Spirit of Moonpie and I spent the 14th through the 16th on the Nottoway in the Courtland area. The water was 46 degrees and high at 10.5 ft on the USGS gauge in Sebrell. Air temps ranged from 35 to 70 degrees and it was WINDY.

I saw no real water quality issues, however I have never seen as much trash on this part of the river as I did this time. I picked up three very full bags, a TV picture tube, a lifesaver buoy like the kind Pamela Anderson used to carry on “Bay Watch” (No, I did not see her out there.), an Omaha Steaks cooler top and a large light from a tractor trailer. I picked up all I could reach, but there was a lot; I could not get in the logjams.

What really grips me about this is the fact that some low-life, scumbag yellow sub-human moron that fishes up there often is tossing his trash in the river. I found no less that eight little canisters of Grizzly snuff mixed in the trash, the same brand I have been finding up there for the last few years.

So I just hope whoever you are, you truly get what is coming to you for using this type of product. There is just no excuse for you.

That being said, I took all that plastic, glass and aluminum to the recycle bin.

I did not do all that great with the fish this trip. I only caught two shad, two largemouth, two speckle and two striped bass that were too small to keep.

While I was on that part of the river I went to check on the eagle nest above Courtland. It is a much smaller nest than the one on the Blackwater, but it is a lot easier to find. So I’m going to show you were this is also. Go check it out, but don’t be a nuisance. I did see the top of a white head in the nest, so there are obviously eggs or chicks in there and its about time for them to hatch.

The water was really moving up there this trip and I saw a group of kayakers and canoeist struggling pretty bad. I saw them paddle downriver past me, then later try to come back up river, but the wind and current was really causing some to falter. It looked like to me they eventually gave up and headed back downriver again, I’m guessing to get taken out at Cypress Bridge. I don’t know why they thought they were going to paddle all the way back up-river with the conditions the way they were on the river that day. Well, even though there are some scumbags on the river, there are also still plenty of good folks.

On the last morning I was up early so I could get home before the coming rain caught me. A boat came up the river and these two guys motored up to the campsite. They brought me a breakfast biscuit and a bag of bait. I had talked to them the day before and told them I had not caught any shad for bait, so I guess they felt sorry for me. And I guess when they saw Moonpie they thought I must never feed her, so they brought the biscuit. I ended up eating the bait and Moonpie got the biscuit because she would not share.

So Moonpie and I really appreciated that, and it just goes to show that there are still very nice and very thoughtful folks on the two great rivers we call the Nottoway and Blackwater.

JEFF TURNER is Riverkeeper for the Blackwater/Nottoway Riverkeeper Program (BNRP), an environmentally conscious organization that focuses on keeping local waterways healthy. BNRP’s parent organization is The Waterkeeper Alliance. Contact information for Turner is listed on the program’s Web site, www.blackwaternottoway.com