Spirit of Moonpie and I spent the 3rd through the 5th on the Blackwater above Joyner’s Bridge. The water was 45 degrees and 6 feet on the USGS gauge in Burdette. Air temps ranged from 36 to 55. Trash was light and I saw no water quality issues.

The fishing on this trip was not bad, actually. We caught six bass to about 2 pounds all on a Mepp’s Minnow. We tried for speckle, but had no luck and the same was basically true for the blackfish as well. We only caught one blackfish jigging and snagged a couple more. We also caught a couple of catfish jigging. We really only fished the second day as the first day was dedicated to relocating our base camp. Whew, that was a lot of work, but I wanted to get back to that location, which was our previous base camp until some idiots camped there a couple years ago and carved their initials all over a tree. I abandoned that site for a few years after that. If it ever happens again, I hope they will at least carve their entire names.

This time of year I always like to make a Brunswick stew, so we harvested a couple of tree rats while we were out there. They were big and fat from this year’s heavy mast. I always like putting a couple in the stew ‘cause it just gives it that more traditional “authentic” flavor. I’ll usually put a rabbit in there also, but I did not have one this year. I wonder what a raccoon would be like in the stew? Let me know if anybody has ever tried that.

So it was interesting when we got to the boat ramp that first morning to find a “For Sale” sign down by the river bank. At first I thought the land the boat ramp is located on had been put up for sale. However, upon checking with VDGIF we found out that was not the case. So Moonpie figured that it must be the river for sale. She finally talked me into calling the realtor to inquire about the asking price for the river. I was pretty sure the river was not for sale when I called and the nice realtor assured me the “For Sale” sign was not supposed to be there.

“Oh well,” Moonpie exclaimed, “They would probably want too much for it anyway.”

“Look at it this way, Moonpie,” I replied. “We don’t need to buy it. We are, according to the Commonwealth of Virginia, already owners of the two rivers we call the Blackwater and Nottoway.”

JEFF TURNER is the Blackwater/Nottoway Riverkeeper. He can be reached at blknotkpr@earthlink.net.