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Several years ago, prior to COVID, I got together with my friend, Joey Ratcliff, to do some winter catfishing. Joey is a local fella who spends most of his spare time at the camp fishing and hunting.

Joey happens to have a knack for catching big catfish, particularly blue catfish, which is why I nagged him to take me. I say nag, but the truth is you don’t need to twist his arm. Joey is an affable guy who typically is more than willing to accommodate anyone who asks.

We headed south out of Jesse Fontenot Memorial Boat Landing in Berwick and after making a few zigs and zags off the Atchafalaya River we caught Greens Bayou near Lake Salve and started fishing.

The weather was cold and there was a frost on the marsh. The cutgrass, flag grass and bull tongue were flat, where you could see clean across the marsh. It’s amazing how vast the marsh is south of the Intracoastal Canal.

I must admit, I wasn’t too impressed with the spot my friend selected. The water was dirty and moving fast, where I had to use a one-ounce pyramid sinker on my drop rig in order to keep it from bouncing along the bottom or ultimately rising in the current.

I made a cast to one side of the bayou, while Joey threw his bait closer to the boat, where a backwater eddy made a spiral in the current. His bait no sooner touched bottom, when he gave his pole a jerk and the fight was on.

At first it looked like the fish was winning. Joey’s pole was bent over like a horseshoe, and he had sort of a grimace on his face. I figure it was the pole stuck in his belly, while he held onto the pole with one hand and worked the reel with the other.

The whole affair didn’t last long. The water was cold, and the blue cat seemed to quickly succumb to the strength of my buddy’s forearms. What’s more, it didn’t hurt that his reel was stuffed with 20-pound test line.

We didn’t have a scale in the boat, but the blue cat easily weighed 10 pounds, in my estimation. After a photo session, Joey told me to push us off the bank while he started the motor. Just like that we were off to another backwater eddy he regularly fished during the winter months.

Winter catfishing lesson number one, look for backwater eddies. The eddies usually form a deep hole along the bottom where catfish can lay in ambush for prey passing through the eddy.

Winter catfishing lesson number two, bring a variety of pyramid sinkers ranging from ¾ ounce to 2 ounces and match it to the current speed. You want to be able to tight line.

Therefore, use a weight heavy enough to get you down to the bottom, where it stays in place and does not bounce or rise in the current.

My friend Joey likes to use a 2/0 Kahle hook, but 1/0 Kahle will also work. I’ve also used 1/0 and 2/0 O’Shaughnessy bait hooks.

And, because I sometimes forget my cheater eyeglasses at home, I prefer tying my lines to O’Shaughnessy hooks with the bigger eyelets.

Blue catfish, unlike their close cousins, channel catfish, tolerate waters with slightly higher salinities.

Along the coast bayous like Big Beach, Little Beach, Greens, Big Hog and Little Hog that all empty into the Gulf are tidal and will have increased salinity during the fall and winter months.

When it comes to baits, blue catfish will eat just about anything that stinks, bleeds or crawls. I’ve even caught them on artificial baits accidentally while fishing bass in the fall. Some of the best baits to use for winter catfishing for blue cats are nutria liver, shrimp, and cut baits like mullet, pogy or shad.

Most anglers prefer smaller pan-size catfish to eat. However, large catfish can be cut up into cubes and fried or served in a court bouillon.

So, if you have a hankering for a good catfish court bouillon this winter, it’s time to get out during the holidays and chase a few cold-water cats along our St. Mary Parish central coastline.

John Flores is the Morgan City Review’s outdoor writer. He can be contacted at gowiththeflow@cox.net.

Terrebonne General Health System announced its new Omnicell XR2 Automated Central Pharmacy System.

This device introduces groundbreaking technology for a more fully automated approach to medication inventory management, the hospital said.

After eight weeks of building, testing, training, and stocking the robot, the new equipment is now live.

"With the introduction of this groundbreaking technology, patients and employees stand to benefit in multiple ways," said Phyllis Peoples, president, and CEO.

This robot will improve the workflow of pharmacists and contribute to impactful patient outcomes. Some of the benefits are:

--100% bar code scanning of all medications to eliminate human error

--Model agnostic to support both cabinet fill and cartfill

--Supports native manufacturer packaging to reduce time and expense of repackaging

--Reduced handling of medications by technicians and pharmacists

--Electronic visibility to all medication in the XR2, down to the dose, provides the opportunity for better inventory management.

--Dispenses first-to-expire medications, reducing waste and the associated cost

"We are here to provide our community with the lastest advances in technology through a “high tech” and “high touch” style of caring," Peoples said.

Happy birthday Friday to Stephanie Augustus …. Happy birthday Sunday to Debra Oliney, Marcella Hoskins and Annie Wilson from friends, family and Ira.

As we approach the 2023 statewide election cycle, Republicans are on the verge of capturing a super-majority in both the House and Senate for the first time in modern history.

At the same time, odds-makers predict Louisiana will elect a GOP governor after two terms of a Democrat holding the office.

Republican legislators are excited, and rightfully so.

But they should also proceed with caution if they truly care about legislative independence, a central theme in Capitoland over the past seven years or so.

Independence became a war cry not long after the 2015 election of Gov. John Bel Edwards, mostly by Republican lawmakers who dug in against the Democrat’s choices for House speaker.

The resulting selection of former GOP Speaker Taylor Barras was a memorable moment that followed generations of lawmakers mostly doing what governors told them in regard to leadership races.

This quest for independence blossomed over two terms and eventually included several attempts by the Legislative Branch to gain more power at the expense of the Administrative Branch.

Nearly all of those attempts failed, but lawmakers have pushed in recent years to gain more ground on capital outlay projects, executive order approvals, appointment powers and more.

Lawmakers also successfully called themselves into session during this time, rather than waiting on the governor, and veto override sessions became a routine part of the process.

But what happens in the next term? Will Republican lawmakers have the political will to say no to a Republican governor?

If representatives and senators want to maintain control over chairmanships, committee assignments, bill prioritization, budget drafting, construction spending, office space, parking spots and apartments, they’ll need to develop and elect their own candidates for House speaker and Senate president.

If the next governor is solely responsible for these two leadership posts, then it will be the governor — and not the speaker and president — who selects the next Appropriations chairman.

And it will be the governor who decides which lawmakers get to park by the Capitol and what the floor agendas look like.

Term-limited lawmakers and those who served during yesteryear know this to be true.

The massive freshman class now in office, however, only has first-hand experience with the election of Speaker Clay Schexnayder, which had little to no executive intrigue.

On the other hand, this current freshmen class is arguably the most free-spirited bunch we’ve seen at the Capitol in some time.

These lawmakers were forged in the fires of COVID-19 and govern with a certain amount of distrust and whole lot of independence, meaning they haven’t always fallen in line with their own leadership.

If there is a push to resist executive influence in the next term, it may start with this bunch.

With a super-majority in the Legislature expected, lawmakers may also need to ask themselves who put them there.

Right now that question is easy to answer — business and industry has mostly served as the fuel in campaign finance accounts.

Lately, though, far-right campaigns financed by trial lawyer money have found success in Louisiana, particularly in judicial contests.

This slowly developing trend is notable only because trial lawyer money has largely been found on the left in our politics, squared off soundly against money from business and industry on the right.

Could Republicans next term be elected to the Legislature with support from both business and industry and the trial bar?

As wild as that sounds, it’s possible.

Trial lawyers who donate to candidates are finding they can accomplish many of the same policy goals with libertarians as they do with liberals.

In turn, that could cause more fissures in the GOP legislative ranks during a time when unity is needed to preserve independence. Of course, to do that, the Republican Legislature will have to stand up to the Republican governor as moderate Republican lawmakers strive to compromise with far-right Republican lawmakers.

In short, Republicans are on pace to become so powerful in the Louisiana Capitol they will have no one else to fight but themselves.

For more Louisiana political news, visit www. LaPolitics.com or follow Alford on Twitter @ LaPoliticsNow