Ross Barnett is Serving Humble Pie

Well, I set the camper up and launched the boat before noon Tuesday at Hwy 43. I almost exclusively fish Hwy 43 and above so this report applies only at the Top of The Rez. The wind never stopped blowing against the water flow for 3 days making it choppy to fish in open water. Water was flowing a bit sandy colored before I got to the VFW, making dingy water downriver. I don't know how much flow went thru since May but there are trees where there was none before. All my profitable recruitment spots didn't produce till Friday and then few fish of any quality. Interesting thing, jigs tipped with shiners only caught Catfish. I did better in areas off the river but the only quality fish I caught was in the main river right off the channel. Not many local Crappie guys till Friday so I'm assuming they knew something I didn't know. We looked at the weather forecast from 3 different sources, they didn't come close to what we had. If you're going to fish the Rez head to the bottom and work to fish your way from there as it's Slim Pickings up top. Temps were 79-82 degrees and most of my fish came from 10-11ft in 15-20ft of water. With all the rain Northeast of the 43 Bridge the forecast rise at Ratliff's Ferry is to 302ft from 297ft meaning a slug of water is on the way down from the Philadelphia area.

You are doing better than I am. My last two trips produced 3 catfish on jugs south of 43 (after getting skunked on jigs with nibbles fishing for crappie) and 1 catfish on jigs with nibbles north of 43, also fishing for crappie.

Did you notice that tree that washed up on the Bar at the top of the first island on the right? It wasn't there in May. Also when I side scanned around that tree the sand has built up quite a bit, only 3ft deep in spots now. I could see catfish at 15ft yesterday right inside the river at the first cuts to the right but none before that except on the downflow side of the 43 bridge on the Madison side, second group of bridge supports. How high did the water get the last big flow?

Will be worse the next few days. Almost 12” rain in the pearl headwaters this week. River at Ratliff projected to be up 4’ by Sunday. Discharge at the damn projected to be 12.5K cfs by Sunday night. Not too bad but a pretty rapid change

National Weather Service Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service

Nevermind the discharge forecast change to 19K CFS

National Weather Service Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service

Think me and the little man gonna hit the local state lakes next few days till water gets back to normal on the Rez and okatibbee

Just a tip for the Rez when the water is muddy/current. May want to steer away from north of 43. they are there but it’s hard to find fishable water. Usually when we have the big rains like this even the backwaters and smaller creeks are churned up with flow. Try from midway of lake south on the west side by the trace. The whites usually will run out to 6-10’ flats several hundred yards off river channel in theses conditions. Livescope and spider rigging/slow trolling works well for these. The specs will hug the timber and stumps around the old oxbows. The new influx of water will disrupt and change the thermocline so it’s kind of a crap shoot at what depths they will be

The water being about 1.5’ or so higher than normal has been odd this time of year. I normally don’t fish north of 43, so I did it kinda lurking around at various spots based on some waypoints that my dad gave me. I normally fish the main lake, and I’m rusty on fishing this time of year because my work schedule and life had been hectic the last few years during the summers.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Crsearcy

Just a tip for the Rez when the water is muddy/current. May want to steer away from north of 43. they are there but it’s hard to find fishable water. Usually when we have the big rains like this even the backwaters and smaller creeks are churned up with flow. Try from midway of lake south on the west side by the trace. The whites usually will run out to 6-10’ flats several hundred yards off river channel in theses conditions. Livescope and spider rigging/slow trolling works well for these. The specs will hug the timber and stumps around the old oxbows. The new influx of water will disrupt and change the thermocline so it’s kind of a crap shoot at what depths they will be

---

Thanks for the tips. I hang up towards the top since my wife is in the Campground without transportation. I will go a little below the S-Curves if reasonable calm, which was not this trip. The wind never let up even at night. As posted earlier this is unusual conditions. I follow the Hydrology website daily for what's happening here more than Ross Barnett. When we headed up the flow was forecast to slow and only 17-20% chance of rain (weather.com). Well they didn't have a clue.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by jjue1979

The water being about 1.5’ or so higher than normal has been odd this time of year. I normally don’t fish north of 43, so I did it kinda lurking around at various spots based on some waypoints that my dad gave me. I normally fish the main lake, and I’m rusty on fishing this time of year because my work schedule and life had been hectic the last few years during the summers.

---

I know the what you mean very well. Fish when we can and do the best we can

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by rojoguio

Thanks for the tips. I hang up towards the top since my wife is in the Campground without transportation. I will go a little below the S-Curves if reasonable calm, which was not this trip. The wind never let up even at night. As posted earlier this is unusual conditions. I follow the Hydrology website daily for what's happening here more than Ross Barnett. When we headed up the flow was forecast to slow and only 17-20% chance of rain (weather.com). Well they didn't have a clue.

---

ain’t that the truths to anyone unfamiliar with Ross Barnett, a 8 mph north wind forecast means 20-30 from the south with occasional gust to 50

I looked at the tides here and we will get a 4 day NIP tide before the water gets here. I live 13 miles from the East Pearl river. It's Tidal, most of the water flows down the West Pearl from the poor condition Diversion that was done called Wakegans Bluff or something like that. So it takes a couple of weeks to blow up our fishing from the Spillway at RB. The big problem is the I-10 Westbound lane over the Pearl River bridge will be closed till mid August creating a backup so far its useless to try to go in that direction to fish. Since the planned Buckyes's Eastbound I-10 traffic is worse due to the removal of a overpass. Traffic backups 10 miles or better keeps me from going East like the Biloxi River. Driving North is Ok. We were hoping Ross Barnett was the Ace in the Hole but No, just Humble Pie servings there.

If you are still in the area, try lake calling panther, will be restricted to single pole but good crappie can be caught