My daughter Cokie and I took our annual spring fishing trip this weekend to Lake Concordia near Ferriday, in conjunction with the local fly fishing club's annual spring trip there. We stayed in Natchez since the lodge where the club was staying was booked up. I'm certain the Cokester didn't mind - by Friday night she was dead tired and appreciated the comfort of a bed, and not having to timeshare a bathroom!
We didn't spend much time on the water Friday due to a storm passing through, and in fact, traveled a bit to a more remote location where we took a gamble on catching large crappie. We did manage one "slab" and few decent fish, but the fun was catching several small bass that attacked our flies. The rain put them quite in the mood. Saturday was a "chamber of commerce" type day, deep blue skies, light wind, rather mild. Started off slow but the big bream really turned on about 11am. Cokie did most of the damage using a black/chartreuse jitterbee about 2 feet under a VOSI. Poor Dad managed just 3 keepers using popping bugs, while Cokie put 22 in the box. When we hit 25, we just turned the rest loose. No need to be greedy, especially when all the fish in the box were 7.5 to 8.5 inches!
Cokie had a great time fishing, but she also was excited about seeing several species of birds, a raccoon, a deer, and four small alligators. The best part of driving up from Baton Rouge to Concordia is the terrain. Nice and hilly. You reach Mount Dolorosio - towering 480 feet high - that overlooks the Homochitto River Valley, and you feel so distant from flat south Louisiana, yet less than an hour away.
