Featured

West Ship Island beach work scheduled

West Ship Island’s north beach is set to be rebuilt beginning next month to help stabilize the island and mitigate erosion, the U.S. National Park Service announced yesterday (July 18).

The work, set to begin Aug. 1 and be completed by the end of October, also will provide protection to Fort Massachusetts, the agency reported. The historic site is in danger of damage from encroaching waters. […]

Bass Fishing

Bouie River lakes perfect for punching

“The lakes on the Bouie are the only ones that I’ve consistently caught fish off of the mats,” he said. “I’ll take a ¾- to 1½-ounce bullet sinker pegged with a bobber stopper and add a large punching hook and Paca Craw, or some other creature bait, and punch through the matted grass when the bass are holding underneath. […]

Featured

Saltwater fishing off the charts on the Mississippi coast

After a one-two punch of Deep-water Horizon oil spill and the freshwater inundation of the Gulf following extreme springs flooding of the Mississippi river, the stage was set for lackluster expectations for saltwater anglers. These expectations, however, have been gratefully upset by several record catches along the state’s coast.

Starting the year off in a big way as Steve Atwood and crew hauled aboard a huge wahoo in Mississippi waters. The beast, which the charter crew estimated by measurement to range from 124 to 130 pounds, took more than 24 hours to be weighed on certified scales. […]

Deer Hunting

What are deer doing in mid summer?

Just exactly what are whitetails doing this time of year? I presented Chad Dacus, statewide deer program coordinator with the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks, with this very question, and here is his biological perspective of what deer in the Magnolia State are up to during the miserably hot months of July and August. […]

Featured

Early migratory bird hunting seasons to be considered at MCWFP meeting

The Mississippi Commission on Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks will determine dates for early migratory game birds during their monthly meeting scheduled for July 19 at the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks office in Jackson, the agency announced yesterday (July 7).

Seasons will be based on the early season framework released June 27 by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

While seasons have yet to be set officially, these early season frameworks are expected to be very similar to recent years. […]

Bass Fishing

Tombigbee’s Smithville Pool receives 40,000 bass fingerlings

Officials recently poured about 40,000 largemouth bass fingerlings into the Smithville Pool of the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway to help bolster the healthy population already found there, the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks said today (July 6).

The 3-inch bass were provided by the Private John Allen National Fish Hatchery near Tupelo, and were surplus fish the hatchery had not planned to stock anywhere else. […]

Breaking News

Pending state-record alligator gar shot, MDWFP says

Two men shot a pending state-record alligator gar June 24 while bowfishing along the Yazoo River south of Vicksburg, the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks reported today (July 6).

The 234-pound gar, if certified by the MDWFP, will easily replace the current 175-pound State Trophy Fish record for gar caught on any sport-fishing gear except rod-and-reel.

The current record was taken from the Pearl River near Columbia in 1993 by Joseph Sylvest. […]