Thread: Here's to MS!

Ya know, I have had the opportunity to travel across the nation in each career I've had from the time I was out of school. Lived all across the south too. Now, as a proud Mississippian, I spent much time defending our state to people from elsewhere in the country. We seem to be last in every poll and statistic they can come up with. Every media story to cover the state seems to go on about our backwoods, racist, fat, uneducated and pregnant citizens. It is a sentiment that seems to encompass the entire south really.

Then several years ago when I moved back home to change careers, I picked up crappie fishing as my game fish quarry of choice. Since that day, every time I go into a tackle shop or sporting goods store, every time I pull up to a boat launch out of state, when people see the jig poles and the Mississippi registration on the boat, I get bombarded with ohhhhhs and ahhhhs it seems. "You lucky dog!" "Why would you fish anywhere else?!" "Man, those lakes are on my bucket list!" "I wish I lived there!".

So, to every fisherman who gives back to his or her lake, every man that stops at or short of a limit, those who build habitat, pick up their trash, practice responsible fishing and conservation habits, to each state fisheries officer and biologist. THANK YOU! We sure have something here to be proud of!