Baja St. Martin

Last week a fisherman told me that price of crawfish was $1.85 a pound and he expected it to go down the week after Easter. Today, the Monday after Easter, I’m told by another that the pre-Easter price had actually gone up to $2.10 a pound and now was down to $1.75. Maybe it depends who you ask. Anyway, the latter price isn’t really all that bad but it surely indicates nobody is catching a whole lot or the price would be a lot lower.
At the landing today, the water has risen more and will soon go over the pavilion floor. You would have to wade to reach the walkways to the floating dock.
Most of the commercial fishermen, probably most of all fishermen, are now using the northernmost launch ramp where Assumption Parish had dumped a bunch of slag a few years ago and raised the ramp approach. There you can back into the water without getting water into your truck. You would be in the water but not in the cab – yet!
And the raised approach means you can see where the ramp must be. At the other two ramps, which are completely under water, it’s impossible to determine where the ramp is, which might not be a problem except all the ramps are bordered by big boulders. Hard on your motor to hit one of them.
Easter weekend was not all that bad on the river. Quite a few jet skis but not a horrible amount and most of them were reasonably under control. Since the Belle River level is high, also, it is not a good idea to not make any waves and damage people’s seawalls.
I loved that Bradshaw article in a recent Teche News about the guy many years ago who got hit by a bull when a passing train had hit the animal which was subsequently thrown into the air and hit the guy walking on the levee. I don’t suppose the guy thought it was funny, but the story was. I start chuckling every time I think about it. I got “hit” by falling poop from a seagull once when my husband and I were shrimping. Hubby thought it was funny. I’m not sure how I felt at the time. But a whole bull! Yowza!
There will be a separate article in the paper from Stephensville Elementary, thanking everyone for their participation in the Courtesy Ford Giveaway contest and congratulating the winner, St. Martinville High School. I, of course, was rooting (and voting) for Stephensville and am very proud of how well they did. Second place was pretty good and to top that off, Mr. Earl King of King Trucking in Morgan City was impressed with the contest video and has donated $9,000 to Stephensville this year and pledged $9,000 for next year. Not too shabby, huh?
I had occasion to join some family at Lake End Park in Morgan City for an Easter reunion. They had rented one of the raised cottages on the beach. I was there for just a few hours, but the accommodations were very nice. Sleeping for at least six, clean, spacious, great view, partially screened downstairs. It seemed that everybody in the park had brought their own golf carts so the traffic was brisk but at least quiet.
No news yet on the FAS/levee issue. I keep recalling that someone figured that if FAS does get its permit, we would have a truck every seven minutes on our road. When I’m working in a flower bed by the road, the wind from the passing trucks almost knocks me over. It’s already busy here with all the crawfish vehicles heading to the landing, but at least that’s seasonal.

Teche News’ Lower St. Martin correspondent, Linda Cooke, can be emailed at lindacooke1939@gmail.com.