Just a Blur

Mr. Ketchum,

While skiing this past summer my boyfriend and I had a strange encounter. After an uneventful morning of him pulling me all over the Reservoir, we stopped and I let him have a go at it. After I toweled off I decided to turn around and snap a quick photo. Just then something jumped over the tow line and landed with a great splash. We assumed it was a very large fish. But that night we noticed that I caught something on film. Could this be your monster? Maybe a young one?

- Confused in Ranking Co.

What I think is that you captured an image of an infant Ressie. It was probably just curious about your boat and checking you out. I shudder to think what was swimming around under your boyfriend while this was going on. Personally I don't ski on that Reservoir... or swim in it. If we stop to eat lunch while we are out checking traps I even sit way up on the bank away from the water. Just saying. Thanks for the sighting.

Madison Cave Art Discovery

Mr. Ketchum,

I am pretty excited about a discovery that my husband and I made over the holidays. I'll keep this short and sweet. Typically on any given Saturday my husband and I make a point of going to the cinema. On this particular day we wanted to do something out of the norm so we got into the attic and pulled all of our caving gear down. We bought all of that stuff specifically to spelunk the Great Madison Caves, but we've actually only gone down three times. Anyway we drove out to "Found Rabbit" to the main cave entrance. This is the one that borders the Reservoir. The decent was unremarkable. We went in about two miles and shot some photos of the formations, walked down to the mammoth bone chamber, ate lunch and then decided it was time to climb out. While making our way out of the final shaft I noticed a small cave etching on the wall. It was pretty faint so I made a tracing from the photo so you can see it more clearly. I may be wrong but it looks as if a prehistoric peoples are attempting to keep a dinosaur like animal away from a boar. We are very good friends with the Dean of Archeology at Holmes Jr. College in Ridgeland. When he returns from his dig in Mexico I am going to present these photos to him so he can date this find for me. Until then let's keep this between us.

Happy hunting.

Mr. & Mrs. Thomas Windworthy

Wow. I am speechless. Please let us know what the Professor has to say about this as soon as you get some input!

Why Honey Baked Hams™?

Just wanted to drop in for a quick minute and post some trap updates and answer a question I am asked constantly. So to put it to rest so we can move forward, here is the question I am asked most frequently.

Why do you only use Honey Baked Ham(s)™ as bait for your Ressie traps?

This is really simple. As far back as anyone can remember the Ressie creature has been fond of taking pigs. Way back when the area was first settled both the natives and the settlers often referred to this animal as "The Hog Eater." We assume that since the animal eats mostly fish, fowl and whatever other aquatic life it manages to capture, giant catfish, alligators and possibly the odd skier, that pork is considered a treat to the creature. So we use hams as trap bait. We could have gone the cheaper, generic canned ham route, but we wanted to do this right. So we decided to use Honey Baked Ham™ exclusively. Also we are hoping that at some point the company will sponsor some of our research.

We have had some more sightings recently. A lot of people are reporting that they have seen the creature while driving across the spillway. Typically early morning or late evening. One of our traps is missing. One of the big ones. We think that the creature got hung up in the door and drug it into deeper water, or meth heads pulled it out and cut it up for scrap metal. We hope its the former. Other than that it has been pretty uneventful. As the weather warms up we are sure the action will pick up.

First Sighting of 2009

R.E.S.S.I.E. Team,

I snapped this photo on Jan. 2nd about 4 p.m. in the evening. I was driving across the spillway leaving Rankin, headed toward Ridgeland. I had just left my brothers house and was lucky enough to have my digital camera sitting on the front seat out of its case. I just saw this thing in the distance and then I saw that it was moving. The "creature" began to submerge itself as I snapped the photos. This was the best of the bunch. Hope this is helpful.

~ Anonymous

Hey we really appreciate you sharing your photo. This is classic Ressie behavior. Late afternoon foraging. That day was a bit on the warm side. The creature had probably left its underwater cavern to hunt. I wouldn't have expected a sighting of this quality this early in the year. Hopefully this means we will have a successful capture in 2009 (fingers crossed). All of the new traps are in place and ready for the spring rut.