A mild cold front the evening before produced a chilly breeze at the boat ramp that morning when J. Read Hendon and I launched my skiff, Shallow-Water MARC. It was late September, and Hendon, a fisheries biologist for the University of Southern Mississippi’s Gulf Coast Research Laboratory, in nearby Ocean Springs, and I planned to fish for seatrout post oil-spill mess. Looking for shelter from the wind, we ended up in Graveline Bayou. And what I saw upon entering this estuarine marsh surprised me.Graveline Bayou is one of the few relatively undisturbed bayous and small tidal creeks in Mississippi. The majority of the system is a landing area for migratory birds, as well as a nursery for baitfish, crustaceans, and predators the likes of seatrout, redfish and flounder. The shallow marsh bottom is a mix of mud and oyster bars, all of ...![spotted seatrout]()
