Time to Go Fish

This time of the year brings into play two of my favorite things, crawfish season and the crappie spawn.

Thanks to our neighbors to the south way down yonder in Cajun land they grace the rest of us with those scrumptious mud bugs harvested for some mighty fine dining and table fair.

A common sight is now starting to develop in and around my home over in Walthall County of huge pots boiling the crawfish with just enough seasoning to make one want to ‘suck the heads’ and get the full flavor.

Throw in some small red potatoes, some corn on the cob and some link sausage and here comes a real treat that only us southerners can relate to.

Arguably second only to Thanksgiving and Christmas for drawing friends and family together is these crawfish boils.

The other part of this article highlights my personal enjoyment of loading up the poles, getting a bucket of minnows, a few of my favorite jigs and heading to our favorite hot spots that hold the spawning crappie or as some call white perch.

Thanks to the efforts of our conservation officers and common sense of the anglers we now have a healthy population of those fish that fight like a bass and bed like the bream in abundance.

In fact, it is not uncommon to sit in one spot and catch your limit of the large spawning crappie as they seem to congregate in certain holding areas.

The current Mississippi creel limit for crappie (black and white, combined) is fifteen (15) fish per person.

But that usually means you as an angler come away with 15 lbs or more of fine eating because this time of the year the big ones gather.

The flesh of the crappie makes for a white delicate tasting fish and I can think of no other fish as tasty as fried fillet white perch or broiling the larger ones with onion slices placed in the cuts of the flesh and marinated in Italian salad dressing.

Yummy.

I have fished for these fine fighting and eating fish in many places including public and private lakes, large reservoirs and streams.

I was fortunate to be one of many first time anglers to fish the newly opened Toledo Bend reservoir that borders Texas and Louisiana back in 1969 due to the kind host pastor I preached a revival for at the time, the late Rev. C.J. McManus at Anacoco LA.

And we had a ball!!

But my all time favorite place to fish for these most sought for scale fish is the Ross Barnett Reservoir near Jackson MS.

And especially on the lower end of the large spill way where the heavy rains makes it necessary to release the overflow and cover much of the area where brush makes a haven for the spawning crappie.

I have literally seen dozens of jon boats bumping each other as the fishermen crowd around the hot spots and no one is complaining because every hook is finding a perch attached!

So with all that being said, do ol Bro. Mike a huge favor.

Being all there is stirring over here is the dust in Djibouti Africa where I am stationed with our troops in this arid desert land, go get the pot boiling with crawfish and think of me as you peel those delicious tails.

And for sure, go hitch the boat, grab those poles and a bucket of minnows and head to your favorite hot spot in memory of me.

Because it’s time to go fish!

God bless you and God bless America.