22 replies to this topic

[Irate Mormon]

For those who aren't on my Super-Regional email list, the Hubbsi trip is this coming weekend. Location is near Bastrop in N. Louisiana. I will be arriving Saturday night (work obligations) and collecting/viewing on Sunday.

If you are interested I joining us please email me, my address is in Americam Currents. I will send location details on an individual basis. Note that if you plan to travel on I-20 west, there is an interstate closure over the weekend. You will need to get off at I-55N, travel to 220, take 220 to bypass the closure and get back on 20.

[Doug_Dame]

I cannot do, but jealous as all heck !!!!

 

Take fishy photos, please!

[mattknepley]

For those who aren't on my Super-Regional email list, the Hubbsi trip is this coming weekend. Location is near Bastrop in N. Louisiana. I will be arriving Saturday night (work obligations) and collecting/viewing on Sunday.

If you are interested I joining us please email me, my address is in Americam Currents. I will send location details on an individual basis. Note that if you plan to travel on I-20 west, there is an interstate closure over the weekend. You will need to get off at I-55N, travel to 220, take 220 to bypass the closure and get back on 20.

What he said!

[Irate Mormon]

P. hubbsi is relatively unknown even in our little circle.  Very few of us have ever seen this fish...and it is a stunner!  BG Granier and I made a couple of forays to this spot. before he dropped out of the scene.  Part of the bayou here is a cypress swamp, challenging collecting there but I have netted hubbsi in the swamp.  But we hit the jackpot when we spotted a spawning congregation very close to the bank in the bayou proper.  It has been many years since I have been there and I look forward to it.  My photo tank is kaput though  I was hoping Isaac could make the trip.

[Irate Mormon]

Sorry to take so long to update, but the trip was a bust, except Trey netted what looked like a YOY.  The water was way high.  Maybe next year. 

[Casper]

I thought you were dead.  Remembering that account from years ago.  7 miles as the crow flies or 17 as the creek winds through log jams, swamps and deep, dark infested pools.

[Irate Mormon]

Heads up, there is interest in trying again Spring 2018. I have a couple of folks who have expressed interest, anyway. I will monitor water levels more carefully this time. Tje site is camping friendly, except it is adjacent to a hunting club.

[Matt DeLaVega]

Sleep sound and wake live. Hopefully?

[Akpinion]

Interested! 

[mattknepley]

Would this be early May again?

[Irate Mormon]

BUMP.  Yeah, May again (hey, it's May NOW!).  So, i;ll check my schedule and see when I can do this.  If anybody is interested now is the time to chirp in.

[keepnatives]

I may be interested.

[Irate Mormon]

OK, date is set for Saturday May 12.  It is POSSIBLE I could do this as a day trip later in the month, but I have that weekend off so I can camp overnight if I need to.   But if nobody is gonna go then I'll probably just sit it out. 

[keepnatives]

Not going to be able to make it.

[Doug_Dame]

Martin, I'd love to, but I also can't make it ... this year.

 

Stays on my Bucket List, of course. 

 

d.d.

[Irate Mormon]

Just checked gauge height and water flow...looking good!  I may do this even if it's a solo trip!  I'll be watching the weather closely this week.   I'll send photos...>

[Irate Mormon]

OK, I just got back.  i won't say the trip was a bust, because the site itself is just a natural wonder.  But no sunfish were on the nest and I netted no hubbsi.  There was a local fisherman (a Duck Dynasty type) with a portable pontoon boat just coming out of the swamp as I entered.  We exchanged greetings and then he remarked "The snakes are really out today!"  I agreed, having just seen one 3 feet in front of me, diving for cover too quickly for me to get a good ID.  I asked him had he seen any sunfish on the nest, and he said no, but he had a good day (lifting a wire basket out of the water, wherein some 30 or so assorted centrarchids were incarcerated).  I told him what I was looking for, and he said "Oh yeah, those are real pretty.  My girlfriend likes them." and he proceeded to describe a spot amongst the cypress knees where he commonly found them.  I found the spot with no trouble, but although the swamp was loaded with darters, pirate perch, gambusia, and topminnows, I did not net a single bluehead.  The fisherman had remarked that it might be too early in the year, as the bayou had only been back in its banks for a couple of weeks - first time since last year.  This confirmed my interpretation of the river gauge data.  So maybe I'll have time to sneak in another trip before the convention, although early June would seem to be about perfect.  I did see quite a few snakes out sunning themselves - diamondback water snakes.  They were very wary, fleeing from my approach, but by remaining motionless I was able to observe them cautiously poking their heads out of the water before resuming their humdrum snake lives.  I would have liked to stay all day, just observing the herons, swallows, beavers, etc...  It is not for nothing that Louisiana styles itself as The Sportsman's Paradise.  The road that crosses the bayou has very little traffic - other than the fisherman only one car passed while I was there.  It was very encouraging to find native mussels and relicts too (plus the odd corbicula).  It was a very peaceful and rejuvenating place.  I know people who look at a cypress swamp and think you have to be crazy to go in there.  I suspect they rarely leave their upstairs apartment or relinquish the entertainment of their 65" TV.

[Irate Mormon]

I think my next trip, if I go again this year, will be on a weekday, as I rarely get weekends off.

[Doug_Dame]

A nice report, especially given the non-appearance of the hoped-for main character(s). A core appreciation of nature and the outdoors is a great thing to have, and to share.

 

It's interesting to ponder where the hubbsi are, when they're not nesting.

 

Personally I believe they serve as elite guardians and sentinels for the fabled/mythical Graveyard of the Elephants, plus the International Repository of Lost Single Socks, and the World Retirement Community for Run-Away Ballpoint and Fountain Pens, all of which were co-located to an undisclosed place by a secret resolution of the U.N. Security Council in October, 1949. (You probably never heard of this U.N. resolution ... that's because it's secret. You don't know where these other named institutions are either, despite their obvious impact on the world's economy. It all hangs together. And we don't know where the hubbsi are, most of the year. What more proof could anyone need???)

[Irate Mormon]

More likely they're just flitting about in the chummy, chest deep, cheery, charming, chartreuse Chemin-ahaut, all set about with cypress knees.  But since you were on a roll there I didn't want to interrupt your train of thought