The Egret and the boys

They were both different. Yet, they were both the same. The Egret and the boys.

First, a lone Egret sat on what was left of a big Lake D’Arbonne cypress tree stump out on a shallow flat not far from the bank.  The Egret sat motionless for a few minutes, then dove beak first into the water and came up with supper.

He repeated that act several times before I had to go. Apparently, the Egret had more time allotted for this than I did.  He was taking advantage of the drawdown on Lake D’Arbonne for some easy lunch as shad ran up into the newly formed shallows.

Fishermen in south Louisiana usually follow the birds to find the shrimp to find the speckled trout.  If you pay close enough attention, that same technique can work for you during the drawdown. The Egrets sitting on the stumps aren’t there so you can take their picture.  They are looking for supper and they won’t sit there long if there aren’t fish nearby.  It’s nature’s own fish finder.

Then, there was another drawdown scene that caught my eye this week. There were the two boys who came wading around the shore looking under piers and along the newly-exposed lake bottom.  Like the Egret, they were taking advantage of the drawdown to explore new ground and search for treasures that had been dropped in the lake.

As I saw one of the boys pick up a small  piece of old fishing gear, it reminded me of the days when Bussey Brake was drawn down for levee repairs when I was a kid.  My friend D.A. Nelson and I spent about a week wading the shallows and mud walking the bottom at Bussey gathering up Coke bottles. In those days, you could get three cents a bottle for the returnable glass Coke bottles.  We picked them up, washed them off and made enough money to buy fish bait all summer long.

Life around the lake is never boring.