August means Mississippi hunting seasons are only a month away!

(Photo by Bobby Cleveland)

Even the pandemic won’t affect Mississippi’s love for the chase

When the best thing you can say about the next page on the calendar is, “Hey, at least it gets us one month closer to hunting season,” then it must be August, also known to Mississippians as “hell on Earth.”

In 2020, we can pray it also gets us one step closer to the end of the COVID 19 pandemic.

In mid-July, Mississippi’s COVID case count was still rising to nearly 1,000 cases a day. Our per capita infection rate ranked in the top 20 of states/countries. There’s been talk of seeing some of the bans of April and May returning, like restaurants and bars, gyms and other businesses. It seems doubtful there will be a true school year, or — Lord help us — football.

What does that leave?

Hopefully, hunting and fishing.

I say “hopefully,” because fishing and boating was banned in Mississippi for a time back in April.

“They made that mistake once; I doubt they’d do it again,” said Ronnie Porter of Jackson, an avid outdoorsman. “I say it jokingly, but they better think twice about telling well-armed hunters they can’t hunt. I can laugh about it, but rest assured, there’s a lot of folks ‘round here that don’t have a sense of humor, not when it comes to hunting.”

While most traditional hunting seasons don’t open until later in the fall, August does bring us the opening of one: alligator season. The application and draws took place in June. The record 960 permits issued for public waters can start being used on Aug. 28. A total of 5,143 applied, meaning the odds were about one in 51/2.

In the meantime, the fishing action this summer has been, well, hot. Anglers in the Gulf of Mexico are reporting an outstanding season for trout and redfish, snapper — when it was open — and even shark. Freshwater was also productive, with crappie and bass no longer being able to hide because of advances in electronic fish-finding technology like live scopes.

“I even bought one of those things,” said jigging purist Rabbit Rogers of Brandon. “Had to to keep up with everybody else. Those things are a game-changer and, in the summer, when they go deep, they can’t hide. You can pull up on a spot and without dropping a line, know whether you need to stay or move on. You can tell if there’s fish there and what the quality is.”

The August issue of Mississippi Sportsman, as every month, can help fill the void when it’s too hot to fish, or when quarantine has you in lockdown in the air-conditioned comfort of your recliner.

Inside, you’ll find a bevy of features that can keep you occupied.

  • Writer Bryan Hendricks takes us out in the Gulf marshes where the water is most-often clear in the summer and discusses tactics with some of Mississippi’s best redfish captains.
  • Phillip Gentry details the best rigs and baits for catching the fat cats in rivers and lakes.
  • Mike Giles has expert tips on finesse fishing for largemouth bass.
  • To set the tone for the early hunting season, Andy Douglas looks at September’s wing-shooting — dove and teal, including what you can do in August to prepare.
About Bobby Cleveland 1343 Articles
Bobby Cleveland has covered sports in Mississippi for over 40 years. A native of Hattiesburg and graduate of the University of Southern Mississippi, Cleveland lives on Ross Barnett Reservoir near Jackson with his wife Pam.

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