I had to wait a while before I could send you a Wicker Report on this Hurricane. 

I have been writing about my early days of learning how to fish tournaments, which was mostly from my experience on the East Coast.  Just when I am ready to move the venue to places like Mississippi , Louisiana , and Texas this happens.  Places you see on TV are mostly familiar to my eyes.  These places forever changed by this natural disaster.  Let me say at this point that I have met many people in New Orleans , Biloxi , & Gulfport .  I have friends that I have not yet heard from in Belle Chase, Houma , Slidell , and many of the lesser known parts of Louisiana .  These are very normal people that happen to live in a different area than most of us, but they are good people with families, jobs and all the normal things the rest of us have.  They do however, live in a place that is not normal and that is the point here.

Now, everyone that lives in that area would say, “what do you mean not normal”?  Well, I know it is perfectly normal to them but not the rest the U.S.   This place is product of centuries of silt deposited along the end of the Mississippi River .  This is a place where, fresh water from the Mississippi River meets the salt water of the Gulf of Mexico .  The area is vast, and wildlife abounds. The Louisiana license tag has a quotation along the bottom that says, “Sportsman’s Paradise ”, that statement is correct.

I was there when KVD won the Bassmaster Classic in 2001, in the Super Dome and it was really a sight, as it must be now.  These Bassmasters were running from N.O. all the way to the Gulf of Mexico and then back in the Bayou’s and canals spread out all over the area.  This is not a short trip either.  Most people think N.O. is really on the Gulf of Mexico or really close.  Well that is not true, it is approximately 100 miles from N.O. to the mouth of the river.  Roland Martin weighed in on Friday in the 2001 Classic and said, “Well Fish, today I have run the most miles in a bass boat in one day, I ran nearly 265 miles.”   Think about that amount of area that we have seen very little about on T.V.

I have been in this area and know its vastness. It is a wonderful place where you can cast your lure and catch a bass, flounder or redfish in the same spot.  This is a place with a unique mixture of wildlife and civilization.  The people and the wildlife have of the area have been changed in proportions never experienced in this or any other area.

The United States Government will attend to the people and the infrastructure of the human population.  Mother Nature will have to do her part for the wildlife.  We should wish them both well in the job ahead.