Inshore Fishing
Tower of Power
The prominent V wake was unmistakable, even from my camera boat positioned 50 feet from the anglers working a grass line. […]
March 2012
Bass Fishing
In Plain View
Bass anglers are visual creatures. We like blinking metal flake on our boats. […]
As Big As they Grow
Snakebit
What happened to that bad winter we were supposed to have? Didn’t the local weather gurus promise one of the coldest winters last fall? I’m not complaining, mind you. And I know you fishermen aren’t either. Talk about some really great wintertime fishing — boy, this has been nice! […]
Turkey Hunting
Freeze, you’re busted!
Don’t tell me you’ve never done this. You turkey hunt and you’ve never been caught on the short end of the stick? Yeah, right. I’ve been busted so many times the stick is worn down to a nub.
The best part of that means I have had the blessed fortune to turkey hunt a lot and be guided by some of the best, but I really wish I could say I have learned from my mistakes. I just chalk up all the goofs to the nature of the game of turkey hunting. […]
Fishing
When familiarity breeds content
Whoever said that familiarity breeds contempt was not talking about their marine electronics. The plain and simple truth is that the better you know your electronics, the more they can do for you. As a “for instance,” I’m still learning about the side- and down-scanning features on the newer Humminbird and Lowrance sonar units. […]
Bass Fishing
Maynor Creek Water Park
Maynor Creek Water Park, consisting of about 500 acres and located near Waynesboro, once was a very productive bass-fishing lake before going into a downturn, but it’s currently making a comeback.
Big bass are being caught again at this lake that once produced numbers of 10-pounders. The lake was drawn down several years ago to repair the dam. Because of that drawdown, the buck willows and other groves of trees flourished on what was the lake bottom. When the lake was brought back to normal pool, an abundance of cover had sprung up close to the shoreline in the shallow water. […]
General
The house search
Nothing is more terrifying to a homeowner than a “hot” burglary. That’s what detectives call incidents where cold-blooded cretins, crawling out of their skins with drug addictions, creep a house with the occupants home, generally asleep. […]
Inshore Fishing
March Madness
“If you have young folks, old folks or a bunch of buddies who want to go fishing and have their strings stretched, their rods bent and their muscles crying for relief, come fish with us at Bay St. Louis Bridge on the Mississippi Gulf Coast in March,” says Capt. Kyle Jarreau of Shore Thing Fishing Charters. […]
Hunting
Burris Eliminator III
The Eliminator III is a sleek, next-generation laser scope that is able to provide more accuracy, more range and a method of windage compensation. […]
Columns
Managing the data — Part 1
My farm in west-central Mississippi is my personal field laboratory for experimentation with trail camera techniques and practices, as I continue to study and learn about local buck patterns.
When used fully and properly, trail camera data can become one of the most effective tools in a hunter or property manager’s toolbox. This is true not only from an overall deer population survey standpoint, but also from the hunter’s standpoint as one learns how to convert piles of trail camera photos into predictions about deer movement. […]
Freshwater Fishing
The crappie spawn
Mississippi’s river lakes and reservoirs provide excellent crappie fishing. Most crappie fisheries contain both black and white crappie, and the whites usually outnumber the blacks. Biologists know the basic biology of crappie and have made great strides forward to manage them. Yet, many questions remained unanswered. […]
Bass Fishing
In Plain View
Bass anglers are visual creatures. We like blinking metal flake on our boats. We like crankbaits that push the limits of the color wheel. And we like throwing to targets that we can see.
That’s why I was so impressed when Kenny Churchill idled into Cane Creek on Ross Barnett Reservoir near Jackson. My eyes immediately told me that Cane Creek is what I would call a target-rich environment.
The co-owner of Performance Outboards wanted to show me how to fish the winter remnants of lily pad flats that carpet Ross Barnett Reservoir during the summer. […]