(dramatic music) ♪ Riding through the Bayou, heading for the sky blue ♪ ♪ Back out on the trail again and again ♪ ♪ Talking and hunting and fishing the land ♪ ♪ Time is time well spent ♪ ♪ We'll take you to the delta, down to the great wide shore ♪ ♪ With so much to see and do, Mississippi Outdoors ♪ ♪ Mississippi Outdoors ♪ (gentle music) ♪ The great outdoors ♪ - [Announcer] Mississippi Outdoors is brought to you in part by the foundation for Wildlife, Fisheries, Parks and Marine.

(gentle music) - Welcome to Mississippi Outdoors, I'm Amanda Mills.

- And I'm Kevin Meacham, thanks for joining us.

- In our first story, we're headed to Jackson County.

- The Outdoors crew is going on a youth alligator hunt in Pasagoula.

- Let's go.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) (engine rumbles) - Three, all right.

(upbeat music) - Hello, I'm Mike Macko.

I'm the alligator coordinator for Southern Outdoors Unlimited.

We are here with Mississippi Outdoors today going to film a alligator hunt for a disabled kid.

We have Jayden that's going to be hunting tonight.

We're at the Pascagoula River.

We went scouting and we spotted a pretty good alligator and we're going to try to get him.

Probably going to have to wait till the sun goes down a little bit because he was a little spooky, but I think we got a good chance of getting him.

(upbeat music) - The who?

- The Palomar knot is one of the strongest knots that you can tie.

- [Josh] Daddy, you ready?

- [Mike] I'm almost.

So he's facing right towards the grass.

- Ready?

- Yeah, I'm ready when you are.

(upbeat music) (line whirring) - [Josh] Oh, you got him.

- [Mike] All right.

Turn the lights on.

(upbeat music) Turn the lights on.

- [Jayden] Off or on?

- On.

Maybe move this chair.

(upbeat music) Don't knock me off, Josh.

He's coming up.

(upbeat music) He's coming up.

- [Josh] Okay.

- [Mike] Trying to see where you got him hooked at.

Hey, turn the interior lights off if y'all can.

Thank you, nope, not those, the other ones.

- [Taylor] All them?

- Yeah.

He's right below us.

Trying to see what you got him hooked on, hooked at.

(upbeat music) (Mike groans) He broke that line.

(upbeat music) All right.

- [Jayden] You shot me at a duck?

(upbeat music) - [Mike] Just in case we got to grab another pole.

(upbeat music) - [Josh] Shot behind him.

- [Mike] Right behind you.

(upbeat music) Where's he at?

- [Josh] He's directly on my line.

(upbeat music) - [Mike] Yep, there he goes, yep.

Well, don't loosen up like that.

That was him, he turned.

Don't pull too much.

Hey, Jayden, we get another hook on him.

We get another hook on him.

He's come, you, you going to come work.

- [Jayden] I'm gonna come work?

- [Mark] Yeah, we'll try to get a third hook on him.

Oh, you got my line.

(upbeat music) Dang man.

There he is, there he is.

(upbeat music) That thing's big.

- [Jayden] Is it?

(line whirring) - [Mike] Where's the snare?

- [Josh] With the pole.

- [Mike] Where's the snare, where's the snare?

- [Taylor] I'm working on that.

- [Mike] Uh-uh, uh-uh, look at my pole.

Done this once or twice.

- [Jayden] That thing is humongous.

- [Mike] Watch, watch your hannds.

And.

All right.

- [Josh] All right, I got a snare on.

- [Mike] Do we have a snare?

- [Josh] I got a snare on him.

(upbeat music) - [Mike] You got him hooked.

- In the mouth.

- I had him in the mouth.

(upbeat music) - [Mike] Hold on, Jay, you wanna?

- [Josh] We're gonna let you shoot it.

- [Mike] Yeah, cause we're not gonna be able to get the hook out anyways.

All right, hey um.

Take this pole, cut the line.

Cause it, it's already broke.

- [Josh] It broke, it just broke.

- [Mike] It's already broke the pole.

- Poles broke anyways.

- Pole is broke broke.

- [Mike] All right, take that out the way.

- [Jayden] Cause the line's already cut?

- [Mike] Yeah.

- [Mike] Hey, Jay.

Hold this please.

All right, Jayden, let me show you something real quick.

Come over here.

- [Josh] It's probably a 10 footer.

- Come over here.

- I was guessing a 10.

- [Mike] Okay, the gun's not hot, okay, guys?

- [Josh] I'm going to get on this side.

- Who?

- [Josh] Me, to offset the weight.

- All right, pull it up a little.

Not you.

- [Josh] I got it.

- All right, look.

Right here.

Right.

You feel that hard plate right there?

Feel, feel it.

See how hard that is?

See how soft that is?

That's where you want to shoot them.

Okay?

We're going to get your daddy to pull him up a little bit more.

Do not shoot my boat.

And do not put your finger on the trigger until I tell you to, okay?

The gun is hot the gun, it's hot now.

Come on over, come on over.

That means it's ready to fire.

Do not put your finger on the trigger until I tell you to.

You ready?

- [Jayden] Yeah.

- [Mike] Hang on.

Shoot him.

Pull the trigger, pull the trigger.

- [Dad] Hey, right here bud.

- [Mike] (chuckles), good job dude.

Awesome.

- [Jayden] I think it still be alive.

I think you got to put another bullet in it.

- [Mike] Jayden, come here.

Grab that tape right there.

We're going to let you tape him.

- [Jayden] Me tape him?

- [Mike] Yeah, you tape him.

Right there where my hand is.

Yeah, hold it.

- [Josh] Tape it on itself.

- [Mike] I got it, fold it around, all the way around.

Tape it to itself.

A couple different times.

(upbeat music) All right.

All right, here.

All right, Josh, cut those hooks off.

- Loosen the snare, loosen the snare, daddy.

- [Jayden] I don't know how to loosen the snare.

- [Mike] Not you.

Okay.

One, two, three.

One, two, three.

- [Josh] You killed that!

- [Mike] Hang on, Josh.

Yeah.

Pick it's head up.

Hang on back up, I'm backing up.

It's the tags.

- [Jayden] It's nice in here.

- [Mike] That's the tags.

It's the orange thing that's in there.

- [Jayden] Orange things are not in there.

- [Mike] Yeah, they are, they're inside the paper.

(upbeat music) - [Jayden] Have you, did you ever get a bigger alligator than that?

- [Josh] Yes.

Quiet bigger.

(upbeat music) - [Mike] 112 inches.

Not quite 10 foot, nine.

(upbeat music) - [Josh] It's 9.33.

- So a little over nine, a quarter.

Well, we just got done getting Jayden's big alligator on the Southern Outdoors Unlimited Gator Hunt.

What do you think?

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

How, how big was he?

- A little over nine feet.

- That's right, it was nine feet, four inches.

He fought pretty hard.

We really fought to find a big alligator.

You let a little over six footer go, didn't you?

Yeah.

Well, what do you think about your first big gator?

- Cool.

- It's cool, okay.

You going to get your daddy to make you some boots?

- Maybe.

- Maybe, all right.

Did you have a good time?

That's all that matters.

We thank Mississippi Outdoors for coming out with us and thank Josh and Taylor and congratulations on your engagement.

(upbeat music) - [Announcer] Connection at its core is all about relationships.

With each other.

With nature, and with ourselves.

When was the last time you truly savored a meaningful relationship or discovered a new one?

With 25 state parks throughout Mississippi, connection is closer than you think.

- In our next story, we're headed to Washington County.

- The Outdoors crew is going fishing with a group of veterans at Lake Washington.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) - Oh yeah.

(upbeat music) - Today on Mississippi Outdoors, we're out here on Lake Washington for a veterans and youth camp.

Kind of tough conditions, probably about a 52 degree water temp.

We're going to be throwing some chatter baits and jigs, me and my man here today all the way up from Kansas.

- Yep.

- We're going to put him in a boat regardless of the conditions.

Are y'all used to these kind of conditions back home in Kansas?

- We're we're about 10 or 15 degrees colder and.

- Colder?

- We just got rid of our ice a few weeks ago.

- [Richard] Man.

- But I've been telling everybody there's one cypress tree in Kansas.

It's in this guy's backyard in this little lake that we fish all the time and I'm excited to try a few more today.

- Well we can get after it.

- Let's go.

- It's a lot warmer here than in Kansas.

- Oh, a lot warmer.

Yeah, we can do this.

- Let's get after it.

(upbeat music) This area right here is called the jungle and the jungle is known to hold, from my understanding the first wave of maybe the spawners and pre-spawners, so.

One thing about Lake Washington, it has a wide range of species so we may catch a striper.

- [David] Oh really?

- [Richard] There's some spotted bass in here, not many.

- [David] And there's lots of white bass.

- [Richard] Primarily white bass, large mouth that will, and some stripers, big stripers and lots of catfish that will excite your bait.

- [David] Yeah.

- [Richard] Like those birds back there, they-- - [David] Do you know them?

- [Richard] Yeah, we have all these $10,000 units and those birds know exactly where those shed are.

- [David] And that's what they're eating is shed?

- [Richard] That's what they're eating.

- [David] Okay, same as Kansas, that's no different.

- [Richard] Yeah, here now we have a lot of crawfish as well.

- [David] Okay.

- [Richard] They will spawn here on the docks.

- [David] Either you're doing these trees or the docks.

Is that the deal?

- [Richard] That's it, yeah.

Now when the sun comes up, good.

They will act like any other lake.

They going to run to the dock for shade.

Basser, creatures of habit pretty much they're going to go to the dock.

And they're like Richard Parker, they like to eat.

What we do is we hold events for veterans.

- [David] Okay.

- Right, and so it's a day out on the water for the veterans and their families can come.

No charge of course.

And then we have like a break during the day around lunch.

And then they come in and we have restaurants that provide all the food and then we'll have a big meal.

Then they get to go back out and fish as long as they like.

- [David] Okay.

- All the veterans of course and the families are, you know, happy to come out and they appreciate all the people in the community recognizing them and awarding them with such a day out on the water several times a year.

You know, and a lot of it's great for businesses because the veterans and their families want to know who these sponsors are, who these restaurants are so they can go and patronize you know, and go back and spend money at those businesses.

Right now for this camp, I think we have eight veterans.

And that's just right now, then this weekend, Friday and Saturday with the Big Mama's tournament and the fishing tournament going on.

There's, I don't know, maybe 40 or 50.

I have no idea, but that will be the actual tournament.

Right now we're just doing the camp for the kids and the veterans that can come out.

But Saturday it should be a big day.

Oh, oh yeah.

Nice one.

(fish splashes) Oh!

It was what, it's a quick release day, right?

I mean (chuckles).

- [David] We're just experimenting.

- [Richard] That, bass fishing is definitely an experiment.

(upbeat music) - So this is a rider's event.

This is an opportunity to come and be able to tell everybody about your organization that you're with or your guide business.

This is a time to be able to network with each other and be able to help each other with different things that they got going on and showcase your skillset.

I was 12 years in the US Army.

I have a nonprofit organization that helps veterans and it allows me to be able to get that network out through this network and be able to reach more veterans and be able to show that we care and we support them.

- Today's day two of the 2026 Fish Clean and Cook on Lake Washington in Mississippi.

Today should be a lot better day.

The weather has drastically changed since yesterday.

Yesterday everybody out here was fighting probably 25 mile an hour winds.

And as you can see from the lake right now, it is slick as glass this morning.

Hopefully it'll be a good day and we'll have fun.

(upbeat music) Right now we're going to fish for croupy.

We're out here in almost 20 foot of water.

The croupy should be getting ready to move up to the flats here in the next day or two as long as the weather stays consistent.

We're going to start with some plastics.

I'm going to throw a pink and chartreuse and we're going to move from there.

It's small, but it's a good start.

I actually joined back in 2012 originally from North Carolina.

I was satellite communications, switched over, became a permanent recruiter about five years ago and that's what I've been doing.

This is actually my second time in the state of Mississippi.

I have, I have thoroughly enjoyed it.

(upbeat music) (people chattering) For me, the, the comradery that we can build the, the new friendships that we build, it's a therapeutic event.

Being out in nature, something about being out on the water.

There's no noise, it quieting, the world's quieting.

It's just you out there in nature being with the fish or in the woods in, in some cases.

You know events like this it, it just resets the mind.

(upbeat music) 134.

(upbeat music) - [Richard] I know the other guide, one of the other guides, Cody.

He's a vet, actually runs a nonprofit back where he's from.

Takes a lot of vets fishing.

Just kind of how, everybody's willing to help the vets out with whatever they've got going on.

(upbeat music) - Oh yeah.

Okay, at 1:21.

So I'm fishing solely just single pole.

Right now we are using Garmin Livescope.

I enjoy it because you, you learn a lot more about the fish.

I grew up spider rigging.

Double minnow rigs.

Fished this lake multiple times with double minnow rigs.

Caught a lot of fish.

But for me, like being able to see actually how the fish reacts to the bait, everything like that, that's why I enjoy this so much.

I've only had the Garmin Livescope for, I'm running about two and a half years right now.

So still a big learning curve.

I'm still learning it.

Every lake I fish is different.

So it's just getting out there and practicing.

(upbeat music) That's a better, he choked it.

One, 160.

This event for me, it's getting to know other guides.

Meet a lot of new people.

Charlie Bunning for me it's all about learning.

For me it's all about learning, sitting around talking to them guys at night.

Learning how they fish, what they use, everything like that.

There we go.

That's a good fish there.

14 and a half.

218.

(upbeat music) 134.

It's got a cut on its tail too.

- [Camera] Croup or something?

- I think it's going to be gar.

I think it's gar.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) - And that's all the time we have for this week.

Thanks for sharing your time with us as we continue to take part in this great sport of hunting and fishing right here in Mississippi.

- Join us again next time for more exciting adventures.

Until then, I'm Amanda Mills.

- And I'm Kevin Meacham.

- [Both] See you outdoors.

(gentle music) ♪ Riding through the Bayou heading for the sky blue ♪ ♪ Back out on the trail again and again ♪ ♪ Talking that and hunting and fishing the land ♪ ♪ Time is time well spent ♪ ♪ We'll take you to the delta down to the great wide shore ♪ ♪ There's so much to see and do, Mississippi Outdoors ♪ ♪ Mississippi Outdoors ♪ ♪ The great outdoors ♪ (gentle music)