Baja St. Martin

When the crawfish start to feed they really start! Fishermen have been catching a lot of crawfish in the swamps of Belle River – 30, 40, 50 sacks. Now the spillway is coming alive and what seems almost like the first day, the buyers are putting limits on the quantity fishermen are bringing in. Of course, it’s because Easter is just ahead and tradition has it that the price remains up but the quantity has to be controlled a bit.
I don’t know what the going price is right now, but the Belle River boat landing is pretty packed every day with trucks and trailers. The price will drop after Easter Sunday.
The spillway water level had fallen to what I would have said was almost normal for awhile. All launch ramps were usable, the entire parking lot on the spillway side of the levee was clear, the big yellow dumpsters were put back in place on the batture side of the levee.
Now, the water is way way up – not quite as high as it was a few weeks ago, but pretty close to that. The pavilion floor is awash, all metal walkways to the floating dock are accessible only by wading, all launch pads under water and the only one in use for the most part is the most northerly one. People are using the other two, but that requires backing your truck well into the water – not quite up to the floorboards but getting close – in order to drive your boat onto the trailer. If you don’t have a partner to back the trucks, you have to get wet. Fortunately, the water is not too too cold.
I can recall a few crawfish seasons when the water was so high you had to back your truck so far into the water, the brake and accelerator pedals went under water. And I can guarantee, it is no fun doing this with a standard shift vehicle! I don’t see it much if at all anymore, but I have in the past seen many trucks, obviously with standard shift, where the driver would throw out a tied piece of 4x4 which lodged (hopefully) behind a rear tire for a braking device.
How things change! Now, you seldom even see a regular outboard motor. It’s all Gator Tails or Pro-drives and a few Go-Devils and not many of the latter.
Food for Seniors Thursday, March 24. A Recreation Board meeting the same day but at 6 p.m. in the Stephensville facility. Bingo in Belle River on April 5 at 10 a.m.
Keep reading this column, please, to find out when Dr. Cole Delhomme will be in Belle River for the rabies clinic. Right now I would say April 30 but that might not be set in stone yet. Also, the Belle River Council on Aging will have its second annual potluck lunch May 17 in the community center. More about that later. Our first potluck was so successful and enjoyable, we’ve decided to have another.
The purple martins are busily settling into their houses on my dock. I am awaiting the first hummingbird of the season. My feeder is ready. The eagles are out and about, grass growing, iris getting ready to bloom, trees getting greener every minute, wisteria beginning to blossom.
Tomatoes, green beans, cucumbers, carrots, beets, yellow squash, eggplant planted and doing well if I can just keep my dog from burying her bones in the garden. I thought dogs buried bones to sort of keep them for later, but I read recently that a great deal of the time, they forget where they buried them and never find them again. In which case they’re only good for a new red ant pile!

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