MS River Backwater/Bayou Pierre catfish '08

[jcrosscatahoulas]

Spring brings with it the warm winds and the sizzle in the blood to wet a hook and tug on a line.....

Here's a few shots from the last weeks' fishing escapades....some a little fishy, some just water - our entire deer camp, located at the old ferry landing from Lorman to St John's is under water, we have 2 house stands left standing, 1 the "blacktop" stand is about 25 feet high, in the water it looks about 5 feet high, the other the "north house" is leaning precariously to the left...the rest are somewhere down the Mighty Missisip now....

The fish that are biting now are averaging about 5-7 lbs. We're catching 12-20 lbs fish daily, very few of the smaller 1 1/2 lb size.....makes for lots of fun, but oh my gosh the work afterwards. We've given away 5 120 qt coolers full of dressed fish in the last week.....and eaten fish 4 outta 7 days....there are still 2 live baskets full of fish we've taken off of the lines in the last couple days.

35 lbs

cooler full from 4-18-08

Foulplay flipping one out of the net

another "net flipping" shot - I can't do that, I have to catch the net and turn it over by the bottom.

My son, Justin, with a net full (forget the line, just hold the net...RIGHT?!?)

boat load....the live baskets are a life saver! It's nice when you can "spread the work around" a little bit.

The sign by the camp gate...

My favorite food plot to hunt in the "blacktop"

Where we'd normally put the boat in the water, about a mile from where it's actually going in the water now.

[mrbeagler]

Nice Cats !
That water is way high...
recon it will be down by hunting season ?
We still got Hurricane season to go through too
Hate to even say that but its a fact ...

Thanks for the pics !

[jcrosscatahoulas]

Well beagler, they say it's gonna be there til around mid June. Our turkeys, coon, squirrels, hogs, deer everything, have been pushed on up in the hills. Needless to say, the turkeys were nesting already, so they will probably not be as plentiful in that area next year. The river supposedly crested Sunday, but here is a picture of the camp sign taken yesterday as opposed to the one above taken Sunday.

We don't run dogs at that camp, the terrain is WAY too bad, years ago they did and the numbers of dogs killed chasing deer/hogs off of the bluffs was staggering. We do run rabbit dogs there though. It'll be interesting to see what's left after the water is gone, when we're done with the rain and the snow melt, there's likely to not be much left.

[mrbeagler]

Sure Nuff hate to hear that , seeing it in the pics
is even more worse then one can even imadgine.
Man thats gotta be tuff ..

Its a shame to the Turkeys were nesting at the time of the flood
happening. I love turkey huntin myself, and try with all my might
to see to it we always have them around .
This year the dang yotes , have infested our area so bad and realy multiplyed. Gotta get them things GONE !!!!!!
We never had a problem with them , untill a few years ago.
I know some have migrated , but for the most part I blame this
this on a Fox Pen. I love to fox hunt too or did.
But someone I know brought in a bunch of yotes from GA.
and turned them lose in his pens for the fox hunters to come and run charged per dog.
I belive some of them critters got out some how and just started breeding to the point their every where now.
Now I understand bith sides of this but its taken a toll on deer fawns, rabbits and now Turkeys. Trappin them is hard because we cant use a leg hold trap here in FL , so the only thing we can do is shoot every one we see. And I do if given the oppertunirty.
Sorry to ramble ! I got carried away !!!!!

I do hope y'alls water goes down before your season begins
don't know if y'all plant food plots ,but that has to be tuff too
Hardly gives you anytime.
Good Luck and God bless ...

[Bolo]

Nice cats, but I'm sure you hope the water would go down. Hopefully the game will move back in once the water has receded.

[longshot]

That's B B B B B BB B B B BIG fish!!!!!!!Congrats!!!!!! Fatboy is lookin kinda slim, U dun putem on a diet?LOL By the way,when is the fry?

[bulletproof]

nice cats!!...yea whens the fry..lol

[jcrosscatahoulas]

The water left nearly a month before forecast, lower lying areas still had some standing pools, but for "total" coverage areas, it was gone by the end of May. Some places we hunt in the MS Delta, that was also flooded is also mostly dried, some areas also are holding water, but others are cracked open from their being so dry.

The wildlife seems to be mostly normal - maybe "off" a bit - but back to some semblance of a routine. The deer don't seem to have been affected much, the hogs definitely were in areas, the jury's still out on the turkeys.

[Houndmomma]

Looks like a great haul of fish!!