Mississippi has some of the best fishing waters anywhere in the South.
If you ask most weekend anglers, they stick with the water areas close to home.
The fact is an angler can plan a day trip and fish most any body of water Mississippi offers.
Ross Barnett is a body of water I had not fished until two years ago. The reservoir has anything you like to fish. If you are a lake fisherman, it has it. If you are a river fisherman, it has it. I
f you like fishing top water lures, you can. If you like fishing Carolina rigged lures, there are numerous places to fish.
I can honestly say you could go to Ross Barnett every weekend and never be able to fish all the water the reservoir has to offer.
Grenada Lake is another big body of water that is only a couple of hours away. The lake offers the same types of fishing that Ross Barnett has to offer. Grenada is also known for the large Crappie it has. I know of bass fishermen who go to Grenada just to Crappie fish for a weekend.
I was in a bass tournament there a few years ago and caught a Crappie on a 4-inch tube that weighed nearly 3 pounds. All you Crappie fishermen reading this that live around here would absolutely fall in love with Grenada.
I have yet to get the opportunity to fish neither Sardis nor Enid. Sardis is only 25 miles from Oxford. The lake has more than 58,000 acres of water to fish and it is only two hours away.
Enid Lake still holds the world record for Crappie, caught in 1954 that weighed in at 5 pounds, 3 ounces. Are you Crappie fishermen hearing this? When is the last time you caught a 5-pound Crappie? This lake has more than 28,000 acres to fish. This lake is also just about two hours away.
The Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway, which is right here at home, has more water to fish than we will ever live to fish completely. The waterway starts in Pickwick and goes all the way to the Gulf of Mexico.How many of us anglers have gone to each pool on the navigational waterway and fished all that it has to offer? Not many if any at all.
The gas prices are not what they were last year. We have a vast amount of water that is basically at our fingertips to enjoy. It only takes a short plan and you can fish a completely different place within a couple of hours.
My fishing partner and I have taken day trips before. You can leave here during the early morning hours and be at the water you choose at daylight. You wouldn”t have to get up any earlier than waking up for a tournament. The only thing is, don”t wait until dark to leave. It makes for a long trip home when you are tired.
Let”s enjoy the water we have in Mississippi.
Kevin Foorester contributes an outdoor column to The Commercial Dispatch each Sunday. He can be contacted at [email protected].
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