Idjits were out in full force saturday

Been awhile since I've been UPRIVER on the Pearl and I forgot how bad it is up there. Since the water was up 10 feet or so, took awhile to find a decent sandbar to layout on. WOW is all I can say about some people. You got a River over 100 feet wide and seems some have to ride about 20 feet away from the sandbar your laying out on. They don't even see the 4 rods you have have standgin straight up proped on cut sticks with the line going out into the river either. Had to go grab my pole a few times to keep from having my line cut by boats.

Don,

I will probably get slammed for this, but everyone has an opinion...

I grew up on the Pearl between lowhead dam and the 43 bridge. I can honestly say that that stretch of the Pearl river is one of the most scenic waterways in the state of Mississippi.

Back in the early 70's, the only boats up in that stretch of the river were fishermen and a few skiiers and campers. We would go up on a Friday evening, grab a sandbar, put up a tent, gather some wood, get a fire going, burn a few steaks and then put out and run trotlines until we were all exhausted. The next day would start with bass fishing up and down the river until mid-morning and then we would start waterskiing. You might see a dozen boats all day long. The winding nature of that stretch of the river didn't really lend itself too well to skiing so most waterskiiers stayed down river. But the narrow river combined with all the trees provided a glass-smooth water surface for waterskiing. It's where I learned to slolam and barefoot ski. It was truly wonderful.

I recently returned and discovered that the rest of humanity seems to have found my little piece of paradise. It was so crowded that with bass-boats, ski-boats and jet-skis, that to even attempt to waterski was unthinkable. The few fishermen that I did see that day were constantly being bounced up and down due to the wakes of the ever passing boats. I did see a few people trying to waterski and I also saw many, many different jet-ski's jumping the wake of every boat they encountered, even those towing skiiers. That looked like a disaster just waiting to happen.

To me it was a sad sight to see as the relatively docile environment had turned into some kind of spring-break drink till you puke summer festival...

So here's where I get slammed...

I would give anything if that entire stretch of the river would become a no-wake zone. I know it sounds hypocritical to want to stop others from doing what I was able to do, but things have changed and the population that is utilizing that resource has increased exponentially. Or maybe even make the no-wake rule apply only during the weekend or week days so that the waterskiiers and jetskiers and the other joyriders in their maxed out bassboats and cruisers could control the river some too.

I'm sure it will never happen, but it sure would be nice if it did so that some tranquility could return to that waterway if only for a short time.

You didn,t have all of them they were more than enough to go around on guntersville too.:eek: Seems you cain,t get away from them on the weekends we were tied up under the bridge with big signs saying NO WAKE! they would come thru so fast they would wash ya up on the pylons one guy came thru wide open but his boat was sinking looked like it was about to go under so i cut loose & followed him back to the ramp just to make sure he made it back.

Tern't my fault. I was no where near the Rez or Guntersville and besides, you can't prove a thing. :)

I-Catch.....what kind of methods do you use on Guntersville around those grass beds? Or do you look for deeper structure without the grass to Crappie fish?

Wannabe...

I promise you that. The river is WAY up and I got bounced around less early that morning when I was in the tailrace of Lowhead. I looked over one time and cringed bigtime when one deephull boat came by and my boat was bouncing up onto the sandbar. Took 4 of us to push it back oout into the water. Of course when that boat came by, the waves were so big it got the entire inside of my boat soaked with the wave splashing so high.

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Originally Posted by Wannabe...

Tern't my fault. I was no where near the Rez or Guntersville and besides, you can't prove a thing. :)

I-Catch.....what kind of methods do you use on Guntersville around those grass beds? Or do you look for deeper structure without the grass to Crappie fish?

Wannabe...

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If i fish the grass mostly use 1/16 or 1/32 when i fish my deeper structure that i,ve put pvc & cedar trees i,ll slow roll a 1/32 jig with 4# line seems to work real well for me. Last year we caught fish all the way into august, the water went from 5 foot to 40 foot in a span of about 30 foot with all the structure that was there they was no need for them to leave.

Don, sounds like your weekend was a little rough...poor thing..lol