Spirit of Moonpie and I spent May the 10th through the 12th on the Blackwater above Burdette. The water was a little high at six feet on the USGS gauge at Burdette, fast, 64 degrees and clear. Air temps ranged from 50 to 86 degrees. The only water quality issue I saw was extremely muddy water coming out of Corrowaugh Creek. If anybody knows what the possible source of this is, please let me know. By the time this goes to print, both rivers should be pretty much back to normal levels.

The trash on this trip was pretty awful; usually is up there. I removed about a hundred pounds of it, mostly glass. I also pulled what looked like a dog pen out of the river right where the USGS gauge is. I have no idea why someone would toss something like that into the river. At first, I thought it was a fish trap, but it was in the river, collapsed, so I just can’t figure that one. Thank you, Pee Wee, for helping with that. Also, there were lots of new trees in the river up that way since my last visit at the end of January. Now you know this really gets my goat. I was headed in the last day and came upon some folks fishing. They pointed out to me a limbline that overnight the water had gone down enough to reveal a dead catfish hanging on it. The line had been abandoned. Unfortunately, it had been there long enough that the name was no longer legible on the plastic tube hanging in the tree. Man, that really gets my blood boiling when I see this. 

The fishing on this trip was pretty tough the first day, but got better on day two. I ended up with four bass to 2 pounds, four chain pickerel, one a 4.2 citation. I also caught several really nice bream and red throats. Most fish were caught on a #3 white tail Mepps. Even the bream were caught on the big Mepps. 

So, it was a nice trip, probably my last land-based trip for now. It was pretty hot packing up and coming out on day three, and the bugs are getting pretty tough to be on shore. Time to transfer to the pontoon boat for the summer, I reckon. I can only hope and pray I’m healthy enough come fall to get back on shore on the two rivers we call the Blackwater and Nottoway.

Jeff Turner is the Blackwater Nottoway RiverGuard. To contact him about river issues, send him an email at blknotkpr@earthlink.net. He can also be followed on the Blackwater Nottoway RiverGuard Facebook page. Just type in “Blackwater Nottoway RiverGuard” in the search field on Facebook.