I had a favorite uncle, from New York of all places. He met my Dad’s sister during WWII. I don’t know the story but I guess he was maybe stationed at Camp Shelby which is near my hometown. As I understand my aunt was a real “dish”. Many a Northern boy has fallen for the beauty of Southern women and I think that may have helped to turn a New York boy into a Southern boy. Uncle Howard loved to tease us about our being Southern and particularly about being Mississippians. To tease us youngsters he always referred to our state as “Mississloppy”.
Well, if he had ever slid up and down the banks of the Mississippi to launch kayaks he would have found how appropriate that name fits the river, not necessarily the state.
But that’s what I’m planning to do for my Father’s Day. Fight the muddy banks to get my kayak in and out of the back channels of the “Mississloppy”. You see, yesterday I got an email from the USGS telling me that the river had hit 23 feet. That in turn sent me to the forecast page and I can see that the river will be almost bumping 22 by Father’s Day, before heading back up. From my records, that gives me a narrow window of opportunity on a weekend day that is also a day I get to do what I want.
This will be the first day in 2018 that the river’s jetties in a particular place will be fishable.
Checking the turbidity gauge in Natchez, the turbidity number should be in the range of 35-30. Using my own rule of thumb, “50 is five inches, 5 is five feet”, which is not accurate but its easy to remember and it tells me what I want to know, there should be between five and eight inches of visibility. That’s not trout water, but good enough for the fish to find my clouser.
The last time I was at my spot and the gauge was about this level, the water looked like this (below) and the gar, white bass and stripers gave me a good time on my fly rod.
So happy Father’s Day and I hope you get to do an adventure too. I’ll follow up with a post tomorrow, that is, if there’s anything to report.
"Samurai" Fly Shop 
I follow your post on the Miss River and have a jetty I fish based of your guidance. I saw the stage forecast for Fathers Day but I couldn’t go. I have yet to catch a fish on a fly but eagerly look at your post on the subject. I’m hoping you caught some fish!
LikeLike
Dave,
Thanks for the follow, good to talk to another jetty hopper. I did make it to the river and had a postscript ready to post but somehow I managed to lose it and I never got back to creating it again. The conditions were really beautiful but I don’t think the conditions were good long enough for the fish to find it. I saw very few gar and no skipjacks which are good indicator species so not seeing them I was not surprised to find only one white bass which is all I caught. I am hoping by the next weekend maybe the conditions will return, at least the forecast looks good and I may try it again. I’ll put together a post with some video and some pics here in a minute. It will be short and sweet.
Thanks,
Glen
LikeLike