34 Mississippi Sportsman^ | April 2015
P
ardon the Petal Bass Club if its mem-
bers are a little cocky this year.
Petal sits in the heart of South
Mississippi, surrounded by good fish-
ing holes but quite a fair distance from
any major reservoir with a prestigious
bass reputation.
Yet, in February, two members of the
Petal Bass club, Cliff Pace and Teb
Jones, competed in the most presti-
gious fishing tournament in the nation — the 2015 Bassmaster
Classic. Pace won it in 2013.
Former club president Rocky Rowell remembers competing
with both Pace and Jones in club tournaments, including many
at Flint Creek Water Park, in Rowell’s hometown of Wiggins.
Though 30 miles south of Petal, Rowell said members consid-
ered it the club’s official home lake.
“I can remember fishing with Cliff Pace on Flint Creek when
he was just a youngster,” said Rowell. “I know for a fact he
learned a lot about fishing deep water with a jig right here on
this lake.”Flint Creek Water Park means a lot of things to a lot of people
in Mississippi’s Pine Belt. In the summer, it’s a boater and water
skier’s getaway. To a camper, it’s a place to go spend a few days
communing with nature.
To Rowell, it’s a good place to go set the hook on a hefty large-
mouth bass, especially in April.
“Flint Creek is a very dynamic lake,” said Rowell. “It gets a lot
of fishing pressure and it can be a tough place to figure out, but
it’s got a real healthy shad population and that right there is
the key to why it’s such a good bass lake. It doesn’t require a lot
of management from a fisheries standpoint. The fish that are
there are healthy and they reproduce really well every year.”
Flint Creek’s 650-acre lake and 1,900-acre water park is man-
aged by the Pat Harrison Waterway District, a state agency
located in Hattiesburg. The District manages eight Water
Parks, and seven have fishing lakes.
“Flint Creek was built by the Army Corps of Engineers some-
time around 55 years ago as a recreational park,” Brewer said.
“We have control of the flow of water going out of the lake. It’s
fed from Flint Creek on the other end and there’s water coming
in from another creek, too.”Flint Creek