is more important than the moon phase??