I recently returned from a week's exploring and collecting trip in Louisiana.

Once again, I had the great good fortune to spend time with BG & Bessie Granier.

BG and I spent part of each day collecting or checking out different areas and trying out different collecting apparatus and each evening eating
good home-cooked Cajun food and planning the following morning's trip.

I'll try to keep this chronological and hopefully it will flow as the experience unfolded and will be more of a journal/diary than your standard collecting report.

I flew into New Orleans [Nawlins] and arrived just after 6PM on Tuesday and took a shuttle bus to pick up my rental car at Alamo. It was overcast and a
little drizzly, in the high 60sF. Generally, if it werent for good luck, I wouldn't have much luck at all and this was the case this time, too. I had
reserved a "compact" car, but they were all rented. So the rental agency chose to upgrade me, to, of all things, a PT Cruiser. I loaded my two duffel
bags and backpack and headed out.

I had fleeting delusions of getting a tatoo
or two, maybe pierce one of my ears and heading down to Bourbon Street. After all, I was driving a PT Cruiser and I hadn't raised any hell in awhile, so
why not? Fortunately, the thought was gone as quickly as it came.

Instead, I chose to get on Interstate 10 and head NW to do some evening and hopefully night collecting. I took Hwy 55 north and then Hwy 22 west as I
thought that was the route I'd taken a couple of years ago and wanted to search for some special white-pincered dwarf crayfish [Cambarellus shufeldtii] I had discovered in some high-water flood pools that existed in an opening near what appeared to be an abandoned rock quarry that was now full of water. I'd neglected to bring my notes from last trip, so I was operating from memory.

After driving for several hours and arriving at a small town that I knew to be too far west along my planned route, I double back. I was becoming
drowsy, so figured I'd take a couple hours of nap-time to catch up on a little sleep and then try finding my intended location. After driving several miles with no obvious logging road or some other out of the way pull off, I found what appeared to be a driveway covered with grass and the remains of a building's footings. Perfect. I leaned my seat back, kicked off my shoes and proceeded to get a little shut-eye. It was short lived.

Evidently me and my PT Cruiser looked like a "gangsta" car to a single mom and her young son, so she called on her brother-in-law to come and "get me out of there". After initially being a little antagonistic [who wouldn't be at 11PM on a Tuesday night], he seemed reasonable, but I assured him I'd find some other place to catch some shut-eye and off I go again.

For whatever reason, as I approached Springfield, LA, I failed to notice, first a 45 mph sign and then a 35 mph sign. But the local deputy sheriff noticed and cut thru a gas station, speeding after me to pull me over and say as much.

Oh great, I'm thinking, just what I need is a speeding ticket and who knows, maybe a night in the local police station. I had failed to notice the tags on my PT Cruiser were from Tennessee, but that's the first thing the policeman noticed.

Here's a piece of our conversation: "Know why I pulled you over?" "Haven't a clue" says I and he proceeds to tell me of the 45 then 35 mph zones I'd just cruised thru at 55 mph. "You're not from around here, are you?" I admitted I wasn't and he let me know he saw the TN tags. I'm from further away than that, I'm from Idaho" I inform. "Ya don't say. Could I see your license and registration? " I gave him my license and couldn't find a registration so I handed him my rental agreement with Alamo and also
informed him I was trying to get to Hwy 42 as I'd mistakenly taken Hwy 22.

When he returns with my license and the rental agreement, he says he's letting me off the hook, but for me to watch out as there are all kinds of officers just looking for speeders on Hwy 42. "O.k, thanks. I see a sign to the local library, you don't suppose it'd bother anyone if I pulled in there and slept for a couple of hours, do you, officer?" He opines that wouldn't be a great idea, but that if I wanted to, I could sleep out in my car in the cityhall/police station parking lot, and to park on the left as the police cars parked on the right. "O.k., thanks" and off to the police station I go with him tailing me, probably to ensure I wasn't lying or up to more no-good.

I was too cramped and there was too much traffic, so by about 5AM, I'd had all of the un-rest I could take and I headed west on Hwy 42. I recognized the
intersection just past where I'd found the shufeldtii previously. I had to park just off the hiway as the road going into the site was very muddy.

I got out my "Collectinator" dipnet and made numerous passes thru the areas I'd collected white-pincered dwarfs last time to no avail. A few YOY Elassoma
zonatum, but no dwarfs. I tried most all of the open, shallow watered pools around the quarry pond, but the only crayfish I netted were some Fallicambarus
fodiens, the digger crayfish. I kept a few and headed on west.

I found a logging road and searched the ditch alongside it and netted a few shulfedtii,
including a couple that had semi-white abdomen's as well as a couple of beautiful spawning male zonatum and hundreds of fodiens.

I tried several other roadside ditches and sloughs, netting some shufeldtii, fodiens and Faxonella clypeata - shield crayfish and gambusia by the
hundreds. The day was overcast, but without rain and in the low 70'sF. I drove to BG's just after lunch on Wednesday. BG and I drove to a spot only a few
miles from his house and collected some more fodiens, clypeada and a couple of shufeldtii. Some of the shield crayfish had the side-stripe markings I like,
so I kept a few of that variety.

After dropping BG off at his place, I crossed the mighty Mississippi River just west of Baton Rouge and headed south on Hwy 1. BG had told me about the
maintenance people filling in a waterhole along the inside of the Mississippi River levee where I'd found the motherlode of shufeldtii on my first visit
to BG's nearly a dozen years ago. I had to see with my own two eyes that what he said was true, plus I wanted to dip my feet in the Mississippi River [my
ritual everytime I visit BG's]. Sure enough, they'd filled in the water hole, but there were new four-wheel drive rain-filled ruts. No dwarfs, though.
Maybe in the future?

After checking the dwarf crayfish spot, I drove to another spot only a few miles away to see if I could collect some painted devil crayfish, Cambarus
ludovicianus before dark.

These crayfish are burrowers, so I generally look for areas with mud chimneys from their burrowing activities. In the first ditch that I saw chimenys, I collected five ludos from the first six holes with chimneys. That's phenominal as I have considered finding one Cambarus of any kind for each four or five holes one investigates to be good odds. Of course, the next three spots I stopped and checked out resulted in zero crayfish, so
my average returned to the normal range.

Then I found "The Creek". It was nearly dark, the creek/ditch was 2' - 3' wide, weeds all the way down the steep bank and drooping into the water.
There was maybe 1" - 2" of water on top of 6" - 8" of mud. Almost imperceptible current, but clear water with a few water plants and some hair algae. I
collected four ludos from the first three holes I investigated! I ended the day with nearly a dozen ludos - by far the most of any of the burrowing species I've ever found at one time.

Thursday morning found BG and I up early and headed to the Atchafalaya Basin behind the levees west of Ramah. We were serching for orange-spotted
sunfish, Lepomis humilis, spotted gar, Lepisosteus oculatus and some more shufeldtii as well some water hyacinth. The day was clear with highs in the low 80's F.

We found some more dwarf crayfish and plenty of water hyacinth. After searching several spots along the Atchafalaya, we decided to return to "The
Creek" so I could show BG what a hot spot for ludos I'd found. We collected a half dozen specimens in about five minutes! On our way back to Baker, we
stopped and bought a forty pound sack of red swamp crayfish, Procambarus clarkii for a big crawfish feed. BG threw in some Cajun spices and boiled up the
entire sack. Mmmmmmgoooood! !

Friday was another sunny day in the low 80's F. BG and I first stopped at the lake on the campus at LSU in Baton Rouge searching for dollar sunfish,
Lepomis marginatus and/or longear sunfish, Lepomis megalotis. We found some bluegill, largemouth bass, grass shrimp and a warmouth, Lepomis gulosus but not
the target species. We did see big schools of daphnia along the shore, which BG would later harvest some with his self-designed daphnia scoop - for my
money the best daphnia/cyclops collecting apparatus known to man.

From there we drove along the levee along the Mississippi River south of Baton Rouge,
checking out high water pools.

In the second pool we checked, we were about ready to move on to another as the first couple of swoops with the Collectinator resulted in a few water bugs and nothing else. In addition, the water was relatively clear, choked with dead weeds from when the pool had been dry over the winter and otherwise looked unoccupied as crayfish generally keep the silt stirred up in such isolated pools. But, because we had previously collected marsh crayfish, Procambarus hinei, I made a few more passes with the Collectinator and finally hauled in a couple marshs. We collected several more marsh as well as a few very small, YOY dwarf crayfish in that pool of water and a couple more high water holes along the inside of the levee further south.

After dropping BG off at his house, I travelled north to Thompson Creek hoping to find some dollar sunfish. After wading up the creek and making numerous passes with the Collectinator, I managed to collect a pair of longears, but no dollars.

I tried dipnetting in a pool created by a small beaver dam but the mud was so deep that at every step, I nearly pulled out of my aquasox and/or tipped over. I checked a couple of cypress lined pools below the bridge on Hwy 61 on Thompson Creek and collected a pair of warmouth and a pair of bantam sunfish, Lepomis symmetricus but the water was too big to be effective at collecting sunfish with the Collectinator.

As there was still daylight left, I drove back to the Ramah area looking for some shrimp crayfish, Orconectes lancifer for BG. I did find one as well as
some rainwater killies, mollies, golden topminnows, tons of gambusia as well as many clarkii and grass shrimp and a couple of mud turtles. As the sun
was setting, I stopped in Rosedale for a soda pop and was greeted by "how y'll doin" and "have a good-un" at the small-town quick stop/handimart. And so
another good day exploring came to an end.

Saturday morning I awoke to thunder and rain. It was a fun rain as it was cool, but not cold. BG & I went to a slow moving creek only a half mile from
his home and netted some golden shiners, Notemigonus crysoleucas, mollies, gambusia, green sunfish, Lepomis cyanellus and a longear sunfish. Each of the
sunfish had some kind of fungus on their fins, especially their tailfins. By early afternoon, the sun came out and the temperature reached into the low
70's F.

After dropping off BG and stopping at the local Walmart to pick up some shipping supplies, I consulted my Louisiana Atlas and Gazetteer to see if
I could find a likely looking new place to explore. I found it in the Tickfaw River region north of Hwy 190. Big decidous trees lined the bank and clear
cool nearly perfect wading water with plenty of sandy bottom interspersed with deeper, green holes prevailed.

I'd gotten a late start, so there was only
a half hour of light left by the time I found a place I could park relatively close to the river. My first swoop with the "Collectinator" and I had
what I thought were two very small dollar sunfish, but were warmouths upon further examination. I also collected a dozen 1/4" YOY speckled crayfish that
neither BG nor I could ID. As dark settled in, I trudged out of the river and hiked up the bank to the Cruiser and headed back to BG's.

Sunday was another sunny day with highs in the low-70's F, but windy. BG had a "crawfish rake" his father had made and he wanted to see if we could
collect any ludos using it. We went back over to the small creek we'd collected in earlier in the week and in one 3' x 3' area of the creek, we collected 16
ludos, with most being around 1" - 1 1/2" long! We immediately dubbed the crawfish rake the "Ludo-rake and coronated ourselves the ludo-kings.

Later in the afternoon, I went to a creek in a park a couple miles from BG's and netted dozens of mollies and gambusia. I also stopped at a Walmart to pick up a couple of clear 6" x 8" or so tackle boxes in an effort to improve shipping success by keeping crayfish in individual compartments. The results were a mixed bag, but until I can seal the lids, I won\'t be using it again, mainly because all of the water drains out of the tackle box compartments during the
many hours the boxes must have bene upside down during shipment.

Monday was another sunny, mid-70's day. Monday morning I drove to the Tickfaw River again, intent upon collecting some dollar sunfish. About
mid-morning I found a couple of ditches that drained into the Tickfaw River. I ran BG's 4' x 8' one-man seine thru a couple of the ditches and netted out 9 dollar sunfish, each about 1" long with the exception of one nice big 3" male and a gravid looking female about 2" long. They will be the brood stock for a
Tickfaw River lineage of dollars I want to begin. I also netted four bantam sunfish, four warmouth, two 3" pirate perch, Aphredoderus sayanus as well as
numerous clarkii.

As Monday was to be my last day of collecting so I could box and ship Tuesday morning, I decided to drive all the way back over to the Atchafalaya Basin
and make one last attempt to find some orange-spot sunfish.

The first three places I tried were busts, resulting in mostly gambusia and grass shrimp plus
a few clarkii. But on what proved to be the last place I tried, luck was with me once again. With the first pass with the Collectinator, I picked up
one very small sunfish, but I was pretty sure it was an o-spot. After another dozen swoops thru grass and weed choked shallow waters, I'd netted over two
dozen o-spots - a couple of 1 1/2" long spawning males and a pair of slightly smaller gravid females! As the sun set, I trudged out of the shallows and
headed back to BG's, totally content and amazed at my successes each day of the
entire week.

Tuesday morning broke clear and fair again. Highs were in the 70's F. I stopped at the LSU campus lake and collected water hyacinth to go on the plane
home with me. I put them in plastic bags and placed them inside my collecting buckets in my duffel bags. Then it was off to the airport in New Orleans
and home. What a trip.

Epilogue: I almost didn't go on this collecting trip as logistics at work and in Louisiana weren't working out at first. On a whim, I decided to go ahead and buy my tickets with Southwest Airlines and leave it up to fate. As it turned out, I couldn't have had a better trip if I'd planned it for years or
made all kinds of special arrangements.

I had no set timetable to go anywhere, few places I just had to see or visit, and no events that I must attend.

I did have a short list of species I wished to collect and that was my motivation. I put nearly 1200 enjoyable miles on the PT Cruiser, spent many hours
in conversation and collecting with BG and enjoyed his and his wonderful, understanding wife's [who was/is very tolerant of me, bless both of their
hearts] wonderful Southern hospitality. And ended up having the singular most successful fish & crayfish collecting trip of my life.

This one belongs at the top of the list of the many grand collecting/explorin g trips I've had over
the past twenty-five years.

Thanks, BG & Bessie.

Bruce Scott
Meridian, Idaho