Mickey and I went to Atchafalaya Bayou near Silver City this morning after early church. We started fishing around 11:00 and it was hot. We tried some baits from top to medium depth but quickly we ended up on the bottom, Mickey with a brush hog and me with a Hart jig. Bites were scarce but when we did get one it was pick it up and immediately put it down. Both of us had a bite around a stump but neither was able to hook the fish. Then I noticed a hand size shad jumping to get out of a fish’s way. We backed up some so we could reach the spot. This place has more wood under the water than any place I fish except Lake Monticello. Mickey was working his brush hog through an underwater top, shaking it off of one limb at a time. Then one of the limbs started to move sideways. He set the hook and immediately called for the net. He was right because this is what came out:

When the scales finally calmed down they said 7 lb – 3 oz. We fished down that bank a little more until when Mickey was reeling in his bait to make another cast a fish hit it on the way to the boat. He set the hook and caught our last fish of the day, a 2 pounder. It was so hot we had to pull over into a shady spot a couple of times to hydrate and cool off. Later on around 5:00 we heard thunder that was getting closer so we beat it to the landing and got loaded just before the rain. One of the neat things we saw today was the cliff swallow nests under the HWY 49 bridge. They make nests out of mud under the edge of the bridge that are shaped like a jug. Completely enclosed except for one round hole for a doorway. They appear to have had a good nesting season because there was a swarm of them.