Plotting a River Trip

[Riley Smith]

I don't know the lower river and am having to use Google Earth to poke around. I'm more familiar with the river closer to I-10 and above. I have a desire to motor McInnes Bayou, which runs right along River Road for a considerable distance. I know one of the relatives of the namesake and the bayou had a derelict steel hull up in the marsh at one place a long time ago, welcoming visitors to Moss Point. One of my friends lives on it further up in Moss Point, and of course, the bayou comes off the river at a point that I'm familiar with, and winds through the marsh that I'm not. It ends in Krebs Lake, where the boat is, so a trip upriver and back down would be fun and I'll attempt it tomorrow, after taking my grandson to school. Barring hurricane and major domestic disturbance 

[Captain Kidd]

Domestic disturbance! Now that's funny.

[Riley Smith]

I said that with tongue-in-cheek because Sonya is babysitting the youngest and no telling what can happen. Mostly squeals and smiles, although a massive temper tantrum is not out of the question. I'm hoping to find a fish on my journey up the river, on a falling tide, and then ride the north wind "home". Temps are to die for! 76F-59F. Oh yeah!!!

[Captain Kidd]

Any way you slice it, stuff can always happen at home.

[Riley Smith]

"And that's the truth!"...Edith Ann

[Frank B.]

Thought about this last Saturday crossing the marsh on I-10 and while pondering missed my exit north to 63. You know it is six miles each way to make a turn around from that mistake. But I noticed a few boats working the small canals for fish in that marsh and wondered how in the world do you navigate back there? Local knowledge? Some kind of marsh chartplotter and GPS?  I've often considered bringing my skiff down and leaving it at my mother/sisters place for the winter when I don't use it up north and attempting to fish the area without getting completely lost.

[Riley Smith]

Some navigation device is required, although many here know the place. I used a screen shot of the satellite pic as a chart. Basically I knew SOME of the route, but there were some turns and passes that I needed to find on the Moss Point end of things. This actually wasn't sailing waters except in certain advantageous situations, and to be worth raising and dowsing so much would have required two people and the lazy jacks to be rigged. (I forgot 'em when I put the mast up). I did find several spots I'll fish at a later date and have yet to try one a bud told me about. All this was recon and basically measuring. If I had taken the RIVER up, instead of the bayou, I could have sailed UP on a decent breeze and because of the different heading, before the tide got too strong, allowing me to go down current back home. Always the best choice!

Wow! That little front and rain cooled things off dramatically! As far as bringing the skiff down, I usually am active up until late December in the boat. Don't do much in Jan-Mar though, because of tides and weather but it can even happen then in some years.

[Doug SC]

If you don't have a chart or satellite view you can always download a free tracking app on your phone. Your phone is also a GPS and when you lay down a track then you have a way to follow it back to where you started. You don't need a connection to a cell tower to use it, but if you have that you can often have the satellite view on the screen as well or download that view before you depart. There are several such tracking apps. "GPS Tracks" and "Avenza Maps" are the ones that I use.

[Doug SC]

here is an example where a friend did an overlay of an old duck hunters' hand drawn map over the satellite image and we than paddled leaving our track to compare it to the hand drawn map. This was done with Avenza Maps. This is a big tree covered swamp where the dim creeks aren't visible.

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[Frank B.]

Thanks.  I knew the waters from Deer Island through Biloxi Back Bay all the way to Gulfport Lake when I lived there including the branch bayous like Old Fort, but the ratio of open water to marsh was much greater. What the Gautier marsh reminds me of is a much smaller version of Delacroix, which I've fished a number of times and had the most success of any place I've ever fished.  Part of that is the area but a lot has to do with the more lenient size and creel limits.  Even with the tightening in 2023, speckled trout for instance has a slot limit of 13-20" with 15 fish per person per day, two can exceed the 20" slot. Compare that with Florida which has a 15"-19" slot with three fish per day for the western panhandle zone. Went to Mexico Beach last week and didn't even bother to get a rather expensive non resident license. Not worth it.  Glad I didn't they had a red tide so wouldn't have fished.

On the Delacroix trips always went with my nephew who had overlaid sat maps and knew how to read them. 

[Riley Smith]

I have an ancient map of the river from Uncle Deedle, who printed a bunch up in his printing shop. It's framed on the wall and was mapped before I-10 went through, but it's pretty accurate and I refer to it often. McInnis Bayou is labeled Pascagoula River on Google Earth....there are no names for all the bayous. Right above I-10, just about the middle of the bridge, there are 1st, 2nd, and 3rd bayous and they're famous fishing territory. Oodles of lakes and bayous and all called Pascagoula River. Harrump!

My next trip is Chemise Bayou and through to West River and back again. That's the one I really want to do. I spent the worst night of my life at the camping spot there and have been thinking of a rematch    It's a great place but bad planning can ruin anything!!! Wish I could cop some primo optics for comet viewing.