Comment Sah Vah? *Hello?

[BOTBAYOU]

Hope ya'll will let a cajun on this message board. *Been reading it for the past year or so, finally broke down and joined. *Everyday I leave for work I have to log in and check out Byrons fishing reports, even though I'm 700 miles away. *Just real quick, I lived in Knoxville for 18 years. *Visited LRO on a monthly basis, and moved back to Louisiana 1.5 years ago so my wife could attend pharmacy school. *Not to worry though, we are coming back. *East Tennessee doesn't have redfishin', *but it has everything else. *Better schools, better jobs, no state income tax... *you get the picture. *Soon as I get my digital camera back I'll try to post a few pics from around Louisiana, including my home of Bayou DuLarge. *Never heard of it? *Cocodrie tends to be in the news alot, most notably for the redfish tournaments on ESPN. *Bayou Dularge is less than 8 miles from there. *Ironically, I can get there quicker by boat than by car. *If anyone has any questions about fishing in S. Louisiana, I grew up 5 houses away from the marina. *Tackle, techniques, guides, etc. *I'll be more than happy to assist anyone interested in that endeavor.

BOTB

[Griff]

Welcome to the board! I used to live in Baton Rouge. The only thing I miss about South Louisiana is the food. When you come back to East Tennesse bring me some crawfish!!!

[appalachian angler]

Bienvennue!

AA

[David Knapp]

Welcome aboard!

[Byron Begley]

BOTB,
Welcome to the board and thanks for reading the fishing reports. I love writing them. I spent a little time at Fort Polk as a soldier. Did a little fishing there. I have a new passion for redfish and plan to fish in Louisiana next year. Welcome aboard.

Byron

[BOTBAYOU]

Thanks *for *the warm welcome. *I'm in the northern part of the state right now. *Its kind of an amalgamation of east Tennessee and s. Louisiana. *Slightly hilly, a little cooler, but I still have access to the food. *I grew up cooking cause of my father. *So even though I was in Tennessee *for so long I could still cook the staples, jambalaya, etoufee', gumbo, etc. *But I've caught (pick up on the pun?) onto the barbeque bug several years ago- I'm talkin' the 8 to 9 hour slow cooked brisket kind of bbq, I have 4 different pits and grills. *Redfish on the half shell is pretty popular down here. *

BOTB

[ijsouth]

Seems there are a lot of bayou boys on this forum...I'm here in St Tammany Parish, so I'm a few miles closer to the Smokies. I'm a recent addict to this fly-fishing in freestone streams, but I like our fishing here in Louisiana, too. As I expressed it in another post, it's like comparing chocolate cake to pecan pie - both are wonderful, but completely different.

As for the comments on the schools, economy, etc...definitely points well taken. There are times when I am very tempted to move - sometimes it seems that our state will never get its act together. Then, I temper those thoughts with the knowledge that I have lived in other areas of the country, and when I was away, I missed south Louisiana. It's hard to put into words - I guess it's just home. Maybe I'll move up to the mountains when the kids are out of school...who knows?

Anyway, welcome aboard.