fishing on the Amite River | SouthernPaddler.com

fishing on the Amite River

jdupre'

Well-Known Member
Sep 9, 2007
2,327
40
South Louisiana
This was my first trip on the Amite River. I've heard a lot about it and wanted to see for myself. I loaded a couple of flyrods, a small tackle box and a light anchor and drove the thirty miles to the put in. This section of the river has 3 to 8 foot sandy banks and flows through some really thickly wooded uplands. I paddled about 3.5 miles to a nice sand bar. Forgive a swamp-raised Cajun a couple of pics of a real, gen-u-ine sand bar. Kind of a treat for someone who's had black, gooey swamp mud on his boots for 58 years.
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Evidently, I wasn't the first to find this sandbar.

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Down a ways, I came upon this old cypress tree smack dab in the middle of the river.

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I caught a few small bream at the sandbar and a few hundred yards more up river, I turned into 10 ft wide cut that opened up into a small lake. I caught a few more bream on a popping bug , some nice ones but mostly runts. I switched to a bead headed black spider and caught a couple of nice ones and this little bass. Not much on regular tackle, but fun as heck on a light 3 weight flyrod.
To give you an idea how light this rod is, the tip right behind the tip guide is quite a bit smaller than a common round toothpick.
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The wind started kicking up so I headed for home. I plotted my course when I got home and figured how far I paddled. The old Swamper averaged 4.6 mph. I'd say that's mighty fine, seeing as much of that was paddling into a stiff head wind.

Joey
 

jdupre'

Well-Known Member
Sep 9, 2007
2,327
40
South Louisiana
Boots----size 11 1/2. Don't sink as far in swamp mud. Kinda like Cajun snow shoes. :mrgreen:

Jack, that bass was plenty big for my fishing rig. I'd gladly sign up for that size and no bigger if I could catch a mess of them every time I went out.

I did a little checking online. The tip on my 3 weight rod is only a little bigger than HALF the diameter of a common round toothpick. Now this really amazes me. They make even smaller, lighter rods than 3 wt...........2wt, 1wt, 0wt, 00wt and 000wt!

Joey
 

Kayak Jack

Well-Known Member
Aug 26, 2003
13,976
171
86
Okemos / East Lansing Michigan
You'd snigger at my gear. It's a piece of driftwood form Lake Superior (Gitche Gumi). It's shaped like a big "C", about a foot across. I have a pistol grip whittled into the middle, and notches on the ends for winding the line around. I also have hooks, a bobber, and a net. And a six pack.
 

jdupre'

Well-Known Member
Sep 9, 2007
2,327
40
South Louisiana
Kayak Jack said:
You'd snigger at my gear. It's a piece of driftwood form Lake Superior (Gitche Gumi). It's shaped like a big "C", about a foot across. I have a pistol grip whittled into the middle, and notches on the ends for winding the line around. I also have hooks, a bobber, and a net. And a six pack.

**********

Yep, that sounds like a good set-up, Jack. I would never snigger at a six pack. :wink:


Joey
 

jdupre'

Well-Known Member
Sep 9, 2007
2,327
40
South Louisiana
Chuck, I might just do that. The water needs to come down another foot and a half to expose more area on the several sand bars in the area. Being from low country, this river behaves MUCH different than our slow moving bayous. A big , couple of day rain would have our bayous maybe come up a foot.......maybe a bit more with a south wind to hold back the flow. A half day rain could raise the Amite at Denham springs several feet. I was just looking at the river stage history. Low water record was 8 ft. ........high water record was 41 ft !! Downriver, closer to where I was the Hi/Lo was 1 ft to 14 ft.......still a huge difference compared to my home range.

Joey
 

jdupre'

Well-Known Member
Sep 9, 2007
2,327
40
South Louisiana
Jack, I'll definitely do that. I have a much greater respect for rising water after seeing the tide ranges of that river. You kind of get the idea when you see 2 dozen houses sitting on up to 8 foot bluffs elevated up on 8 foot pilings. :shock:
Joey
 

oldsparkey

Well-Known Member
Aug 25, 2003
10,479
123
Central , Florida
www.southernpaddler.com
On the rivers over here when we camp on them there is a trick to do to check on the water level. When you set up camp , pull the boat up and tie it off. Then get a stick and shove it in the sand at the water line. In the morning check the stick and see if the water has remained the same or gone up or down.

Chuck.
 

Kayak Jack

Well-Known Member
Aug 26, 2003
13,976
171
86
Okemos / East Lansing Michigan
When I paddled the Brazos with Ron, he spotted a water rising situation and saved our arses. water came up 8' from an inadvertent (read stupid) dam release. We would have had our gear washed downstream, closely followed by us. Ron dunn gudd.
 

tx river rat

Well-Known Member
Feb 23, 2007
3,043
2
Waco Tx
I have refined my river camping technique a little more since Jack and my adventures.
My routine now is have my tent setup and then tie a line from one tent pole to the boat and another to a tree or anchor
rising water will float and the boat and jerk on the tent before it gets to the tent giving you a few minutes to get out. And it also takes care of high winds taking your boat in the middle of a storm,ask me how I know about that
Ron
 

oldsparkey

Well-Known Member
Aug 25, 2003
10,479
123
Central , Florida
www.southernpaddler.com
tx river rat said:
And it also takes care of high winds taking your boat in the middle of a storm,ask me how I know about that
Ron

You camp in high winds , really , you expect any of us to believe that. :roll: As far as storms I thought all that Texas ever got were the mild ( Sunday , Easy ) type of storms. :lol: :lol: :lol:

Chuck.