July 8, 2014
FISHING REPORT
This past week end was the Fourth of July. There was a front that came thru on Friday and knocked down the humidity, that made the weather great! Normally the week end of the fourth the river is full of boats, jet skis, and etc. Also with those pleasure crafts on the water there is no shortage of stupidity, ignorance, and drunkenness on the water also. But DMR said it was going to step up patrols to check for boating safety equipment, registrations, proof of boater safety courses, DUI’s, and etc. These items are required by law. I commend the DMR (Department of Marine Resources) for these efforts. As far as I know, no one died on the river which was a feat in itself! I personally would like to see more patrols on the Tchoutacabouffa River, it is needed in the worst way. There is no boating courtesy, just a lot of stupidity and ignorance mixed with a lot of drinking then people get excited when Little Johnny kills someone or gets killed himself. I would venture to say most of the younger crowds are in mom or dad’s boat, on a friends Sea-do and have never took the required boating safety course. The motto on this river is “Hold my Beer and Watch this Shit!” But enough of this, you get the picture, on with the report! I was hesitant about launching the Rigger Morgus on Friday so I decided to see what Saturday would bring. Saturday was the same, not much boat traffic, people was acting civil so I put the Rigger Morgus over Saturday evening and did a little scouting downstream of the fishing camp. I was surprised and what few boaters were on the water were very respective of other boaters, the word was out the DMR was on the water checking. I decided to head Sunday evening to do a little fly fishing. I headed down to Camp Four Jack’s to try my luck. The weather was still holding with the low humidity but the sun was hot but bearable, not too bad. I started with a new popper I am working on, The Great Speckled Bird, looks good but not very fruitful as of yet, still have to do some tweaking to do. I changed back to my old stand by popper, The Whistle Britches Minnow. First cast netted a very plump Bull Bluegill and later
measured eight inches in length. Life is good! As I continued fly fishing, I picked up a couple of more nice ones about the size. I did have to keep one crap shooter because he simply swallowed the popper, there was no way for him to survive so he went into the meat pot. There was no shortage of crap shooters doing their thing this day also. All in all, fishing was on the down side but being out there was just great. The final tally for the day was five Bulls and the one crap shooter. Not great but not bad either. If I can manage to keep five or six Bull Bluegills, that’s a pretty good evening, if I can keep twelve or fifteen Bulls, I have had a great day!
Until then, keep your rod stiff and your popper floating, Thanks, Harry A. Lamey
