I must have made a couple of hundred casts before my fly was taken with a vicious strike that pulled my five weigh rod into a deep bend. The fight that followed, although fairly short, was nevertheless exceedingly brisk as the fish stayed deep and refused to show itself. However, as it neared the point of exhaustion and began rising toward the surface, a flash of silvery pink betrayed its identity. A moment later I eased the fish from the water onto the dirt pier where I was standing and thereby accomplished something I had never dreamed of doing here in the Magnolia state. I had caught a rainbow trout in Mississippi!
I took my first rainbow (Also my first brown trout and my first Grayling) in Yellowstone National Park in 1969 from the Junction Pool where the Fire Hole and Gibbon Rivers merge to from the Madison. Since that memorable morning in Wyoming forty-nine years ago, I have taken rainbows in numerous other states, but who ever heard of catching them in the warm waters of Mississippi. How did they ever come to be here?
This is the story as I understand it. Trout were first stocked at Lake Lamar Bruce in December, 2015. However the fish were not released in the lake proper, but in a smaller pond of an acre and a half or so separated from the rest of the lake by a dam. Thus the fish are relatively easy to find. Approximately 600 rainbows from the Greer’s Ferry hatchery in Arkansas were stocked there again in December 2017. The fish were given to the Mississippi Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks from the hatchery’s surplus stock since the MDWFP has no item in their budget for stocking trout. So, not surprisingly, it is uncertain as to whether the stocking program at Lake Lamar Bruce will continue.
It should also be noted that the trout fishery at the lake, if it does continue, will under any circumstances always be a winter fishery. Trout cannot tolerate the high water temperatures of a Mississippi Summer. Thus, any fish from the stockings not caught will eventually die. The daily limit at the lake has been set at three fish per day to give as many people as possible the opportunity to catch a trout. Also, the area around the trout pond is beautifully manicured and several fishing piers made of both wood and dirt provide access to anyone who wants to fish, including those with physical handicaps.
As soon as I heard from my son about this year’s stocking, I called the office at Lamar Bruce with several questions about the fishing I could not finds answers to on-line. As a diehard fly fisherman, I wanted to know about the probability of taking trout there on flies. I was told that in all likelihood flies would not work and that the best possibility for catching fish was by bait fishing with whole kernel corn. Determined not to be deterred from my preferred method of taking trout, I arrived at the lake about 9:30 on a cold mid-February morning. No one else was present, so I dropped my $3.00 fishing fee (Five dollars for those youngsters of you who are under 65) in the honor box and began casting.
The fish totally ignored my favorite nymphs. I then switched to a salmon egg pattern the color of yellow corn. Still not a strike! I was growing more frustrated by the moment when a couple of spin fishermen arrived. One of them almost immediately caught a nice trout on a crappie jig with roughly the colors of a Mickey Finn Streamer. I knotted a Mickey Finn onto my leader and again came up with nothing. Finally something clicked in my mind and I put on a small Olive Woolley Bugger with a pink bead head. I’d used the fly to take numerous trout in Arkansas. (After all the rainbows I was trying so hard to catch were originally from there.) I’d made only a few casts when the trout I described at the beginning of the story nailed the Wooley Bugger and I had my first Magnolia rainbow. A few casts later, another fish grabbed my fly and I had two Magnolia trout. Then the action stopped as suddenly as it had begun.
Almost an hour of fruitless casting followed without a touch before I knotted on a somewhat larger Burned Olive Wooley Bugger and struck pay dirt. I began getting strikes every few casts. Obviously, I had finally broken the code. It was now around noon however and I suspect the warming water was probably as much a factor as anything else in adjusting the trout’s attitude. At any rate did I have fun fighting those Magnolia Rainbows! My Wooley Buggers had come through for me! Unfortunately, and to my determent, I seem to have an aversion to being told what I can or can’t do with a fly rod. Like everyone else I have my preferences.
Normally, I release all my trout but since this was a unique situation, I kept a limit of three. I left Lake Lamar Bruce at 2:00pm and headed back down the Natchez Trace to French Camp. I can only hope the stocking program is continued so we Mississippians can enjoy not only the moonlight and the magnolias but the rainbow trout as well.
Cutline
A nice Magnolia Rainbow
