A Monday spent on a Louisiana small stream

[rstouff]

Good morning. I played hooky yesterday and drove the 3 1/2 hours to the national forest in Louisiana where there are a very few, rare and precious wadable, cool and running small streams in this state of bayous and swamps. Here's a travelogue with photos:
The Kisatchie Hills are part of the Kisatchie Wold, a 23-million year old uplift that extends into Texas. It was a plateau with a shear cliff face, but time, water and wind have eroded it into these low-slung hills, none higher than 500 feet above sea level. Here's a view from the Interstate before the exit:

Entering the forest, the only one in Louisiana:

Turning off the access road to Longleaf Vista Scenic Byway, here is a great example of your tax dollars at work (read the left sign carefully!)

Moving down the byway. These hills may not seem like much to some of you mountain people, but to us Louisiana flatlanders, they are a joy!

The stream was in GREAT shape, and the forest was in its spring glory:


The fish were cooperative, at least. Here's my best of the day, a fair largemouth for a small creek. He's laying on a log, of which there were two, that I foolishly cast over and he hit the popper. I tried to scramble over the logs to get to him, but they were huge and I couldn't hoist myself out of the water and hold the fighting fish on the rod at the same time. I ended up slithering across both logs to lip him and then slid back to the other side!

I caught him near here. Yes, this is Louisiana! And yes there are only a single handful such places.

As a sidenote, the rains of last fall and winter had this stream roaring. We say plenty of toppled trees high, high on the bluffs. Note the clump in the tree limbs in this photo. That wasn't a bird nest, it was debris about 15 feet over the water level Monday:

Thanks for looking, and allowing me to share. It's a long haul over there, and back, then getting up and going to work the next day. But these little streams are so unusual and precious in Louisiana, I can't help but going, and sharing 'em with you kind folks, in repayment for all the sharing ya'll do of the beautiful places you fish.
Best Regards
Roger Stouff

[Satoshi]

Roger,

Great post!
Thank you very much for taking me a virtual trip to the beautiful Louisianan small stream. I enjoyed it very much.

Satoshi

[rstouff]

Thanks. It's a great place, though it can't compare to most of the streams I see here, it's great to be there and I love being there when I can.

[mems]

Bonjour Mon Ami, nice looking green trout. The only Hill I remember in New Orleans was Monkey Hill at Aduboun Park. I think if I went back I would hit shell beach and chase some reds and specks. Thanks for sharing, Mems.

[Chalkstream]

Wow! Thanks for sharing that - I enjoyed it very much.

Ben

[Danny S]

I've been to Louisiana only a handful of times but from what I've seen there, I can understand why that stream would be considered a jewel in the state. As for the road sign--that's terrible! But I'm expecting them to one day use texting lingo. I'll be in real trouble if that happens. Thanks for posting--looks like a place one from Texas may want to visit one day.