It is the middle of April and if you haven’t filed your tax return for this past year, the 15th is the day and the last day unless you have filed for an extension.

Returns that are due refunds were filed back toward the beginning of the year, while the ones that have to pay are going out this week. By this week it really doesn’t matter all that much as what will be will be.  Not much of a song, rather sad music.

Last week I drove through Chattahoochee on Highway 90 crossing the bridge and seeing water everywhere. If the town was not on such a high hill, it would have flooded.

There was still plenty of water as the river was better than a half mile wide. I almost didn’t want to turn my head to see how many gates were up at the dam releasing water and then had to do a double take. They didn’t have to be up as the water was flowing over the gates and was it doing a good job of keeping the river below the dam full up. There is no controlling the river when it is in the state that it was in at that point. As you would expect the river was in flood stage all the way to the coast. The folks down on the bay can’t say we are holding back the water this month. We have been sending them all they wanted and more.

Right here in Bainbridge we have water in places that has no place being but that is what we put up with to have a big river running right through the middle of town. Nothing like the floods back in 1994 and even 1998 when a lot of buildings in town and along the river had water in them. In West Bainbridge some of the buildings were not along the river, just nearby.

With most everywhere getting more than 12 inches of rainfall and some getting 15 inches or so, we could figure ourselves lucky than we didn’t have more damage than we did have. We are going to get more rain, though maybe it will be a little at the time.

It has been unwise to get out on the river with the high water and its unpredictable currents as well as the logs, limbs and trees floating down the river going pretty fast. The river water has been traveling very fast with the amount of water passing by soon at another landing and then over the dam.

What has happened in many places is some good ole ditch fishing. The water has backed up in places that has seen no water in a long time and some of these places are rich in what attracts fish to a new area. If you and your fishing partners are lucky enough to find one of these spots, you can be assured of catching a limit of fish before you know it. The thing that you don’t want to happen ever in fishing is running out of bait. The good ditch fishing spots have been some that will cause you to run out of bait.

One particular ditch had some fairly deep water and was holding a ton or more of panfish and live worms were at a premium last weekend.  As a fishermen ran out of bait and moved from the bank of the water, another fisherman would move in to take his place and this is what went on most of the day.

The only reason for giving up your hot spot was getting a limit or running out of bait. From what most of the fishermen were saying, the movement away from the biting fish was running out of bait, not the limit of fish being caught. Those folks were not taking the time to count fish. They were there for the fun and the fish to eat.