2011 - Page 28 of 39 - Mississippi Sportsman

Deer and other wildlife are being pushed from flooded areas as the Mississippi River continues to inundate the batture land and property along tributaries.

MDWFP cautions against capturing, handling wildlife displaced because of Mississippi River flooding

May 17, 2011 MDWFP news release

The rising waters along the Mississippi and its tributaries have forced animals out of their normal home ranges, and the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks is asking people not to approach wildlife on levees, raised roadways and other high ground. […]

Wise Mississippi coastal anglers know that the best time to catch fish is when they are forced to congregate around contour changes, like the point on the west side of Horn Island.

Horn of Copious Cobia: Lemon fish invade this barrier island

May 12, 2011 Chris Ginn

Like a giant brown bear waiting to catch leaping salmon swimming upstream, hundreds of Mississippi offshore anglers are lining up this month to take advantage of the thousands of cobia making their annual migration around the Gulf of Mexico coastline.

After bobbing and weaving through the gauntlet known as Destin and Pensacola, the cobia will eventually hit the barrier islands off the Mississippi coast. The first island they get to, Petit Bois, might get a little of their attention, but it is the second island in the chain, Horn, that attracts cobia like Britney Spears draws attention. […]

Jared Hester nabbed the win in the Big Bass Contest to earn a Sportsman Gear prize pack and a Shimano Caenan reel.

‘jhester’ wins Big Bass Contest; ‘Austin P.’ and ‘Scout Pro’ take turkey contests

May 10, 2011 Mississippi Sportsman

MS-Sportsman.com users named the winners of the Big Bass and Turkey Photo & Video contests over the weekend. Each winner will receive an Official Sportsman package. […]

Alabama pro Steve Kennedy won the Bassmaster Elite Series stop at Georgia's West Point Lake this weekend, earning his second major title.

Kennedy takes Georgia Elite Series win, Ponds finishes 59th

May 9, 2011 Special report from www.Bassmaster.com

Steve Kennedy had been counting down the months ever since the 2011 Georgia Elite Series location was announced as West Point Lake more than a year ago. […]

Voting begins in big bass, turkey contests

May 4, 2011 Mississippi Sportsman

Voting in the Big Bass and Turkey contests have begun, with winners of each contest earning free Official Sportsman Gear.
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Building better crappie fisheries, part III

April 29, 2011 Hal Schramm

Crappie are notoriously cyclic. A lake is producing fair to good numbers of slabs for a couple years and then, mysteriously, the big fish disappear and are replaced with abundant but small fish. […]

NMFS officials are proposing a short fall recreational season for gag grouper, while also wanting to significantly increase the commercial quota on the species.

Fall gag grouper recreational season, increased commercial quota proposed

April 28, 2011 From News Reports

The National Marine Fisheries Service is proposing the setting the recreational gag grouper season to run Sept. 16 through Nov. 15, according to the agency’s newsletter. Public comment on the proposal is being accepted through May 6.

The proposal, announced April 21 in the Federal Register and apparently coming at the behest of the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council, also includes a temporary rule to reset the commercial gag grouper quota and continue the suspension of the use of red grouper multi-use individual quota commercial allocation. […]

When the fish aren’t spawning, they’ll stage in certain areas. That pattern will be consistent around the whole lake.

A Day on Okatibbee Lake

April 28, 2011 Michael O. Giles

Joe Giles is an expert bass angler and crappie angler who has spent a lifetime fishing Okatibbee Lake. Though he fishes for bass during most of the year, he concentrates on catching the succulent slabs from late February during pre-spawn, into April and through the spawn. […]